Techno-economic analysis of power to gas and power to liquid systems based on solid oxide electrolyzer technology

Recently, the energy policies of various countries have placed significant emphasis on the so-called hydrogen economy. Hydrogen is already widely recognized as a crucial component in decarbonizing energy systems and achieving the climate targets set for 2050. Equally vital is the development of technology for converting hydrogen into other fuels with a broader or distinct range of applications. The systems proposed in this paper fully integrate the current needs and trends in energy system development by combining the use of renewable energy sources, high-temperature electrolysis for hydrogen production, carbon dioxide utilization, and energy storage through the generation of liquid and gaseous fuels. The main goal of this work was to assess the thermodynamic and economic potential of gas and liquid synthetic fuel production systems that integrate high-temperature electrolyzer unit with conventional power plant to produce synthetic fuels. The proposed installations let obtain high-quality energy carriers by using Sabatier reactor for the production of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) or Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor for producing liquid fuels. AspenONE software package was used for designing and numerical activities. The thermodynamic and economic potential of SNG and F-T fuels production units was presented in this work. The considered systems were analyzed for various design conditions such as temperature, pressure, and different H2:CO, and H2:CO2 ratios. Additionally, impact of Solid Oxide Electrolyzer operation was also determined in this work. A variant analysis of the synthetic fuel production process in systems of three power classes (250 kWel, 1 MWel, 50 MWel) was also performed to determine the fixed and variable cost indices (CAPEX/OPEX) necessary for detailed techno-economic analyses.