Techno-economic assessment of manure to hydrogen plants: a real case study based on a cattle farm in an isolated location

The energy transition is of utmost importance to tackle climate change. Different strategies have been put in place with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the share of renewable energy (RE) or energy efficiency. In this scenario, hydrogen has been recognized as a promising energy vector due. However, while hydrogen can be produced in different ways, only some of them are zero emission. This includes green electrolysis as one of the most consolidated alternatives due to the potentially low levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) obtained, but other sustainable methods are also promising which includes the reforming of biogas from manure or biomass. There are two main configurations of manure to hydrogen plants. In the first case, there is a reformer reactor, low and high temperature shift reactor and a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit for hydrogen separation. In the second configuration biomethane from biogas upgrading can be the source of hydrogen production, but in case of different necessities biomethane is available as a by-product too. In order to study the potential of manure-to-hydrogen plants with the two configurations described, a case study based on a real location has been assessed in this thesis based on the FCH JU REMOTE project in a demo-site located in La Aldea de San Nicolás, Gran Canaria, Spain, where there is a plan to consolidate a hydrogen valley in the medium to long term. Thus, a techno-economic analysis has been performed to assess the two configurations described above. Results show lower CAPEX and levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) for this plant and the input manure stream in the location.