(111c) H2@Scale Evaluation of Market Opportunities for Water Splitting with Low Cost Clean Energy

Technical and economic evaluations of market opportunities for hydrogen production by polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and high temperature solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) plants have shown hydrogen can be produced for under 2.00 USD per kilogram hydrogen in centralized or distributed plants. This is attributed to three factors; 1) the PEM or SOEC electrolysis plants are powered by low-cost renewable energy during periods of excess generation or by existing nuclear power plants that are mainly dedicated to hydrogen production, 2) the production of cutting-edge PEM and SOEC electrolysis stacks and supporting balance of plant and hydrogen delivery technology reaches a high volume of production, providing 100-200 MW of electrolysis capacity each year, and 3) demand for clean hydrogen increases proportionally to the growth in production. A cross-cutting DOE program analysis team dedicated to the H2@Scale Concept has shown there is an increasing market opportunity to produce and use a high volume of low-cost hydrogen in the transportation and industry sectors. Steel manufacturing, ammonia-based fertilizers, petroleum refining, and synthetic fuels produced by CO₂ with H₂ as feedstock could benefit from competitively priced, clean hydrogen. The technical and economic assessments indicate that the hydrogen produced by PEM and SOEC using clean energy sources can be competitive with incumbent steam-methane reforming.