Reducing Electrolytic Hydrogen Costs by Oxygen Co-production

Production of hydrogen by electrolysis is considered the greener solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially if renewable energy is used. At present, hydrogen is mainly produced from fossil fuels, and steam methane reforming (SMR) is the most widely used route for producing hydrogen from natural gas and none of the conventional methods used is GHG-free. By comparing the production price of electrolytic hydrogen with the production price of SMR-Hydrogen, the electrolytic hydrogen results too expensive if both environmental advantages and oxygen co-production are neglected. In previous works, we demonstrated that in some markets, the commercialization of the 8 kg of oxygen produced for each kilogram of electrolytic hydrogen allows a significant hydrogen cost reduction. In this paper, we present the results of a new analysis aimed at evaluating the possibility to apply RES based electrolytic hydrogen/oxygen co-production in niche appliance with large oxygen consumption.