Economic analysis of hydrogen production through a bio-ethanol steam reforming process: Sensitivity analyses and cost estimations

In this study, the hydrogen selling price from ethanol steam reforming has been estimated for two different production scenarios in the United States, i.e. central production (150,000 kg H2/day) and distributed (forecourt) production (1500 kg H2/day), based on a process flowchart generated by Aspen Plus® including downstream purification steps and economic analysis model template published by the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) [1]. The effect of several processing parameters as well as catalyst properties on the hydrogen selling price has been evaluated. $2.69/kg is estimated as the selling price for a central production process of 150,000 kg H2/day and $4.27/kg for a distributed hydrogen production process at a scale of 1500 kg H2/day. Among the parameters investigated through sensitivity analyses, ethanol feedstock cost, catalyst cost, and catalytic performance are found to play a significant role on determining the final hydrogen selling price.