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Article history: An initial estimation of the potential for hydrogen (H2) production in Venezuela is made,
Received 30 November 2013 obtained by water electrolysis using electricity from renewable sources, taking advantage
Received in revised form of the great potential of the country for solar, wind and mini hydro energies. For the first
8 May 2014 two, its potential maps is obtained from insolation and wind speed maps, respectively,
Accepted 6 June 2014 prepared from satellite data, and for mini-hydro, the potential is obtained from docu-
Available online 3 July 2014 mentary information. To calculate the amount of H2 to produce is used the Higher Heating
Value, considering the electrolytic system overall efficiency of 75%, including power re-
Keywords: quirements of the electrolyzer, auxiliary equipment, and system losses. In addition, in the
Electrolytic hydrogen production calculation of usable renewable potential are excluded land areas under special adminis-
Solar energy tration, marine, lake and urban areas, and other limitations are considered concerning
Solar-hydrogen energetic system energy conversion efficiencies and useful areas available for the location of the different
Venezuela renewable technologies.
The results give a total production of 2.073 1010 kg of H2/year, with a contribution of
95% of solar photovoltaic energy. The H2 produced covers entirely the energy requirements
of rural population without energy service, and the remainder could be used as a chemical
feedstock in industrial processes such as oil refining or petrochemical, whose demand in
not entirely satisfied with the annual production of H2 from the country, or even for export.
It is concluded that the results are the initial point of a detailed research, with more ac-
curate estimation of the potentials that include economic and social topics related with the
production on H2, on the way to determine the feasibility of developing of the Solar-H2
system, in its different forms in Venezuela.
Copyright © 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.
sustainable development of a country or region [1]. A crucial yearly total amount of H2 generated in 10 departments of the
stage for the development of the SHES is the H2 production Province is 3.734 107 Ton H2/year, enough for providing until
with numerous studies that demonstrates its feasibility [2,3], 10 times the energy required for the automotive sector of the
while working intensely to achieve in the medium term, entire province [9].
production costs competitive with the conventional produc- A prospective study about the viability of H2 production
tion process by reforming of natural gas, with the lowest cost considering the wind potential of La Patagonia, this energy is
currently [4]. In Latin America, Brazil is a leader in R&D on H2 accounted with the use of seven weather station located at
production from RE, especially hydropower [5,6], In turn, southern Chilean lands, using meteorological and statistical
although Venezuela exhibits great potential of these primary models, getting a capacity factor of 0.55 for wind source. The
sources, its development is minimal, and, except for large- H2 is produced by electrolysis with unsalted sea water, after
scale hydro, without an effect on the energy balance of the that, the liquid H2 is transported by ship to the central region
country. Although country's degree of electrification is close to for its use. The H2 production is equivalent to substitute 7.1%
96%, an important sector of rural population, about 25%, has of oil consumption it is around 380,000 kg H2/year [10].
no permanent energy services, for this reason is difficult, In Ecuador the potential of H2 production from hydroelec-
expensive, and therefore improbable, its satisfaction with the tricity is evaluated, the study considers that certain turbinable
traditional energy system [7]. Since these rural communities spilled water in several hydroelectric plants over the country
are disseminated throughout the country, probably located in could be used to additional generation oriented to H2 pro-
areas with exploitable potential of solar energy, its energy duction by electrolysis. The hydroelectric plant HidroPaute is
needs could be met by SESH in its various forms, thus over- selected for the study; it has an installed capacity of 1100 MW,
coming the situation of energy deprivation. Complementarity contributing with 32% of total generation of the country, with
and synergy between electricity and H2 would allow the en- a capacity factor of 62% in 2011. Two scenarios of H2 produc-
ergy autonomy to these isolated and depressed areas, tion are considered: in the first one is assumed that is avail-
improving their quality of life, stimulating the local economy able a 30% of water spilled in 2011; in the second situation this
to be employment-intensive, preserving the culture and sus- amount is duplicated. Considering an electrolysis process ef-
tainable endogenous development. Moreover, it is also ficiency of 75%, it has obtained for the first scenario 5400.8 Ton
recognized that any action or project that proposes the SESH H2/year and 10,801.7 Ton H2/year for the second one, which is
implantation, requires a primary estimation of potential H2 used for chemical and energy requirements [11].
