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Abstract

This is a conceptual study, for MW to GW scale, comparing production, transmission, and storage costs for gaseous hydrogen (GH2) and anhydrous ammonia (NH₃) fuels made from wind-generated electricity, with and without the low-cost, annual-scale, firming storage which would add great market and strategic value. Both fuels are suitable for vehicles and for distributed generation (DG) in stationary combined-heat-and-power (CHP), via fuel cells or internal combustion engines (ICE's). NH₃ is also a valuable fertilizer, and this study briefly examines the economics of renewable-source versus fossil-source production of NH3 fertilizer. No pilot plant exists for confirming the system capital costs and conversion efficiencies we estimate in this study, although both GH2 and NH₃ have been proposed for wind energy transmission and storage [1–6]. Hydrogen is promising as a clean-burning energy carrier, and modern electrolyzers can produce large volumes of high-pressure hydrogen, ready for direct pipeline transmission and/or for ammonia synthesis, from renewable energy sources. Renewable-source hydrogen can alternatively be stored and transported as NH3, which can be readily synthesized, following electrolysis, using atmospheric nitrogen, and be used at the delivery end-point as a fertilizer or a fuel. Both GH2 and NH₃ transmission and firming storage will accelerate our conversion from fossil to diverse renewable resources, via major new markets including, and beyond, the electricity sector.

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References

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Transmission and Firming of GW-Scale Wind Energy via Hydrogen and Ammonia

Abstract

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