Posted on 17 Oct 2023
Following commercial testing on the electricity market, Hybrit’s hydrogen storage facility has shown the variable cost of fossil-free hydrogen production can be reduced by 25-40%, says Hybrit joint venture partner Vattenfall.
The facility was used specifically on the electricity market for about a month. The mission was to produce hydrogen using fossil-free electricity at a variable electricity price with the lowest possible cost, for example during certain parts of the day or for longer periods when weather-dependent electricity generation was in good supply. The hydrogen was delivered in a steady flow to SSAB.
“Despite the fact that Vattenfall optimised trading and operations against real electricity prices during a period with low price variations, the results were very good. The tests were conducted in a close collaboration between Hybrit Development and Vattenfall. By applying it in actual circumstances, we were able to follow in real time how much money was saved by using what was stored,” Hybrit senior project manager Marie Anheden says in a note seen by Kallanish.
The design itself has proven to be well suited for rapid emptying and filling, interspersed by periods of less activity, Vattenfall observes. The latest effort to lower the price of hydrogen production used a simulation tool, a new optimisation model and the 100 cubic meter pilot hydrogen storage in Luleå.
“These are exciting and important results because hydrogen from fossil-free electricity is one of the keys to transitioning the industry. Large-scale hydrogen storage makes it possible to adapt electricity consumption in a system of varying availability and prices and at the same time can supply the industry with hydrogen more stably and cost effectively. Used on a large scale, hydrogen storage can have a dampening effect on electricity price variations, which would favour investments in new electricity generation from all forms of fossil-free power,” says Vattenfall industry decarbonisation head Mikael Nordlander.
“LKAB will change the entire production of iron ore products to fossil-free iron sponge produced with hydrogen gas, so these are very important results for us,” says LKAB senior vice-president for energy and climate Stefan Savonen. “We will need to produce over one million tonnes of hydrogen and consume over 70 TWh of fossil-free electricity per year when we have restructured the entire operation by 2050. Reducing costs is therefore absolutely necessary.”
Source:Kallanish
