Scaling Up Green Hydrogen: The Critical Role of Filtration and Separation Technologies
October, 2024
As the global shift towards renewable energy accelerates, the production of green hydrogen is also rapidly expanding. Currently, most green hydrogen projects are being implemented on a small scale (<100MW), but they are expected to reach large-scale production (>500MW) by 2030. Considering this, investors, project developers, and operators are looking to minimize project spend (i.e., reduce CAPEX) while ensuring they achieve the maximum 'bang for their buck' (i.e., an efficient production process and a long lifetime of their expensive production equipment).
To achieve these goals, key players in the green hydrogen ecosystem, such as EPC Contractors, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), and End-users, need to focus on two critical processing areas: Water/Electrolyte processing and Hydrogen processing. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has identified these areas as having a high potential for cost reduction, which is directly impacted by the filtration and separation technologies employed.
Before now, the hydrogen production capacity of green hydrogen installations was limited to a few MWs, and the industry had to manage with suboptimal filtration solutions such as bag filters, mesh filters, knock-out drums, and demisters. These solutions, while available, are not efficient and conducive for scaling up. They become impractically large and prohibitively expensive when handling larger flow rates and are unable to separate fine particles or aerosols, limiting the quality that can be achieved.
As the industry is still in its early stages, many green hydrogen producers may not be aware of the presence of contaminants in their systems and how these impurities can damage electrolyzers, compressors, and catalyst beds.
Therefore, it is important that companies monitor contamination in their plants, focusing on how to quantitatively measure particulate concentration in water/electrolyte feed and liquid aerosol concentration in hydrogen gas streams. This will not only help project developers significantly reduce their CAPEX and OPEX but also maximize the lifetime of their critical equipment and improve the overall efficiency and reliability of their plants.
By incorporating advanced filtration technologies, producers can better protect their critical equipment, reduce unplanned maintenance, and improve overall efficiency.
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