Potentialities of hydrogen production in Algeria

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2008.06.050Get rights and content

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to estimate the potentialities of hydrogen production in Algeria. Particular attention is paid to the clean and sustainable hydrogen production, i.e., production from renewable energy.

First, the present overall energy situation in Algeria is reviewed. Trend in energy demand is analysed taking into account major parameters such as population growth, urbanization, improvement in quality of life and export opportunities. The resources available for hydrogen production are then presented. Finally, the estimation of hydrogen production potential using solar sources, the most important renewable energy sources in Algeria, is presented.

This study indicates that the shift to hydrogen economy shows a promising prospect. Not only, it can meet the evergrowing local needs but it will also allow Algeria to keep its share of the energy market. Indeed, as is now the case for natural gas, hydrogen could be delivered to Western Europe through pipelines.

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

References (102)

  • V.A. Goltsov et al.

    Hydrogen civilization of the future – a new conception of the IAHE

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2006)
  • G.S. Eljrushi et al.

    Solar hydrogen energy system for Libya

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1990)
  • N. Lutfi et al.

    A clean and permanent energy infrastructure for Pakistan: solar-hydrogen energy system

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1991)
  • M.A.H. Abdallah et al.

    Solar-hydrogen energy system for Egypt

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1999)
  • B. Arnason et al.

    Iceland – future hydrogen economy

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2000)
  • P. Kruger

    Electric power requirement in the United States for large-scale production of hydrogen fuel

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2000)
  • L.C. de Lima et al.

    Long-term environmental and socio-economic impact of a hydrogen energy program in Brazil

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2001)
  • Bent Sorensen et al.

    Hydrogen as an energy carrier: scenarios for future use of hydrogen in the Danish energy system

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2004)
  • B. McLellan et al.

    Hydrogen production and utilisation opportunities for Australia

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2005)
  • S. Milciuviene et al.

    Towards hydrogen economy in Lithuania

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2006)
  • Alfonso Contreras et al.

    Modeling and simulation of the production of hydrogen using hydroelectricity in Venezuela

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • J.J. Brey et al.

    Planning the transition to a hydrogen economy in Spain

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • Michael Ball et al.

    Integration of hydrogen economy into the German energy system: an optimising modelling approach

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • Woodrow W. Clark et al.

    Hydrogen energy stations: along the roadside to the hydrogen economy

    Utilities Policy

    (2005)
  • J.W. Gosselink

    Pathways to a more sustainable production of energy: sustainable hydrogen – a research objective for Shell

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2002)
  • Arno A. Evers

    Go to where the market is! challenges and opportunities to bring fuel cells to the international market

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2003)
  • Bjørn Gaudernack et al.

    Hydrogen from natural gas without release of CO2 to the atmosphere

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1998)
  • Enrique Girón

    The hydrogen refuelling plant in Madrid

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • Michio Yamawaki et al.

    Application of nuclear energy for environmentally friendly hydrogen generation

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • M. Momirlan et al.

    Recent directions of world hydrogen production

    Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

    (1999)
  • N.Z. Muradov et al.

    From hydrocarbon to hydrogen–carbon to hydrogen economy

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2005)
  • B.C.R. Ewan et al.

    A figure of merit assessment of the routes to hydrogen

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2005)
  • Patrick Moriarty et al.

    Intermittent renewable energy: the only future source of hydrogen?

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • N. Muradov et al.

    Fossil hydrogen with reduced CO2 emission: modeling thermocatalytic decomposition of methane in a fluidized bed of carbon particles

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2005)
  • M. Steinberg

    Fossil fuel decarbonization technology for mitigating global warming

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1999)
  • Martin Wietschel et al.

    Feasibility of hydrogen corridors between the EU and its neighbouring countries

    Renewable Energy

    (2007)
  • A.L. Dicks

    Hydrogen generation from natural gas for the fuel cell systems of tomorrow

    Journal of Power Sources

    (1996)
  • Dries Haeseldonckx et al.

    The use of the natural-gas pipeline infrastructure for hydrogen transport in a changing market structure

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • F.Z. Kedaid

    Database on the geothermal resources of Algeria

    Geothermics

    (2007)
  • Valdimar K. Jónsson et al.

    The feasibility of using geothermal energy in hydrogen production

    Geothermics

    (1992)
  • D. Das et al.

    Hydrogen production by biological processes: a survey of literature

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2001)
  • D.B. Levin et al.

    Biohydrogen production: prospects and limitations to practical application

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2004)
  • Osvalda Senneca

    Kinetics of pyrolysis, combustion and gasification of three biomass fuels

    Fuel Processing Technology

    (2007)
  • Mohamad I. Al-Widyan et al.

    Combustion and emissions of pulverized olive cake in tube furnace

    Energy Conversion and Management

    (2006)
  • E. Bilgen

    Solar hydrogen from photovoltaic-electrolyse system

    Energy Conversion and Management

    (2001)
  • M.A. Daous et al.

    Experience with the safe operation of 2 kWh solar hydrogen plant

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1994)
  • R. Friberg

    A photovoltaic solar-hydrogen power plant for rural electrification in India, part I: a general survey of technologies applicable within the solar hydrogen concept

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1993)
  • B.S. Richards et al.

    Comparison of hydrogen storage technologies for solar-powered stand-alone power supplies: a photovoltaic system sizing approach

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (2007)
  • A. Mefti et al.

    Generation of hourly solar radiation for inclined surfaces using monthly mean sunshine duration in Algeria

    Energy Conversion and Management

    (2003)
  • T.N. Veziroglu

    Hydrogen technology for energy needs of human settlements

    International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

    (1987)
  • Cited by (56)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text