Repurposing existing infrastructure: Capital expenditures involved with onshore vs. offshore H2 production

During Gastech 2022 in Milan, Italy, Luigi Crolla, our Principal Process Engineering and SME Technologist, presented his paper on evaluating the feasibility and economic benefits of different wind power sources in relation to green hydrogen production, concluding that using offshore wind energy could be a viable option.

Luigi spoke to Tyler Campbell from H2 Tech about his presentation and findings. Below is an extract from the article: https://bit.ly/H2-tech

To evaluate the best economic circumstances for H2 production, Kent assessed centralized production onshore, centralized production offshore and distributed production onshore.

“The study assumes that the technology that will be used is expected to be available in the next 5 yr,” Crolla said. “We went for the megawatt (MW) scale, which we see as achievable in the next 5 yr.”

According to Crolla, the overall capacity of a wind farm and electrolyzer system is based on 100 MW—10 wind turbines with a 10 MW capacity with a windfarm distance of 30 km. They used these parameters to determine the most cost-effective strategy to produce green H2.

- Centralized production onshore. A substation transfers the power to the onshore location from distributed turbines. In this scenario, an electrical grid connection for the electrolyzer is feasible.

- Centralized production offshore. The power is transferred to a centralized offshore location from distributed turbines; then, the H2 is transported onshore. In this scenario, an electrical grid connection is not possible.

- Distributed production offshore. The power is utilized at the turbine, and the H2 is produced offshore. In this scenario, an electrical grid connection is not possible.