Feasibility Study on Smart Network Transporting and Consuming e-Fuel by Several H2 Carriers Produced by Water Electrolyzer Using Power Generated by Large-Scale Photovoltaic Installed in India

Many countries have set the target to reduce a global warming gas by 2050. Renewable energy is paid attention to be a candidate to contribute to the reduction of global warming gases. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of the smart network consisting of large-scale PV installed in India, the H-2 production from the power generated by PV via water electrolyzer, the conversion from H-2 to H-2 carrier, the transportation from India to Japan and the consumption of H-2 as a fuel for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system, LNG gas turbine and NH3 gas turbine. This study has considered H-2 carriers, i.e. liquefied H-2, liquefied CH4, organic hydride and liquefied NH3. This study has estimated the power generation performance of PEMFC system and gas turbine, and investigated the amount of CO2 emission control and the number of households which can be provided by power generation using each H-2 carrier as a fuel during utilization process. In addition, this study has also evaluated the energy efficiency as well as the ratio of CO2 emission during the entire process. This study finds that the energy efficiency during the entire process in the case of liquefied CH4 + LNG gas turbine is the highest among the investigated cases. In addition, it is revealed that the ratio of CO2 emission during the entire process of liquefied CH4 + PEMFC system is the lowest among the investigated cases.