Study of the energy efficiency and economic analysis of a reverse power-to-SNG system based on SOEC-SOFC

The present work focuses on a Power-to-SNG process, especially on its energy efficiency and its economic competitiveness in the current context. It also aims at determining if the reversibility with a Gas-to-Power working mode is interesting from energy and financial considerations. The main steps required into a Power-to-SNG process, identified thanks to a review of the state of the art, are steam electrolysis for hydrogen production, followed by methane production thanks to the Sabatier reaction and a final step of gas purification to meet the composition requirements for gas network injection. Here, electrolysis is led into solid oxide cells. Power-to-SNG process simulations, led with ProsimPlus 3, indicate that the thermal coupling between methanation and the generation of steam to feed the electrolyzer is pertinent, the process energy efficiency achieving 75.8%. Concerning the Gas-to-Power process, its solid oxide fuel cell is pressurized to use additional thermodynamic cycles. The fuel cell is fed with pure hydrogen stream due to reversibility considerations, this limiting the energy efficiency, which highest value here is evaluated at 44.6%. The economic analysis includes experimental based data concerning electrochemical performances and degradation. They are obtained on a commercial cell tested at the thermoneutral voltage with a high steam conversion rate, these conditions being close to what can be expected for industrial process. They are used to calculate the levelized cost of the SNG produced by the Power-to-SNG process and the levelized cost of electricity produced by the reverse process. Investment and operating cost of these processes are important, leading to a high levelized cost of electricity. In the conditions of this study, adding the Gas-to-Power working mode to a Power-to-SNG process is not economically pertinent. (author)