Comparative Efficiency Evaluation of Hydrogen Energy Complexes Based on Reversible Fuel Cells and Hydrogen-Thermal Storage When Combined with Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Abstract This work evaluates the technical and economic efficiency of combining NPPs with a system based on reversible fuel cells (RFC) in comparison with the well-known approach of hydrogen-thermal accumulation (HTA) using an additional low-power steam turbine unit. One of the main advantages of RFC is its ability to alternately operate both in the electrolysis mode in order to accumulate off-peak electricity, and in the fuel cell mode to generate peak electricity without converting hydrogen fuel energy into thermal or mechanical energy. The authors developed a schematic diagram and methodology for assessing efficiency of using RFC at NPPs. The calculations have shown that at the present stage of technology development, the use of RFC is less effective in comparison with the system based on HTA. At the same time, until 2035the advantage of the HTA will grow from 9.68%, excluding the economic effect from preventing unloading of the NPP, up to 25.31% in the current scenario, taking into account the economic effect from preventing unloading of the NPP. The target level of base specific capital investments in the proposed RFC system (units with a unit capacity of 250 kW) has been determined, providing equal technical and economic efficiency in comparison with HTA, which amounted to 1079-1134 $/kW