1. Estimates of hydrogen production potential from renewable resources in Algeria
Soumia Rahmounia*, Noureddine Settoua, Belkhir Negroua, Abderrahmane Gouarehb
a Univ Ouargla, Fac. Applied sciences, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Lab. Promotion et valorisation des ressources sahariennes (VPRS)
BP 511, Route de Ghardaïa,Ouargla, 30000, Algeria
bUniv Sidi Bel Abbes,Fac. Technology, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Lab. Matériaux et Systèmes Réactifs (LMSR)
BP89, Sidi Bel Abbes, 22000, Algeria
Abstract
Wind hydrogen
Solar hydrogen
This study was conducted to estimate the potential for producing hydrogen from renewable resources (solar and wind energy) in Algeria and to create maps that allow the reader to easily visualize the results. To accomplish this objective, we analyzed renewable resource data both statistically and graphically utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS), a computer-based information system used to create and visualize geographic information. The study will evaluate the availability of hydrogen production potential from these key renewable resources in Algeria.
Wind hydrogen is essentially the generation of hydrogen by electrolysis where in the electricity supplied is derived from wind turbines. Fig. 4 shows the map of annual potential for hydrogen production from wind energy, averaged over the area of each region. The turbine model considered was of 1.5 MW nominal power. To calculate the wind energy produced by the selected turbine at a given site, the Weibull distribution corresponding to this site was integrated along with the capacity curve of this wind generator .
Fig. 3 shows the map of hydrogen potential from solar energy. We consider monocristallin photovoltaic panels of 250 W rated power, with surface of 1.63 m² and an efficiency of 15.28%. For all the results that follow, the unit of hydrogen potential is tons of H2/km²/year.
1 Methodology to assess the available renewable resources potential
Solar resource analysis
The solar irradiation map can be obtained from Solar-Med-Atlas satellite image, it is useful to have data of each region in the study area. Using these data, the annual mean values of daily global radiation are determined on the horizontal surface. In our work we arranged the annual average of annual solar irradiation expressed in kWh/m²/year, presented with GIS map on the Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 : Hydrogen potential from solar
Fig. 4 : Hydrogen potential from wind
3. Potential for hydrogen production relative to fuel consumption for road transportation sector in Algeria
Fig. 1: Annual average of the global horizontal solar irradiation in Algeria
Wind resource analysis
The wind speed measurements as derived from the were obtained from the Algerian Meteorological National Office are pieces of single point information at each measurement station. The present study is based on a average daily wind speed measured at a height of 10 m above ground level from 63 measurement stations distributed over Algerian territory. The data were collected during the period with different collection periods for each site and used to evaluate the annual frequency of wind speed and annual variations of the average wind speed. After this, wind speeds were interpolated with the IDW. The wind speed data and the locations of 63 stations which were chosen to cover the whole area of the country are shown in Fig. 2.
Fig.5 : Development of the Algerian road fleet size per year of matriculation.
In terms of consumption by fuel type, the road sector diesel, gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fuel consumption (k tons of oil equivalent) in Algeria was last measured at 8644, 3615 and 377, respectively in 2012, according to Ministry of Energy .
We assumed that 40% of the total Algerian land areas are occupied. We took into account that the effective area used by photovoltaic panels was 3% of the total suitable land. We assumed 5 MW of wind turbines could be installed on each square kilometer.
The overall annual potential of 6.85 billion tons of solar hydrogen and 6.13 billion tons of wind hydrogen.
As 1 kg of hydrogen is roughly equivalent to a gallon of gasoline in energy content, times gasoline consumption in Algeria can be met using hydrogen produced from solar and wind energy.
The global fossil fuel combustion-related CO2 emissions in the road transportation is about million tons of CO2 per year (MtCO2/year) emitted into the atmosphere (27.2, and 1.01 MtCO2 resulted from the combustion of diesel, gasoline and LPG, respectively. Taking into account that 1 ktep of diesel, gasoline and LPG produce 3150, 3066 and 2688 kg of CO2 after combustion) can be considered as environmental savings.
Fig. 2 : Annual average of wind speed at 10m above ground level in Algeria.
2. Hydrogen potential from renewable energy
Solar and wind energy can be harnessed to provide clean electricity to hydrogen-generating electrolyzers. Once the potential for the annual mean of the available solar and wind energy is assess using renewable resources databases within the specific location, the technical potential of the annual hydrogen production from this renewable resources can be estimated using the following equation:
4. Conclusion
This paper estimates the quantity of hydrogen that could be produced from solar and wind energy by region in Algeria. The study estimates that more than 13 billion tons of hydrogen can be produced from solar and wind per year in the country. Algeria consumed about 3.45 billion gallons of gasoline in 2012, equivalent to 3.45 Mt of renewable hydrogen; therefore, using only a 0.056% of land suitable for renewable projects can be meet this amount of hydrogen and can be reduce 39.2 Mt of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere.