Techno-Economic Assessment of Green H2 Carrier Supply Chains

Abstract
Green hydrogen can play a key role in affordably decarbonizing society. However, storage and transmission costs pose significant barriers to green hydrogen distribution. These limitations may be overcome with liquid green hydrogen carriers like ammonia, methanol, and toluene/methylcyclohexane, as well as formic acid, which has only recently received limited attention. A techno-economic assessment of these hydrogen carriers is presented across a wide range of scales. Green formic acid is identified to be the most cost-effective carrier when the entire supply-chain cost is considered. Additional analysis shows that formic acid is the only green carrier that is more affordable to produce than its fossil-based counterpart and is the safest of the studied carriers. Finally, research and policy outlooks are provided to guide efforts toward the realization of a green hydrogen economy. This work provides information on the selection of a suitable green hydrogen carrier, which is essential to decarbonize at the rate needed to avoid climate catastrophe.
Description
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Energy and Fuels, copyright © 2022 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.2c03616. This article will be embargoed until 01/19/2024.
Keywords
alcohols, ammonia, electrolysis, hydrogen, organic acids
Citation
Crandall, Bradie S., Todd Brix, Robert S. Weber, and Feng Jiao. “Techno-Economic Assessment of Green H2 Carrier Supply Chains.” Energy & Fuels 37, no. 2 (January 19, 2023): 1441–50. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.2c03616.