A techno-economic assessment of hydrogen production from hydropower in Western Canada for the upgrading of bitumen from oil sands

The demand for hydrogen in conventional and unconventional oil refining industries is considerable. Currently, the predominant source of hydrogen is from fossil fuel production pathways, in particular, steam methane reforming (SMR), which incurs a significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint. Thus, alternative environmentally benign sources of hydrogen will be needed in oil refinery complexes the world over, if their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint is to be reduced materially. In this paper, an integrated data-intensive techno-economic model is developed to provide a credible estimate of hydropower-hydrogen production costs in Western Canada. The minimum hydrogen production cost for the hydropower-hydrogen plant amounts to $2.43/kg H2 - this corresponds to an electrolyser farm with 90 units of a 3496 kW (760 Nm3/h) rated electrolyser. This cost is competitive with SMR/SMR coupled with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) production costs, which vary from $1.87/kg H2 to $2.60/kg H2. This point is buttressed by the fact that if existing hydropower plants are used (hence negating hydropower capital costs), the minimum production cost amounts to $1.18/kg H2. Hydrogen from hydro power, under the techno-economic conditions considered here, is competitive compared to SMR.