Low-Carbon Footprint Hydrogen Production from Natural Gas: A Techno-Economic Analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage from Steam-Methane Reforming

Abstract

Enabling cost-efficient low-carbon footprint hydrogen production is key to achieve the ambition of the Paris Agreement. This study aims to understand the techno-economic performances of hydrogen production from natural gas without and with carbon capture and storage. A hydrogen plant, based on steam-methane reforming and located in Northern Norway, producing 450 t H₂/d is here modelled and evaluated. Hydrogen production costs without and with carbon emissions capture and storage of 12.2 and 18.1 c€/Nm³ are obtained. This hydrogen cost increase results in a CO₂ avoidance of 67 €/t_CO2,avoided. The main contributor to the CO₂ avoidance cost is the CO₂ capture and conditioning (57 %), while pipeline transport and the storage contribute to 17 % and 26 %. Equally important, a semi-detailed cost breakdown is presented to provide a deeper understanding of the key contributors to the cost of the whole chain and to identify points which if reduced could have the most impact.