Dynamic analysis of green hydrogen production integrated with storage tanks: An economical assessment for different demands

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate green hydrogen production by wind and solar energy with different hydrogen storage scenarios, taking into account the economic factors. The considered renewable energy sources (RESs) are a 3 MW wind turbine and a 3.54 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) system. System modeling is performed in TRNSYS, supplying the energy required by an electrolyzer. The goal of this research is to determine an optimal economic scenario using sensitivity analysis under the same electrolyzer capacity and renewable energy generation. The calculations for various hydrogen storage scenarios are examined and evaluated for different hydrogen sale prices ranging from 3 to 15 $/kg. Hydrogen production is sized with different storage scenarios and various demands under 200 bar and 350 bar pressures and on-grid/off-grid scenarios. Results show that for a 15 $/kg hydrogen price, the optimal scenario for hydrogen demand is 350 Nm3/hr in the on-grid scenario with a pressure of 350 bar. Likewise, for the rest of the considered hydrogen sale prices, the results are presented through a comprehensive study of different approaches. The results show that for lower hydrogen unit prices, the smaller tanks will be preferred, while for higher hydrogen prices, bigger tanks are preferred. In terms of emissions, for the same amount of hydrogen production, there will be 6350 tons of CO2 emission reduction when renewable resources are used instead of fossil fuel-based hydrogen production systems.