Advancement in Green Hydrogen Production: Integrating Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOECs) into Existing Offshore Facilities for Sustainable Energy
Authors: Sahak Muhammad Zakwan Mohd , Shaffee Siti Nur Amira , Thant Maung Maung Myo , Aminuddin Faris Akmal , Rawat Devina , Calzadilla Patricia Alejandra Fleitas , Krishnan Ram Kumar , Saiffudin Nabil 
Published: October 2024

Hydrogen energy has been hailed as a versatile energy of the future that could aid the transition to net-zero emissions. It has large potential as an alternate fuel source for mobility and power, heating and feedstock for the industry. The energy carrier is produced from water electrolysis technology using different types of electrolyzer (i.e., Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) or Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOECs)) for hydrogen separation process. In this energy research journey, PETRONAS has jointly worked with SLB to evaluate the feasibility of using SOECs for green hydrogen production. The study's focus is to explore integrating SOECs into existing industrial facilities creating hybrid systems, specifically with available flue gas from combustion process e.g. power generation. This allows for the utilization of waste heat from existing processes to enhance overall energy efficiency in hydrogen production.

To understand hydrogen production and its utilization in the existing facility, the full system including existing gas turbines, solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOECs), a hydrogen compression train, and a temperate cooling water system were modeled in a process simulation software. The model also included a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to recover the energy from gas turbine exhaust gases to heat water feed to produce saturated steam which will be the feed to SOEC. Several configurations considering heat integrations were explored, including heat recovery from SOEC product stream. Various sensitivities were run for different configurations of the process to study hydrogen purity, hydrogen blending, overall power required, water required in the overall process, and power produced by the hydrogen generated from SOEC and CO2 emission values in all the configuration.

The results were compared and evaluated to help assess how variation in parameters affect the performance or outcome. The results were evaluated for blending the produced hydrogen with the existing export gas before and after export gas compression and how it influences the hydrogen purity. Hydrogen blending with the fuel gas to the gas turbine also helped in overall reduction of CO2 emission. It was observed that additional cooling of the hydrogen stream to achieve better hydrogen purity did not significantly help in reducing CO2 emissions when hydrogen is used as fuel gas; therefore, cooling with temperate water system can be considered. All the cases were compared and evaluated for expanding the application of green hydrogen technologies in the facility considering viability and reduction in emissions.

The study was a part of a collaborative research initiative by the industry players to accelerate the development and deployment of SOEC technologies in existing facilities. The results from the study provided an overall understanding of adding SOEC in the facility and valuable insights to the stakeholders to make well-informed choices on the configuration.