Economics of Hydrogen Production From Natural Gas

Hydrogen is a principal fuel for high-efficiency fuel-cell vehicles that produce zero emissions. Hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles can be fueled competitively with conventional fossil-fuel vehicles if hydrogen is produced in large central facilities with access to low-price natural gas. In times of high oil price, the production cost of hydrogen should be comparable to the price of petroleum fuels. Although improvements to the technology of production are being researched, breakthroughs will not make a major difference to the production costs. Great unknowns are the cost of hydrogen transport and delivery and the distribution pressure required.

View a Synopsis of SPE 101703 as published in JPT.

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 101703, “The Hydrogen Economy: Economics of Hydrogen Production From Natural Gas,” by D. Seddon, SPE, Duncan Seddon & Associates Pty. Ltd., prepared for the 2006 SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition, Adelaide, Australia, 11–13 September.

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