Co-production of hydrogen, electricity and CO2 from coal with commercially ready technology. Part A: Performance and emissions

Results show that state-of-the-art commercial technology allows transferring to de-carbonized hydrogen 57-58% of coal LHV, while exporting to the grid decarbonized electricity amounting to 2-6% of coal LHV. In contrast to decarbonizing coal IGCC electricity, which entails a loss of 6-8 percentage points of electricity conversion when capturing CO2 as an alternative to venting it, CO2 capture for H2 production gives a minor energy penalty (∼ 2 percentage points of export electricity). For H2 production, the efficiency gain achievable by hot syngas cooling vs. quench is a modest 2 percentage point increase in electricity for export, compared to 2-4 percentage points in the electricity case. Reducing H2 purity or increasing gasification pressure has minor effects on performance.