Hydrogen production via ammonia from methane integrated with enhanced oil recovery: A techno-economic analysis

Abstract

The paper aims to evaluate the hydrogen production from methane, transported as ammonia, and integrated with CO2 utilisation in terms of energy, carbon emission and economic analysis. The common alternative for CO2 utilisation i.e. enhanced oil recovery is adopted for the assessment, which extracts crude oil using captured CO2. Mass and energy balance of ammonia production are simulated in Aspen plus. Oil extracted by enhanced oil recovery and CO2 emitted are evaluated based on simplified model using information provided in the literature. Results show that total CO2 emission in hydrogen production with carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery could be reduced by 54.8% when compared with conventional oil production, which is from 97.4 tonne·h−1 to 44 tonne·h−1. In addition, the cost of hydrogen is significantly reduced by using liquid ammonia as a carrier for transportation. Considering the revenue by selling CO2 from 0 to 50 $·tonne−1, the cost of H2 could be reduced by 9.52% and 14.63% when gas prices are 10 $·MMBTU−1 and 2 $·MMBTU−1, respectively. It is demonstrated that the revenue for selling CO2 is an opportunity to reduce carbon emission which could accelerate hydrogen technology incorporated with carbon capture and utilisation in the industry.