Techno-economic analysis of glycerol steam reforming for H2 production capacity of 300 m3 h-1

Abstract

In this paper, the techno-economic analysis of glycerol steam reforming for H2 production capacity of 300 m3 h-1 was carried out. The process of glycerol steam reforming was constructed by using Aspen HYSYSⓇ, a commercial process simulator, and parametric studies for the effect of the operating temperature on H2 production was performed. Moreover, the economic analysis was conducted through an itemized cost estimation, sensitivity analysis (SA) and cash flow diagram (CFD), and the unit H2 production cost was 5.10 $ kgH2 -1 through the itemized cost estimation of glycerol steam reforming for H2 production capacity of 300 m3 h-1. SA was employed to identify key economic factors and various economic indicators such as net present value (NPV), discounted payback period (DPBP), and present value ratio (PVR) were found according to H2 selling price using CFD.