Concepts for efficient hydrogen liquefaction

David Berstad, Geir Skaugen and Øivind Wilhelmsen

The Role of Large-Scale Hydrogen, Hyper closing seminar
Brussels, 11-12 December 2019
Overview of the presentation

• A look at the present and beyond-present state-

of-the-art for LH2 generation.
• Dissecting the loss of efficiency – where does it
come from?
• How do we realize the potential of LH2
generation? – the next steps
 Power requirement vs exergy efficiency of liquefier
16

14
Power requirement [kWh/kg]

12
State of the art (5–10 t/d blocks)
10

8
Long-term identified potential
6

0
20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Efficiency of hydrogen liquefier
In perspective:
Full-scale LNG plants: 10 000–20 000 tLNG/d
Rational (exergy) efficiency: Up to 48 %
Minimum liquefaction work

• Main influence:
• Feed pressure
• Key influences:
• Final liquid storage pressure
• 1.3 bar (blue dotted)
• 1.5 bar (black)
• 1.7 bar (red dashed)
• Target para-hydrogen
concentration
• Ambient temperature
Conversion of ortho to para-hydrogen

para-hydrogen ortho-hydrogen
Process overview
MRC-1 MRC-2 HPC-2 HPC-1 LPC-2 LPC-1

H2 feed

• Assumed capacity: 125 t/d Mixed refrigerant HX-1

HX-2

• Additionally 7.1 t/d BOG from storage

pre-cooling cycle
Hydrogen
HX-3
Claude cycle

• Mixed-refrigerant "PRICO" precooling of

feed hydrogen to 114 K Regenerative
adsorption and
HX-4

• Hydrogen Claude cooling to 30 K

adiabatic ortho-
para conversion

• Continuous ortho-para conversion in heat

exchangers between 114 K and 30 K
HX-5

• Expansion and BOG recompression to

1.85 bar with ejector HX-6

• Condensing and subcooling before Ejector

transfer to final LH2 storage Boil-off from HX-7

• Storage pressure: 1.50 bar

storage

LH2 to storage
Overall liquefier efficiency MRC-1 MRC-2 HPC-2 HPC-1 LPC-2 LPC-1

H2 feed

• Two independent ways to calculate the overall

HX-2

Mixed refrigerant HX-1

efficiency (and to verify the calculations):

pre-cooling cycle
Hydrogen
HX-3
Claude cycle

• Overall, top-down. Based on exergy flows in and out

of the system boundaries
HX-4
Regenerative
adsorption and
adiabatic ortho-
para conversion

• Detailed, bottom-up. Calculating the exergy

destruction in each single process component HX-5

• The former method is sufficient for calculating the

overall efficiency of the plant HX-6

• The latter method gives a full breakdown of all losses

Ejector

and gives directions as to where the improvement Boil-off from

storage
HX-7

potentials lie LH2 to storage

Overall, top-down approach
• Only considers exergy streams crossing
Compressor and
pump power

WCOMPR
the system boundaries Hydrogen

Hydrogen feed flow exergy

feed
•
• BOG flow exergy
• LH2 product flow exergy
• Compression power Turbine
power

• (Turbine power, assumed dissipated) WTURB

• (Intercooler heat, assumed dissipated)

• Exergy efficiency: Boil-off from
storage

= (ELH2 prod – (EH2 feed + EBOG)) / Wcompr

= (14 361 kW / 36 729 kW)
LH2 to
storage

= 39.1 %
Pre-cooling cycle to 114 K
MRC-1 MRC-2 HPC-2 HPC-1 LP

H2 feed

• Single, 5-component refrigerant mixture

Mixed refrigerant HX-1
pre-cooling cycle

• Estimated stand-alone exergy efficiency for pre-

4000
cooling to 114 K: 50.75 % Irreversibilities,
Pump
Irreversibilities,
Gas-Liquid MixingRegenerative
3500
• Further efficiency improvements can be made:
adsorption and
adiabatic ortho-
Irreversibilities, Compressor stage 2 para conversion

3000 Irreversibilities, Stage 2 intercooler

• Replacing throttling valve with a liquid expander, Irreversibilities, Throttling valve

