Hydrogen 101
About
Hydrogen can be an abundant energy source. With personal hydrogen appliances and solar energy, energy abundance is possible in a distributed way.
To do so, we need:
- Open source HICE as the next engine of civilization. Modular and scalable, manufactured in local microfactories with digital age precision.
- Storage vessels
- Hydrogen generation at low cost from renewable energy, demonetizing energy. As opposed to Brown Hydrogen
Cost of Production and Storage
- Cost of green hydrogen is $4.5/kg in 2023. [1]
- p13. 1 GW [2] of electrolysis has been installed by 2024, and 12 GW have passed Financial Investment Decision (FID) [3]. 1 GW of electrolysis is about a million metric tons per year or a billion kg. The equivalence is about 1 watt of electrolyzer to 1 kg per annum - good figure to remember
Bogus. 1 watt is under 9kWhr per year if running 24/7 - how do we get 1 kg if electrolysis cost 55kWhr/kg?
- Projections of 300 GW by 2030 are announced on p. 11 [4] but reality so far was 20% meeting of goals to present.
- p17 - Hydrogen refueling stations increased from 700 to 1100 between 2021 and 2023 worldwide.
- p13. 1 GW [2] of electrolysis has been installed by 2024, and 12 GW have passed Financial Investment Decision (FID) [3]. 1 GW of electrolysis is about a million metric tons per year or a billion kg. The equivalence is about 1 watt of electrolyzer to 1 kg per annum - good figure to remember
- This is for centralized production. OSE proposes ntegrated decentralized production on the home and village scale, which can be done today at approximately $1.4/kg if you DIY.
- Cost of solar electricity: 1 kW installed yields 66MWhrs over life of the PV panel (see Minimum Cost Solar for the 20 cent case), with BOS costs near zero in a building integrated system with efficient wiring and stringing to feed an electrolyzer directly with minimum power management equipment.
- The above 66,000 kWhrs costs $210 delivered in truckload quantity.
- This is 0.3 cents per kWhr for electricity costs, excluding labor.
- Thus the minimum energy cost for solar hydrogen (60kWhr/kg with easy electrolyzers) - is 18 cents per kg.
- Add to this capex for electrlyzer and balance of plant (infrastructure) - which is currently 90 cents/kg. See page 20 of [5]. It is about 50/50 for electrolyzer/balance of plant. See p 21.
- Thus, with current technology, we have a production cost of 90 cents + 18 cents energy per kg. - $1.1 per kg of hydrogen. We can get the balance of plant down to negligible in an integrated system, so cost of production would be more like 63 cents per kg. We can reduce cost of electrolyzer via open source - likely to half or 23 cents per kg, making the optimized cost of hydrogen production come out to 41 cents per kg, or 1/8 the current cost of gasoline equivalent.
- For a practical system, we want to store a fuel tank size, say 1 GGE for 3kWhr of electric backup in a smart house every day. For this we need 60 kWhr solar electricity - or all the output of a 10kW PV system. Thus, we use an 18kW PV system on every zero energy home - full roof + canopy around the south side. For a zero energy house.
- For producing fuel, we need another 6 kW - or about 15000 miles per year in a 40 mpg car. This can be on the same site - but more favorable if it's in a community charging station.
- Total 24kW system, 3000 sf space needed - half on rooftop, 1/4 on canopy, 1/4 on car parking lot. Still only $5k - for $1k in electricity, $1k heat and cool, $1k fuel, $1k night time fuel. $4k/yr value production, pays back in a year. We include it in the price of a normal house.
- For the electrolyzer, industry standard cost would be $6k for 6kW. See p.21 [6]. But, we're slashing balance of plant to get this to $3k, and we are innovating on production engineering to get the electrolyzer down to $1500 in materials. That will be a challenge. China electrolyzer costs $300/kW [7], and is expected to fall to $200. This makes a $1500 cost realistic, given that we are producing atmospheric pressure hydrogen as opposed to 16 bar.
- Pressurizing - opposed hydraulic cylinders may be used. [8]
- Storage cylinder bundles - [9]. See more at Hydrogen Storage. See Type 1-4 tanks at [10]
- Hydrogen dispensers - [11]
- Hydrogen tank at $1500 - [12]
- High pressure electrolyzers - if we can avoid the pump, that is great - such as Avalence Hydrofiller. [13]. But, follow up on what came out of this, a decade ago.
Value Proposition
Save 30% global CO2 on residential power and heat, 10% on global car emissions - reducing global C02 by 40% - through your home.
