Hydrogen revamping of a hard-to-abate industrial plant: a techno-economic feasibility case study

Replace traditional fossil fuels with renewable gases is one of the European Commission's targets to counteract climate change and future energy shortages. However, this goal is highly challenging since the techno-economic feasibility of decarbonization still needs to be determined. Despite being responsible for the highest greenhouse gas emissions, hard-to-abate industrial companies are still discouraged from introducing renewable gases in their processes due to the potential negative impact on economic competitiveness. The paper investigates the economic competitiveness of grey and green hydrogen produced by a Power to Hydrogen plant partially substituting the natural gas feed in a chemical industry in the South of Italy. Specifically, the plant's capacity is optimized through a linear optimization model called Optiplant, minimizing the levelized cost of hydrogen. The results show that grey hydrogen is more competitive than green hydrogen even if higher CO2eq. gas emissions occur. Lastly, possible solutions to attract investments of industrial investors in similar processes are discussed.