production because it would be an appropriate starting point In Brazil [3] have studied the H2 production from solar
for more comprehensive studies on the feasibility of a specific photovoltaic (PV), wind, and hydroelectricity energies, the
SESH. In this context, the principal objective of this paper is to same sources considered in this paper. The study evaluates
make a preliminary estimate of the production potential of the technical and economic performance of a hypothetical
electrolytic H2 in Venezuela from those forms of solar energy production plant of electrolytic H2 with a capacity of 30 MW
with potential of a significant magnitude in the country, located at northeast Brazil. The evaluation of the potential of
considering its use as an energy vector in the rural areas of the generation of solar PV and wind energies is based on the Solar
country, and eventually as an input in improvement pro- Atlas and Brazilian Wind Potential Atlas, the hydroelectric
cesses of heavy crudes, refining and petrochemical. energy is provided by a Hydroelectrical Central located at
An important contribution associated to the purpose of northeast of the country and it is able to deliver the required
this paper is the free access software, HYDRA (H2 Demand and energy to surpass the electrical requirements of the electrol-
Resource Analysis) developed by the National Renewable En- ysis plant. It is considered an availability factor of 95%, con-
ergy Laboratory (NREL), that provides information about de- version efficiency of 80%. The overall annual production is
mand, sources, production, costs, infrastructure and 56.26 106 m3 H2/year, for export only.
distribution of H2 for a determined country [8]. About the H2 In other ambit [2], have estimated the amount of H2 from
production potential, it includes different fossil and renew- renewable energies available in the US, with the use of solar
able sources, and presents the results in different potential PV and wind energies, with the aim to provide the automotive
maps with different detail level, thus, for the US, the software sector. The potential from both sources is estimated with
shows the production potential for states and counties, while software based on GIS. For the solar option, the radiation data
for Latin America it does not show results, maybe for the lack corresponds to monthly means for 40 km2 cells, considering
of information about renewable resource in the region. In fact, 3% of this area for solar photoelectric conversion, excluding
there is not documental evidence about the renewable H2 forest parks, marine and lake areas, assuming 10% of solar PV
production in these countries, but are available estimations efficiency. For the wind case, are considered the winds Class 3
for specific regions in several countries and for some RE, then or higher, and placing in every cell turbines of 5 MW and also
some essential cases are presented. considering the mentioned exclusions. The efficiency for the
In the Co rdoba province from Argentina the production electrolysis process is 75% and the results are expressed with
potential of H2 obtained by electrolysis for the automotive a potential map of the country, organized by counties,
sector has been evaluated using the wind energy as electric obtaining an overall annual potential of 1.110 1012 kg H2/
source. The wind energy is evaluated based on wind maps of year for 2010.
the province, and are selected whose regions with levels From this revision, is clear that methodology used to
above Class 4, a capacity factor of 0.39 is considered, excluding calculate the production potential of H2 by electrolysis, has
natural areas and those with gradients above 20%, for the the following characteristics: a. the use of potential maps of
electrolysis system an efficiency of 75% is assumed. The the renewable resources, generated thought different models
11848 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3
(Fig. 3). It is clear that the HHV energy is used as a basis for
kWh
191 year hab
ð828; 000 habÞ calculation, with an overall efficiency of 75%, which includes
kg H2
CH2 ¼ ¼ 3012342:86 (2)
kWh year the requirements of the electrolyzer and auxiliary equipment,
52:5 kg H2
and losses of the electrolytic system [2].
Moreover, in determining the land area available for har-
nessing the potential of RE, certain restrictions are taken
Hydrogen production in Venezuela from RE considered, such as: a. Areas under Special Administration
Regime (ABRAE, for its acronym in Spanish), defined as pro-
General considerations tected areas, covering an area equivalent to 46% of the land
surface [20], including national parks and recreational, natural
This study considers as primary renewable sources for H2 monuments, biosphere reserves and wildlife. b. Urban areas,
production the solar direct energy, and indirect solar classified obtained from distribution maps of urban populations are also
in: small hydro and wind, all usable with great potential in excluded [21], and whose occupancy rate is taken into account
Venezuela [12,13]. In every case, H2 is produced by electrolysis in the grid that corresponds to the geopolitical distribution of
of water with electricity generated from the selected RE, these settlements.
Fig. 3 e Routes for the production of electrolytic hydrogen from some RE.
