Hydrocarbon Processing - August 2021 - 57

Hydrogen
R. V. SCHNEIDER, Chiyoda Corp., Houston, Texas;
and D. KUROSAKI and M. OKI, Chiyoda Corp.,
Yokohama, Japan
Advances in chemical carriers for hydrogen
Is hydrogen the fuel of the future? This
most-abundant element in the universe
has, for many years, played a key role in
the international space program and in
more down-to-earth applications for refinery
upgrading and chemicals production,
such as methanol and ammonia.
However, production of renewable H2
at a competitive cost, and the transport
thereof, present key issues that are being
studied and progressed by almost every
developed country in the world.
The benefits are obvious: H2
can be
made from many and varied processes
and burns completely and cleanly, with
only water vapor as a byproduct of combustion.
Japan has
progressed its H2
economy by developing detailed plans
to replace nuclear energy and fossil fuel
combustion with clean-burning H2
, both
at the industrial and residential scale. Europe
has, for several years, harnessed wind
energy for power production; this technology
also can be used for H2
producto
.
tion
where desired. A project is already
underway in Germany to provide H2
an existing refinery for fuels upgrading,
using wind energy to power the electrolyzer
that will produce the renewable H2
In the U.S., California leads the way
with initiatives that are not only policybased
but are also state law. Almost 9,000
fuel cell personal vehicles traverse the
California freeways today, with fuel available
for a 5-min fill-up from 42 stations.
By 2025, it is anticipated that there will
be many more fuel cell electric vehicles
(FCEVs) and many more refueling stations
in use, along with H2
use in city buses
and heavy transport vehicles, supported
by state laws driving these developments.
Northeastern states in the U.S. will
likely follow California's lead, and provincial
energy ministries in Canada's eastern
and western regions are already progressing
initiatives that are modeled, to a degree,
after those in California. While the
mid-section of the U.S. would not be a
likely place for H2
to take root, a U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE)-sponsored
study is already underway in oil- and gasrich
Texas to consider and demonstrate
H2
as a fuel for data center backup power
and mobility uses. Additionally, the Texas
study will consider how the Port of Houston
may benefit from material transport
using H2
done in Long Beach, California.
In this article, the authors introduce
liquid organic H2 carrier (LOHC) techsupply
chain demonstration
project.
Demand drivers. Demand for H2
in the
U.S. alone is more than 11 metric MMtpy.
At present, the two largest uses for H2
are
hydroprocessing in refineries (57%) and
chemicals production (38%, ammonia
and methanol production combined).
Future additional demand will be driven
by a number of applications:
* Personal mobility
* Heavy transport of commercial
goods
* Mass transport fuels
* Warehouse forklifts and port heavy
goods movement
* Electric power backup
* Clean power generation
* Residential and industrial
applications.
Estimates project that U.S. H2
demand
will grow to about 17 metric MMtpy by
2030 and to 63 metric MMtpy or more by
2050. Considering mobility applications
alone, several automakers are producing
personal FCEV cars-Toyota (Mirai)
(FIG. 1), Honda (Clarity) and Hyundai
(Nexo). While less than 10,000 FCEVs
nology and how it has been applied to the
world's first global H2
, similar to what is already being
are on U.S. roads at present, projections
call for up to 150,000 FCEV sales by 2025
and more than 1 MM sales by 2030.
A personal FCEV requires a fill-up of
approximately 5 kg of H2
. Considering the
decurrent
proven range of these vehicles and
average annual use, the 2030 FCEV H2
mand in California alone can be calculated
in the range of 250,000 metric t for passenger
cars only. When heavy-duty vehicles
for material transport are factored into the
mix, demand will be considerably higher.
By 2030, fuel cell-powered forklifts
used by large-warehouse companies, such
as Walmart and Amazon, could number
more than 300,000. Total added H2
demand
by 2030 could be approximately
3 metric MMt, although this number is
expected to increase by around 45 metric
MMt by 2050-a significant volume.
Investment in the H2
economy is forecast
in the range of $8B-$10B by 2030,
and hundreds of thousands of new jobs
could be created. While these numbers
are not concrete, they impart a sense of
scale for the potential of H2
in the U.S.
and other forward-thinking countries.
Expected benefits from the integration
into the U.S. energy picture include
of H2
not only decarbonization, but also a bolstering
of the overall economy, preservation
and strengthening of the U.S. energy
FIG. 1. Toyota's Mirai FCEV passenger car,
produced starting in 2014.
Hydrocarbon Processing | AUGUST 2021 57
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