David Ehlig
Hydrogen Liquefaction Product & Proposal Manager
Air Liquide Engineering & Construction
David Ehlig has a background in Chemical Engineering with over 10 years of experience at Air Liquide. He has worked in various roles within the company and is currently holding the post of Hydrogen Liquefaction Product & Proposal Manager at Air Liquide Engineering & Construction. He has extensive knowledge on low-carbon hydrogen solutions.
Participates in
TECHNICAL PROGRAMME | Energy Infrastructure
Hydrogen Transportation
Forum 10 | Digital Poster Plaza 2
29
April
14:00
16:00
UTC+3
OBJECTIVE:
Large-scale hydrogen liquefaction (XL LH2) technologies are crucial for enabling cost-effective intercontinental hydrogen transport supply chains. This abstract assesses the economic and technological readiness of XL LH2 technologies and identifies key development needs. It also examines the feasibility of integrating XL LH2 with low-carbon hydrogen production via reforming and electrolysis, highlighting its essential role in enabling the global transport and utilization of low-carbon hydrogen.
SCALING UP LIQUEFACTION TRAINS:
Furthermore, emerging boiloff gas management technologies derived from LNG will bring additional significant TCO reductions to the LH2 export value chain.
ACHIEVING XL LH2 DOWNSTREAM OF REFORMING & ELECTROLYTIC H2 PRODUCTION:
Low-carbon LH2: All technologies are available to produce LH2 downstream of thermochemical reforming (SMR/ATR) with carbon capture, and integrated process solutions will optimize overall TCO.
Renewable LH2: Producing renewable LH2 presents some challenges as cryogenic processes are typically developed for steady supply of energy and feedstocks; however, solar and wind are intermittent. Therefore, overcoming this intermittency hurdle will require development on cryogenic technologies, flexible operations and process control to maximize liquid hydrogen production while managing frequent transitory runs. Furthermore, proprietary algorithms have been developed to optimize the entire renewable LH2 value chain, including the process scheme and equipment sizing, to identify the most cost-effective solution during early development.
CONCLUSION:
LH2 will play an important role in the intercontinental export of low-carbon energy, and technological advancements are on track to enable future LH2 export markets. Encouragingly, our techno-readiness assessment indicates that current technologies can support liquefaction up to approximately 150tpd, with ready-for-offer designs. Our analysis also found that scaling beyond 500tpd trains brings considerable liquefaction TCO reductions up to -60% versus today’s state-of-the-art.
Large-scale hydrogen liquefaction (XL LH2) technologies are crucial for enabling cost-effective intercontinental hydrogen transport supply chains. This abstract assesses the economic and technological readiness of XL LH2 technologies and identifies key development needs. It also examines the feasibility of integrating XL LH2 with low-carbon hydrogen production via reforming and electrolysis, highlighting its essential role in enabling the global transport and utilization of low-carbon hydrogen.
SCALING UP LIQUEFACTION TRAINS:
- 5-50tpd: State-of-the-art & referenced technology with a nitrogen precooling cycle and either a hydrogen or helium liquefaction cycle.
- 50-150tpd: Technologies are available with ready-for-offer designs. The implementation of hydrogen expanders with energy recovery and liquid turbines bring considerable efficiency gains. We also detect significant capex optimization opportunities thanks to scale-effect. Scaling up is an opportunity to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by -30% to -45% versus state-of-the-art (30tpd executed liquefier).
- 150-300tpd: Extra-large scale is just around the corner. Key technologies are already ready for implementation, notably the innovative cycles, large nitrogen & mixed-refrigerant compressors, and large cold boxes. To achieve these capacities, future techno developments are required to scale up the hydrogen & nitrogen expanders and hydrogen compressors. Techno developments are well on track, and this scale is an opportunity to reduce TCO by -50% to -60% versus state-of-the-art.
- 500tpd+: Scaling to very large trains is an interesting step to improve economics. Although these technologies are still in the development phase, they are anticipated to be feasible at this scale and allow TCO reductions of at least -60%++ versus state-of-the-art.
Furthermore, emerging boiloff gas management technologies derived from LNG will bring additional significant TCO reductions to the LH2 export value chain.
ACHIEVING XL LH2 DOWNSTREAM OF REFORMING & ELECTROLYTIC H2 PRODUCTION:
Low-carbon LH2: All technologies are available to produce LH2 downstream of thermochemical reforming (SMR/ATR) with carbon capture, and integrated process solutions will optimize overall TCO.
Renewable LH2: Producing renewable LH2 presents some challenges as cryogenic processes are typically developed for steady supply of energy and feedstocks; however, solar and wind are intermittent. Therefore, overcoming this intermittency hurdle will require development on cryogenic technologies, flexible operations and process control to maximize liquid hydrogen production while managing frequent transitory runs. Furthermore, proprietary algorithms have been developed to optimize the entire renewable LH2 value chain, including the process scheme and equipment sizing, to identify the most cost-effective solution during early development.
CONCLUSION:
LH2 will play an important role in the intercontinental export of low-carbon energy, and technological advancements are on track to enable future LH2 export markets. Encouragingly, our techno-readiness assessment indicates that current technologies can support liquefaction up to approximately 150tpd, with ready-for-offer designs. Our analysis also found that scaling beyond 500tpd trains brings considerable liquefaction TCO reductions up to -60% versus today’s state-of-the-art.
