Hydrogen & Power-to-X by the Numbers: Electrolyser Output, Efficiency Chains, Storage & Cost per Kilogram

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Convert six hydrogen deliveries from kilograms into kilowatt-hours on the lower and the higher heating value and into normal cubic metres, and you work out how many kilograms a customer's energy order needs.
• Compare three fictional electrolyser offers: output per hour and per day from rated power and specific consumption, the efficiency on the LHV basis and the water each one needs per day.
• Let the electrolyser run only in hours when power is at or below a price threshold, count the running hours, work out the hydrogen made on that day and the average power price actually paid.
• Multiply step efficiencies into a round-trip efficiency for the hydrogen route and for a battery, and you work out how much electricity each route needs to deliver 1,000 kWh back.
• Estimate the gas density at storage pressure with the ideal-gas law and a given correction factor, the usable hydrogen per storage bundle, the number of bundles for three days of output and the days of storage they really give.
• Turn the investment into a yearly annuity with PMT, add fixed O&M, electricity and other variable costs, divide by the yearly output to get the cost per kg, and fill a sensitivity table of power price against full-load hours.
• Use reaction equations and molar masses to work out the hydrogen needed per tonne of ammonia, methanol and e-methane, correct it for a process yield, convert a year of hydrogen into product tonnes and add up the CO2 the methanol route needs.
• Compare four fictional power-supply scenarios: emissions per kg of hydrogen, CO2 avoided against a fossil benchmark, the cost of each tonne avoided, and a chart of the LCOH by scenario.