Optimal integration of hydrogen production process with carbon dioxide capture, utilisation and storage

Hydrogen (H₂) has been identified as one of the potential energy carriers for the future. Currently, most H₂ is produced via steam methane reforming (SMR) from non-renewable natural gas. This process produces a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions as a by-product. Therefore, CO₂ capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies are typically integrated with conventional H₂ plants to produce cleaner H₂, known as blue H₂. However, such systems face many challenges, such as high process cost, complex transportation and storage of captured CO₂. This work presents an optimisation-based model to optimise the integration of H₂ processes with CCUS systems to produce blue H₂. The developed model considered different grey H₂ production paths, CO₂ capture technologies, CO₂ transportation, utilisation, and storage, as well as H₂ storage. The model also factors in technology efficiency, cost and overall energy consumption. A case study of scenarios such as minimum annualised cost, minimum energy consumption, and minimum CO₂ production/emissions is solved to illustrate the proposed model. Three optimum blue H₂ production routes were obtained with total annualised cost: Case A1 – Minimum annualised production cost (88,953 MMUSD), Case B1 – Minimum energy consumption (96,632 MMUSD) and Case D – Minimum annualised production cost – CO₂ storage (89,950 MMUSD).