Hydrogen production power plants

Esper B, Badura A, Rogner M. Photosynthesis as a power supply for (bio-)hydrogen production. Trends Plant Sc. 2006 11(11) 543—9. 

OTEC power plants can be located either onshore or at sea. The electricity generated can be transmitted to shore by electrical cables, or used on site for the manufacture of electricity-intensive products or fuels (such as hydrogen). For OTEC plants situated on shore to be economical, the floor of the ocean must drop off to great depths very quickly. This is necessary because a large portion of the electricity generated by an OTEC system is used internally to pump the cold water up from the depths of the ocean. The longer the cold water pipe, the more electricity it takes to pump the cold water to the OTEC facility, and the lower the net electrical output of the power plant. 

Alternatives to fossil fuels, such as hydrogen, are explored in Box 6.2 and Section 14.3. Coal, which is mostly carbon, can be converted into fuels with a lower proportion of carbon. Its conversion into methane, CH4, for instance, would reduce C02 emissions per unit of energy. We can also work with nature by accelerating the uptake of carbon by the natural processes of the carbon cycle. For example, one proposed solution is to pump C02 exhaust deep into the ocean, where it would dissolve to form carbonic acid and bicarbonate ions. Carbon dioxide can also be removed from power plant exhaust gases by passing the exhaust through an aqueous slurry of calcium silicate to produce harmless solid products ... 

Table 10.6 shows some of the major components of fuels that are used in power plants. The coal and heavy fuel are the conventional fuels for power plants, while the Orimulsion is a relative new product from Venezuela, which is attractive owing to a higher hydrogen content that leads to reduced emission of CO2. 

Fuel-cell-based power plants (or electrochemical generators, the rather appropriate Russian term) have several constituent parts (1) the fuel cell battery or stack itself (2) vessels for the reactants (hydrogen or methanol oxygen when needed) (3) special devices controlling the supply of reactants and withdrawal of the reaction products according to their consumption and formation in the electrochemical reactions ... 

In 1969 Air Products Chemicals began delivering carbon dioxide and hydrogen to customers in the Houston area via pipeline. There was also talk of shipping methanol by pipeline. A 273-mile pipeline was also opened in 1969 to convey 660 tons/hr of slurried coal from Kayenta, Arizona, to a power plant in southern Nevada. A previous coal pipeline in Ohio closed down in the mid-1960s because it proved to be uneconomical when the railroads reduced their rates.5... 

Reactor power plant Distant hydrogen production plant... 

The JAEA selects the IS-process to be the basis for commercial development mainly because it is seen more suited to large-scale nuclear hydrogen production than HTE [9] and other alternatives. However, an available HTE-based plant can be connected to the reactor in the same manner as the IS process plant is connected. The HTE similarly requires a high-temperature process heat, and about 25% of its total energy input is heat and the balance electricity, which are fully and efficiently met in-house by the reactor heat and gas turbine power plant. 

Matsunaga, K. et al., Hydrogen production system with high temperature electrolysis for nuclear power plant, Paper 6282 in Proc. ICAPP 06, Reno, NV, June 4-8,2006. 

Hydrogen production from electrolysis of water powered from a wind energy system depends on the wind potential of the site that the plant is installed. Planning of these stations should be accompanied by an elaborate analysis of the wind regime of the area to have a substantiated view of the amount of hydrogen that will be produced. In wind energy systems that are already in operation, it is easier to make this assessment and to conclude about the size of the electrolysis and storage equipment. 

The current proven coal reserves of the United States are predicted to support this production level for 200 years. This liquefied coal reserve exceeds the proven oil reserves of the entire world. The reactors could also produce hydrogen or gaseous hydrocarbons from the coal as well. The excess heat from nuclear power plants could be used for central heating. 

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