Techno-economic analysis and optimization of a novel hybrid solar-wind-bioethanol hydrogen production system via membrane reactor

With the rapid development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, efficient and convenient production of green hydrogen is important to reduce carbon emissions. Considering the potential of hydrogen permeation membrane reactor to improve the conversion rate of hydrogen production reactions and convert the intermittent solar heat into chemical energy with high efficiency, a novel hydrogen production system via membrane reactor collaborative utilizing solar, wind and biomass energy is proposed for hydrogen refueling station in this study. In the proposed system, the membrane reactor separates hydrogen and shifts the ethanol steam reforming equilibrium forward for a high conversion rate in a single step. Trough solar collector collects thermal energy to meet the thermal requirement of reactions; wind turbine converts wind energy into electricity for driving hydrogen separation; and energy storage equipment stores excess heat and electricity. A detailed techno-economic model for the system is established to evaluate the effects of crucial parameters on the system performance. Then the crucial parameters are optimized through the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II taking highest energy efficiency and minimum levelized cost of hydrogen as objectives, and the optimal energy efficiency and levelized cost of hydrogen can be 62.48% and 4.16 ($ kg(-1)) simultaneously. The solar-wind-to-hydrogen efficiency can be 24.53%. The novel system can achieve a relative balance between energy efficiency and cost, and has the potential to be applied for distributed green hydrogen production.