Techno-economic analysis of a coal to hydrogen process based on ash agglomerating fluidized bed gasification

Developing coal to hydrogen is a crucial way to alleviate the conflict between demand and supply of hydrogen. In this paper, a coal to hydrogen process based on ash agglomerating fluidized bed gasification is proposed and simulated. Based on the simulation results, the thermodynamic analysis and economic evaluation of the coal to hydrogen process are carried out to provide theoretical guidance for the development and investment of the coal to hydrogen process. The results show that the energy efficiency is 43%, the exergy efficiency is 40% and the total exergy loss is 73,315 kW. Gasification unit occupies 63.66% of the total exergy loss and should prefer to be improved. In addition, the total capital investment, total production cost, payback period, net present value and return on investment are estimated for four different plant sizes. The results show that the costs and profitability vary significantly with the plant size. Finally, the influences of coal price and hydrogen price on the economic performance of the coal to hydrogen process are investigated.