Shipping Sunshine

Abstract

The Port of Rotterdam has the vision to become a zero-emission port in 2050. At the mo- ment, the port area emits about 18% of Dutch CO2 emissions. Various studies have been conducted on how to reach this vision. Among others, the Wuppertal Institute has investig- ated what set of technologies in each scenario would be desirable to employ. However, these studies were bound to the geographical context of the emissions. The tremendous impact of the up- and downstream flows was not included and is not included in the Dutch emis- sion statistics. This thesis is the first element of a two-part analysis. In this part, a green hydrogen supply chain from the Port of Sohar towards the Port of Rotterdam will be taken as a case study in order to evaluate the current techno-economic potential of such a supply chain. The second part will evaluate which hydrogen markets in the hinterland of the Port of Rotterdam are feasible for the introduction of green hydrogen sourced from the Port of Sohar. This green hydrogen supply chain is based on solar pv solely, in combination with electrolyz- ers, hydrogen storage, liquefaction and liquid hydrogen shipping. A cost model is proposed, that includes each stage of this supply chain. Finally, a price per kilogram of hydrogen is calculated. The price of hydrogen arriving in Rotterdam is found to be 2.17 [$ · kg−1], including shipping. Even though the price of green hydrogen arriving in Rotterdam is lower than the price of green hydrogen based on electrolysis produced locally, it is yet more expensive in comparison to grey or blue hydrogen produced in the Netherlands. However, economies of scale have not been included in this analysis, neither the potential of cost optimization throughout this supply chain. Therefore, future research is required to evaluate further cost reduction potential in this supply chain.