Exergo‐economic assessment by a specific exergy costing method for an experimental thermochemical hydrogen production system

In this article, an exergo-economic study of an experimental lab-scale integrated copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle of hydrogen production is conducted. The analysis is performed based on a specific exergy costing (SPECO) method to determine the influences of various design criteria on the costs and then identify possible improvements for more cost effective approaches. The article includes an exergy analysis, economic study, exergy costing and exergo-economic evaluation. Also, a scale-up analysis is performed to predict the cost of a larger scale facility of 1000 kg per day of hydrogen production. The results of the exergo-economic and scale-up analysis are expected to assist in the design, optimization and improvement of a scaled-up Cu-Cl thermochemical cycle. Furthermore, the results of this study show that for a large-scale Cu-Cl cycle plant with a capacity of 1000 kg/day H2, the cost of hydrogen production, excluding the treatment of side reactions, is predicted at about 3.91 $/kg H2.