Techno-economic analysis for hydrogen-burning power plant with onsite hydrogen production unit based on methane catalytic decomposition

Hydrogen (H2) is the fuel of the future since it only produces water as the combustion product. This paper proposes a rational design of a hydrogen-burning power plant integrated with an onsite hydrogen production unit. The H2 production from natural gas is achieved by converting the CH4 to gaseous H2 and solid carbon product based on CH4 catalytic decomposition. Fe-based catalyst is suggested for the onsite production of H2 because it results in the lowest net-levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) compared to using Ni-based and activated carbon catalysts. The mole fraction of H2 in the fuel increases with the increase of natural gas bypass ratio and CH4 conversion rate from 10 to 100%, and the maximum mole fraction of H2 reaches 93.3%. The studied hydrogen-burning power plant can reduce the CO2 emission by 80.2% compared to direct power generation from natural gas at the cost of 44% less power due to the lower heating value of H2 compared to CH4. It is noted that selling the carbon product becomes an important income source to subsidies the plant cost. However, the in-crease in the catalyst price and the decrease in the carbon selling price may hinder the profitability of the power plant. Finally, a set of natural gas bypass ratios and CH4 conversion rates is recommended to ensure the power plant produces at least 80% of the electricity compared to the direct power generation from natural gas; it also achieves a more competitive net-LCOE even under the catalyst cost and carbon selling price varying to 300 and 40%, respectively.