UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies

Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration DOE/NETL (CCS 2005), Arlington, VA, May 2 - 5, 2005

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, in support of the Department of Energy's Fossil Energy programs, are developing engineering/economic/geographic models of fossil hydrogen energy systems with carbon capture and sequestration. In this paper, we present initial results from an ongoing assessment of alternative transition strategies from today's energy system toward widespread use of H2 from fossil fuels as an energy carrier with capture and sequestration of CO2. This study is coordinated with the National Energy Technology Laboratory Carbon Sequestration program and hydrogen modeling efforts at UC Davis and within the USDOE such as H2A. In the future, we plan to utilize data on CO2 sequestration sites from the NATCARB program, and the Regional Sequestration Partnerships. Our model for the design and economics of a fossil H2 energy system with CO2 sequestration considers a number of factors including:

* Cost and performance of component technologies making up the system (e.g. fossil energy complex including CO2 capture technology and co-production of hydrogen and electricity, CO2 pipelines and hydrogen storage, distribution and refueling stations). * The location and characteristics of the CO2 sequestration site (storage capacity, permeability, reservoir thickness), * The location, type, size and geographic density of the H2 demand. * Cost, location and availability of primary resources for H2 production such as coal or natural gas. * Location of existing energy infrastructure and rights of way.

We have developed techniques for studying regional H2 and CO2 infrastructure development and transition strategies, based on use of Geographic Information System (GIS) data and network optimization techniques. GIS facilitates this analysis by allowing one to use spatially-referenced data, such as existing power plants, coal resources, population distribution, existing rights of way, and CO2 sequestration sites, to calculate the location and magnitude of hydrogen demand and optimize the placement of production facilities and pipeline networks for transporting hydrogen and CO2. We have applied the model to a regional case study of a coal-based hydrogen economy in Ohio with CO2 capture and sequestration. The objective is to model the optimal hydrogen infrastructure design for the entire state under different market penetration scenarios, and find the cost of building the system. In the future, we will extend this work to different regions of the US to conduct a national case study, in coordination with the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, NATCARB and the Regional Sequestration Partnerships.