Comparative process modeling and techno-economic evaluation of renewable hydrogen production by glycerol reforming in aqueous and gaseous phases

In this paper, a comparative techno-economic evaluation of hydrogen production by glycerol reforming in aqueous and gaseous phases are presented. To accomplish the techno-economic evaluation, firstly the process modeling and design are presented. Based on the equipment purchased costs, with 80 kg/h hydrogen production, the total cost of hydrogen production is estimated 3.65 and 3.55 $/kgH(2) for steam reforming and aqueous phase reforming plants, respectively. Regarding the installation factor in the equipment costs, the total cost of hydrogen production is estimated 7.49 and 7.45 $/kgH(2) for steam reforming and aqueous phase reforming plants, respectively. To investigate the impact of independent parameters and profitability of the proposed plants, sensitivity analysis, cumulative discounted cash flow diagram, net present value, and discounted payback period are introduced. Additionally, to quantify the uncertainties in proposed plants, Monte-Carlo simulation method with +/- 50% variation of the key influential parameters is applied. Lastly, it is shown that the aqueous phase reforming process is the optimum choice based on the techno-economic evaluation.