Potentialities of hydrogen production in Algeria
Introduction
Energy has been the driving force behind the economic and social development in the history of mankind. With the advent of the industrial revolution and the technological advances, the energy demand has worldwide increased exponentially. With the improvement in the standard of living, the consumption has gone beyond basic needs [1]. Now energy occupies a sensitive position in all human activities. It has become important to the point that the degree of a country development is measured by its energy consumption level.
Energy sources have evolved and each new source of energy has given new impetus to technological, economic and social changes. At present, hydrocarbons are the dominant energy source. They cover about 80% of the world's needs [2].
However, the evergrowing demand is putting stress on the hydrocarbon reserves. It has been reported that the energy needs are growing at the rate of 1% per year for the industrialised nations and 5% per year for the developing countries [3]. At this rate of consumption and with hydrocarbons production peaking soon [4], the risks of shortage might become a reality in a few decades.
On top of this problem of reserves, there is a real concern about the environmental impacts associated with the exploitation, the production, the transport and the use of hydrocarbons. These energy resources are the main source of air pollution, producing environmental damaging pollutants, such as CO2 [5]. It has been reported [6] that CO2 concentration has increased by 30% since the industrial revolution. Although the CO2 emission rate from hydrocarbons' consumption went noticeably down in the early 1990s, it has been rising again reaching an alarming level in the last five years. This is despite the Kyoto protocol and the local and regional stringent environmental regulations in effect that limit its emission into the atmosphere. CO2 emissions went from 5.84 GtC in 1990 to 6.35 GtC in 1999, to 7.68 GtC in 2005 [7]; representing an average increase rate of 0.24 GtC/year for the 2000–2005 period and 0.087 GtC/year for the 1990–1999 period.
Hydrocarbons are then polluting and their use generates greenhouse gases. Even efficiency use has arguably not curbed the explosion in energy consumption or reduced the negative environmental impacts [8], [9].
Growing concern over diminishing reserves of fossil fuels and fear of the environmental consequences have led to the active search for new energy sources.
Serious reserves have been expressed concerning the use of nuclear power as a worldwide energy source. This is mainly due to the problem of radioactive wastes.
The remaining contenders are renewable energy sources. These sources are clean and inexhaustible. They meet worldwide about 13.5% of the global energy demand [10] and they are in full expansion.
However, they suffer from intrinsic drawbacks. They are indeed dilute, intermittent and dependent on the season. There is also a mismatch between energy supply and demand. To overcome this hurdle, there is thus the need for its storage in an energy form that can attain high density and that can be stored for long periods and transported possibly over long distances. Among the storage options, hydrogen is gaining increasing consideration as a central player in the world's energy future [10], [11], first by being an alternative to fossil fuels then by ultimately replacing it. Hydrogen, as an energy carrier, has the potential to solve many of the major problems encountered in the use of fossil fuel. It is an environment friendly carrier that can be used in mobile and stationary applications.
There is a worldwide growing commitment to hydrogen economy. Some countries, such as Canada, Japan, the United States and the European Union, have ongoing major programs to develop and to implement hydrogen energy systems [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]. Scenarios for the integration of hydrogen as an energy vector into the global energy system have been proposed at the international [16] regional [17] and national levels [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32].
Even companies, whose main activities are in oil and gas, are more and more seduced by hydrogen as an energy vector [33]. Major oil companies such as Shell and BP have formed subsidiaries whose main activities are the development and deployment of hydrogen energy technologies [34]. To this end, they have most often joined forces with car manufacturers, governmental agencies and others to promote and operate hydrogen energy systems. This is the case of California Fuel Cell Partnership where BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco are involved [35]. They are also active in decarbonising conventional energy [36] and in setting up hydrogen refuelling stations [37].
For Algeria, hydrogen is of paramount importance. It permits the country not only to increase and to diversify its energy mix but also to keep its share of the energy market at the international level and to meet its domestic demand that is becoming more and more important.
Algeria is a country rich in natural resources offering a variety of options for hydrogen production. It exhibits more particularly enormous energy potentialities in solar energy as well as in geothermal and wind energy. The insulation through the whole country is one of the highest in the world in power as well as in number of days. This situation makes Algeria an excellent place for the production of hydrogen using the solar energy.
This work presents the current energy situation in Algeria in terms of its total energy resources and consumption. Incidences of population growth and urbanization on the energy scene have been studied. The natural resources available for the production of hydrogen are reviewed and finally the potential of hydrogen production using electrolysis PV system, which represents one of the most technologically advanced sustainable methods, is evaluated.
Section snippets
Algeria and its energy situation
Bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Algeria lies in north-west Africa between the Sahel countries in the south, Western Sahara and Morocco in the west and Tunisia and Libya in the east. It is located between the 18° and 38° of North latitude and between meridians 9° of West longitude and 12° of East longitude. It covers an area of 2,381,741 km2. Its coastal line on the Mediterranean Sea extends over 1200 km and the aerial space stretches out southward on 1800 km as far as the tropic of cancer.
Going
Hydrogen and natural resources
A common element on earth, hydrogen is though found practically in combined form with oxygen in water and with carbon and other elements in hydrocarbon compounds.
Several techniques are available for the production of hydrogen. They differ according to the feedstock used (natural gas, methanol, oil, biomass, water, etc.), the process involved (decomposition, steam reforming, partial oxidation, electrolysis, etc.) and the primary energy sources selected (conventional, nuclear or renewable). Some
Potential of solar hydrogen PV water electrolysis production
Water electrolysis for hydrogen production is a widely used technique that has reached the industrial phase. The use of solar energy in the electrolysis processes turns out to be the most viable and the most protective of the environment. As the DC power generated using photovoltaic panel is well suited for electrolysis systems, most of solar hydrogen production systems use PV as a power generator for water electrolysis [84], [85], [86], [87], [88]. The PV-electrolyser system is particularly
Results and discussion
First we considered the case of the non-tracking PV arrays tilted at the site latitude.
Fig. 7 reports the mapping of the hydrogen production potential through the whole country. The production is expressed in l/m2/day.
This figure shows that the potential is important more particularly on the west side on the coastal line and in the Big South.
To study the monthly evolution, the variation of the monthly mean of the daily hydrogen production is shown in Fig. 8 for typical sites of each region: the
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