Coupling of Wind Energy and Biogas with a High Temperature Steam Electrolyser for Hydrogen and Methane Production

Abstract

The production of environment friendly green fuels is based on energy from renewable sources. Among the renewable sources, wind power is a very growing power technology. An example which has been discussed very widely is hydrogen which is an ideal fuel for a fuel cell. Hydrogen is the energy of the future. It will be used as energy carrier as well as reactant to produce green fuels, like methane which is easier to handle. Direct coupling of a High Temperature Steam Electrolyser (HTSE) with a wind turbine can be used to generate hydrogen. Indeed performing the electrolysis process at high temperatures offers the advantage of achieving higher efficiencies compared to the conventional water electrolysis. The hydrogen produced can be then reacted with the CO2 Content of biogas to form methane as green fuel. Thus, the concept presented in this paper illustrates the potential of the HTSE technology coupled with a wind turbine, this system being combined with biogas in a methanation unit. Developing scenarios and flow sheets and using mass and energy balance, the technical performance of the concept is investigated. A plant capacity of 10 MWel is considered. An annual production of 1104 metric tons per year (Mt/a) hydrogen and thus of 5888 Mt/a methane is reached. The overall plant efficiency is calculated to be 38%. The combination of wind power and biogas offers thus many advantages which can facilitate the penetration of the wind resource and the progression to the hydrogen economy.