Techno-economic assessment of low-carbon hydrogen exports from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific, and Europe

ABSTRACT

Hydrogen has the potential to play a major role in the global energy mix in the future and to achieve carbon-neutral targets by 2050. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the economic feasibility of blue-hydrogen export from natural gas exporting countries, especially from the Middle East. Therefore, this study presents a techno-economic assessment of hydrogen production and transportation from the Middle East to Asia-Pacific and European countries. Two different pathways were assessed; liquefied hydrogen (LH₂) and ammonia (NH₃) starting from hydrogen production (from natural gas with carbon capture) to the distribution stage. Additionally, the effectiveness of the proposed-optimistic improvements for LH₂-pathway is presented. Results show that based on current hydrogen liquefaction/storage technologies, the overall levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) for LH₂-pathway (5.17$/kg-H₂) is higher than NH₃-pathway (4.76$/kg-H₂) by 8.61% at 600 tons/day and 14,000 km shipping distance. Furthermore, the LCOH of the improved LH₂ pathway (4.46$/kg-H₂) is still higher than of the improved NH₃ pathway (4.03$/kg-H₂) by 10.7%. This implies that the overseas transportation of hydrogen as ammonia is more economically feasible than of the LH₂ option.

KEYWORDS:

• Hydrogen and ammonia pathways
• blue hydrogen
• low-carbon hydrogen
• levelized cost of hydrogen
• CO₂ intensity

Nomenclature

ATR	=	Autothermal reforming
CAPEX	=	Capital cost
CC	=	Carbon capture
GHG	=	Greenhouse gases
HBP	=	Haber-Bosh process
HLP	=	Hydrogen liquefaction process
HSC	=	Hydrogen supply chain
LH2	=	Liquefied hydrogen
LCOH	=	Levelized cost of hydrogen
LOHC	=	Liquid organic hydrogen carriers
MTPA	=	Million tons per annum
OPEX	=	Operational cost
POX	=	Partial oxidation
RES	=	Renewable energy sources
SEC	=	Specific energy consumption
SMR	=	Steam methane reforming
TEA	=	Techno-economic assessment
TPD	=	Tons per day
TRL	=	Technology readiness level

Acknowledgements

The work presented in this publication was made possible by NPRP-S grant # [11S-1231-170155] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) and jointly supported by International Research Collaboration Co Fund Grant [IRCC-2019-012], Qatar University and Texas A&M University at Qatar. The findings herein reflect the work, and are solely the responsibility, of the authors. Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

CRediT author statement

Ahmad K. Sleiti: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing-Original Draft, Review & Editing, Resources, Formal analysis, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Supervision. Wahib A. Al-Ammari: Conceptualization, Writing-Original Draft, Investigation, Software, Data Curation, Validation, Formal analysis. Farayi Musharavati: Review & Editing, Resources, Funding acquisition, Supervision. Mohammad Azizur Rahman: Review & Editing, Supervision.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund [NPRP-S grant # [11S-1231-170155]].