Exploring the potential of power-to-gas concept to meet Ontario's industrial demand of hydrogen

Abstract

Hydrogen is an essential commodity in the refining and chemical industry. Hydrogen is commonly produced from the mature technology steam methane reforming (SMR), which has a drawback of releasing significant greenhouse gas emissions. The power-to-gas (PtG) concept, on the other hand, can produce green hydrogen through water electrolysis by utilizing Ontario's electricity grid powered mostly by CO2-free sources during off-peak demand. Also, PtG is a novel energy storage concept, which can effectively manage the surplus baseload generation issue encountered in the province. Therefore, this work explores the potential of implementing PtG to meet the demand of industrial hydrogen in Ontario. The paper examines the surplus power resulted from the off-peak net exports to neighboring jurisdictions and curtailed power from wind and nuclear during the years 2014–2016 as well as the surplus forecast for the next 15 years. Then, it quantifies the hydrogen volumes upon employing PtG versus the demand. The analysis shows that PtG energy storage concept has the potential to supply industrial users with the majority of the demand, particularly when making use of Ontario's available seasonal storage of depleted gas wells and salt caverns at least for the next four years.