Hydrogen production power. Equation (5) expresses the instantaneous power pro-
duced by a PV system:
In this case, the SESH basically consists in the coupling a PV
PPV ¼ GT AN;FV factiv hcell hinv hother (5)
power generation, wind and mini-hydroelectric system with
an electrolytic system. Although its development and wide- where GT is the actual total radiation, Npanel the number of PV
spread use involves overcoming several technological and panels, AN,FV is the net superficial area with PV panels, factiv is
economic challenges, is one of the most promising routes for the fraction of superficial area with active solar cells, hcell is
the production of renewable H2 [22,23]. On the other hand, the conversion efficiency of the PV module, hinv is the con-
considering that this is a potential estimation study, it is version efficiency of the DCeAC inverter and the parameter
assumed that all the energy produced by renewable means hother is proposed by CEC [26] as shown in Equation (6), where
will be used in the transformation process to H2. The possible hother corresponds to the deviation of standard condition of
routes for the production are shown in Fig. 3. test, htemp is the reduction factor for temperature, hloss is the
reduction factor for electrical losses and hdirt is the reduction
Establishment of usable areas factor for dirt.
To obtain the potential of solar photovoltaic and wind energy,
primary information is taken from NASA [24], which consists hother ¼ hstd htemp hloss hdirt (6)
of representative values of certain meteorological variables Also, the annual average insolation over a daily basis as a
and corresponding to the two-dimensional mesh shown in function of GT(i) is:
Fig. 2 in which each of the 89 squares has an area of 12,100 km2.
P8760 hr
Taking into account that the procedure for determining the H2 GTðiÞ Dti
Fdaily ¼ i¼1
(7)
production is the same for all grid cells that include the Ven- 365 day
ezuelan territory, as an illustration of the calculation for one
From Equations (5), (6) and (7) and considering that Dti
square is presented, the number 34, selected because exhibits
corresponds to a step of 1 h, the annual energy by PV is pre-
an insolation value very close the national average. The useful
sented in the Equation (8):
area per grid as a function of the grid area (AU), the ABRAE and
the factor of available area (fA,D) is presented in Equation (3). EPV;annual;C ¼ ð365 dayÞFdaily AN;FV factiv hcell hinv hstd htemp hloss hdirt
turbine, the average wind speed in the grid example for the Then, the total renewable energy for every source is:
wind case (No. 4) is 6.18 m/s, the efficiency factors are similar
to those presented in the PV case and the photovoltaic effi- ET ¼ 1:146 1012 kWh=year
ciency factor is 90%, the total annual wind energy of that grid, ET;PV ¼ 1:088 1012 kWh=year
according to Equation (10) is: ET;wind ¼ 1:825 1010 kWh=year
ET;MH ¼ 3:942 1010 kWh=year
E
mH2 ¼ fav (12)
FCE
Finally the annual amount of H2 for each renewable source
and the total are presented in Table 5.
Fig. 4 e Power curve for the selected wind turbine A summary of the potential reported in the literature and
(P ¼ 2000 kW D ¼ 110 m) [23]. obtained for Venezuela is shown in Table 6, although it is not
11852 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3
G solar radiation
Table 5 e Results by type of renewable energy and
m mass
overall.
N number
RE type Production H2 (kg/year) Contribution (%)
P power
10
PV 1.968 10 94.96 C consumption
Wind 3.303 108 1.59 F insolation
Minihydro 7.134 108 3.45
h efficiency
Total 2.073 £ 1010 100
Sub-indexes
A area
Table 6 e Reported H2 production potentials. activ active
Country, region Potential (kg H2/year) Year arr array
av availability
Argentina, Co rdoba 37.34 10 6
2010
C square grid
Brazil, Ceara 5.06 106 2010
Chile, Patagonia 3.8 105 2010 cell PV cell
Ecuador, Azuay 10.8 106 2014 D available
USA 1.110 1015 2005 PV photovoltaic
Venezuela 2.073 1010 2014 H habitant
inv inverter
MH mini-hydro
possible a fair comparison between them, correspond to N net
different situations and conditions, if it is useful for an un- P population
derstanding of the order of magnitude production potential of PC per capita
H2 in Venezuela, compared to other countries in Latin loss electric loss
America. std standard
T total
temp temperature
Conclusions turb turbine
U useful
It have been determined the total potential production of H2 in
Venezuela by water electrolysis with electricity from renew-
able sources, considering solar PV, wind and mini-hydro en- references
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