Vitchev, of the University of Westminster, reported in 2021 that the transformation of coal-fired plants to hydrogen would require the construction of 47 GWp photo solar stations, which would occupy more than 1000 km2 of land and will use more than 10 billion litres of water per year, or the drinking water of 300,000 people from the area. This brief study was not intended to calculate the exact parameters and requirements for such a transformation, nor the necessary infrastructure or technical solutions for balancing the electricity system.
The cost of one such transformation is not considered in this study, but it has to be mentioned that only the cost of photo-solar power plants would exceed $ 45 billion, and they would need to be replaced at approximately every 20 years. Furthermore, most of the technologies involved hardly exist in an industrial scale - namely electrolyzers able to produce billion kg of hydrogen, hydrogen storage facilities and pipelines able to store and transport such large volumes of difficult to contain and transport gas, and conversion of coal-fueled boilers to use hydrogen.
The low round-trip efficiency of producing, storing and using hydrogen for electricity generation – less than 25% - along with the necessity of installation of very large solar PV installations, infrastructure, land and water needed, demonstrated that considering a hydrogen path with the current state of technologies would be inefficient, physically challenging and potentially very expensive.
The purpose of this brief study was to identify the physical parameters of one such change and to bring awareness and realism to the discussion of the viability of replacing coal with hydrogen. The decision and policy makers should take into account the physical and cost constrains, before committing to potentially expensive, resource intensive, and ultimately harmful solutions.
For more information, see:
https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/facts-and-figures/heat-values-of-various-fuels.aspx
https://nova.bg/news/view/2019/08/05/259005
https://www.nsi.bg/en/content/5145/drinking-water-used-households-public-water-supply-average-capitatotal-country
https://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/9013_energy_requirements_for_hydrogen_gas_compression.pdf
Note: The territory of the country covers 111 thousand km2, from which 45% is agricultural land, the rest being mostly mountains and forests: https://www.mzh.government.bg/media/filer_public/2020/12/22/
Citation: Vitchev, D. (2021). A brief analysis of the physical requirements for converting coal-fired power plants to hydrogen. Academia Letters, Article 2884. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2884.
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