Irreversibilities, Stage 1 intercooler
or expander in series with throttling valve 2500 Irreversibilities, Compressor stage 1

• Reduces entropy in expansion process and leads 2000 Irreversibilities, HX-1

kW Compression
to savings other places in the process 1500 power

• Dual-mixed refrigerant cycle: 1000 Useful exergy output

• Tailored refrigerant mixtures for two temperature 500
ranges instead of a single one
0
• Allows even deeper precooling, possibly down to 80 K
Exergy conversion Exergy input
Detailed, bottom-up approach Calculating the irreversibility
rate (exergy destruction rate)
Irreversibility [kWh/kg H2 feed] in each component (40+)
5,00

4,50 Cumulative

4,00

3,50

3,00
kWh/kg

2,50

2,00

1,50

1,00

0,50

0,00
Hydrogen Cryogenic heat Hydrogen Hydrogen Hydrogen MR intercoolers MR Hydrogen/JT MR throttling Mixers Adiabatic ortho- Throttling to
turbines and exchangers intercoolers compressors ejector compressors liquid turbine para conversion storage
dissipative and throttling
brakes valve
Verification of top-down and bottom-up approaches
Throttling to storage
Mixers 40000
Adiabatic ortho-para conversion
MR throttling
Hydrogen/JT liquid turbine and throttling valve
MR compressors
MR intercoolers 35000 Hydrogen ejector MR Compressors power
Hydrogen compressors
30000
Hydrogen intercoolers

25000
Cryogenic heat exchangers

kW 20000
Hydrogen turbines and dissipative brakes Hydrogen compressors
15000 power

10000
Exergy added to hydrogen
feed
5000
Exergy added to reliquefied BOG

0
Exergy conversion and destruction Exergy input
Improved efficiency from recovering turbine power
• Efficiency of the liquefaction process without power recovery:
• Exergy efficiency: 39.1 %
• 7.05 kWh/kg scaled with hydrogen feed rate (125 ton per day)
• 6.67 kWh/kg scaled with hydrogen feed rate + boiloff gas reliquefaction rate
• For these numbers, 2769 kW of hydrogen turbine shaft power is assumed to be dissipated
• If, e.g. 80 % of this power is recovered with electric generators the improved efficiency
figures will be:
• Exergy efficiency: 41.6 %
• 6.62 kWh/kg scaled with hydrogen feed rate (125 ton per day)
• 6.27 kWh/kg scaled with hydrogen feed rate + boiloff gas reliquefaction rate
 Power requirement vs exergy efficiency of liquefier
16

14
Power requirement [kWh/kg]

12
State of the art (5–10 t/d blocks)
10
Investigated process
8

6 Long-term identified potential

0
20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Efficiency of hydrogen liquefier
Further improvements
• High capacity shifts the cost weighting more towards OPEX, hereunder energy cost,
while the impact of CAPEX decreases. This motivates for, and necessitates, more
advanced and integrated process designs
• Precooling: Dual mixed refrigerant to also extend the range from 114 down towards
80 K. Will shift power consumption over from hydrogen to MR compression
• Feed expansion from 30 K: Possibility for a liquid expander upstream of the ejector
• Subcooling process: Can be two-stage instead of single-stage to improve efficiency
• H2 feed pressure: Autothermal reforming as well as some electrolysers can supply
hydrogen at e.g. 30–40 bar. There are several means for taking advantage of this for
improving the efficiency
• Turbocompressors and novel cryogenic refrigerant: More easily scalable, boiling at low
temperatures.
For more: See D. Berstad, Ø. Wilhelmsen, K. Banasiak. Hydrogen liquefaction. Influence of ejector and expander configuration. Hyper
Technical Seminar. Trondheim, 15 May 2019
 Acknowledgements

This publication is based on results from the research project Hyper,

performed under the ENERGIX programme. The authors acknowledge
the following parties for financial support: Equinor, Shell, Kawasaki Heavy
Industries, Linde Kryotechnik, Mitsubishi Corporation, Nel Hydrogen,
Gassco and the Research Council of Norway (255107/E20).

15
Internationally outstanding