The global energy related challenges, mainly due to the worldwide growing energy consumption gone with a reduction ofoil and gas availability, is leading to an increasing interest on hydrogen as energy carrier. Molten...The global energy related challenges, mainly due to the worldwide growing energy consumption gone with a reduction ofoil and gas availability, is leading to an increasing interest on hydrogen as energy carrier. Molten salts at temperatures up to 550 ~C can be used as solar heat carrier and storage system, and hydrogen selective membranes can be used to drive reforming reaction at lower temperatures than conventional （〈 550 ~C）, with hydrogen purification achieved thereby. The combination of new technologies such as membranes and membrane reactors, concentrating solar power （CSP） systems and molten salt heat carriers, allows a partial decarbonation of the fossil fuel together with the possibility to carry solar energy in the current natural gas grid. The aim of this work is to present a life cycle assessment of a novel hybrid plant for the production of a mixture of methane and hydrogen, called enriched methane, from a steam reforming reactor whose heat duty is supplied by a molten salt stream heated up by an innovative concentrating solar power （CSP） plant developed by ENEA. The performance of this plant will be evaluated from an environmental point of view by the use of an LCA software （SimaPro7） and compared with the ones of traditional plants （reformer and cracker for the hydrogen production） for the production of enriched methane.展开更多
文摘The global energy related challenges, mainly due to the worldwide growing energy consumption gone with a reduction ofoil and gas availability, is leading to an increasing interest on hydrogen as energy carrier. Molten salts at temperatures up to 550 ~C can be used as solar heat carrier and storage system, and hydrogen selective membranes can be used to drive reforming reaction at lower temperatures than conventional （〈 550 ~C）, with hydrogen purification achieved thereby. The combination of new technologies such as membranes and membrane reactors, concentrating solar power （CSP） systems and molten salt heat carriers, allows a partial decarbonation of the fossil fuel together with the possibility to carry solar energy in the current natural gas grid. The aim of this work is to present a life cycle assessment of a novel hybrid plant for the production of a mixture of methane and hydrogen, called enriched methane, from a steam reforming reactor whose heat duty is supplied by a molten salt stream heated up by an innovative concentrating solar power （CSP） plant developed by ENEA. The performance of this plant will be evaluated from an environmental point of view by the use of an LCA software （SimaPro7） and compared with the ones of traditional plants （reformer and cracker for the hydrogen production） for the production of enriched methane.
