Hydrogen production

In the first semester of the final year of your study, you can start working on this project. You will focus on the process design of a hydrogen plant with scalable power. This will make it possible to relieve the electricity grid at peak times.

The focus is on the design of an electrolyser with associated equipment. An electrolyser is a chemical reaction in which compound substances are decomposed into a single substance. This can then be used to produce a renewable energy source.

Analysis
Other students went before you. They set to work analysing the issue, in this case the hydrogen plant.

Concept design
They then set to work designing a process flow with corresponding mass and energy balance. This revealed the following main equipment: electrolyser, storage tanks, purifiers, control valves and compressors. They also calculated how much hydrogen and oxygen the 2 megawatt electrolyser produces:

- Per week, 50.5 tonnes of oxygen will be produced and stored under 30 bar

- 6.4 tonnes of hydrogen will be produced per day and stored under 350 bar

The process was then divided into 5 sub-processes: supply, oxygen flow, hydrogen flow, oxygen storage and hydrogen storage.

Validating technical system
To validate the hydrogen plant, a survey was issued to identify feedstock requirements. The survey was sent to the companies in the relevant region. The responses to the survey revealed that there are a number of companies, for which the produced hydrogen and oxygen will be useful. For instance, the hydrogen can be applied mainly for mobility and to replace natural gas, while the oxygen can be sold mainly to other companies.

Documenting the design
Finally, the students prepared a design dossier. This contains the proposal for realisation including database components.

Interested?
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