Conceptual design of an offshore hydrogen platform

Zhang, Ming and Tao, Longbin and Nuernberg, Martin and Rai, Aarvind and Yuan, Zhi-Ming (2024) Conceptual design of an offshore hydrogen platform. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 59. pp. 1004-1013. ISSN 0360-3199 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.02.077)

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Abstract

Offshore green hydrogen emerges as a guiding light in the global pursuit of environmental sustainability and net-zero objectives. The burgeoning expansion of offshore wind power faces significant challenges in grid integration. This avenue towards generating offshore green hydrogen capitalises on its ecological advantages and substantial energy potential to efficiently channel offshore wind power for onshore energy demands. However, a substantial research void exists in efficiently integrating offshore wind electricity and green hydrogen. Innovative designs of offshore hydrogen platforms present a promising solution to bridge the gap between offshore wind and hydrogen integration. Surprisingly, there is a lack of commercially established offshore platforms dedicated to the hydrogen industry. However, the wealth of knowledge from oil and gas platforms contributes valuable insights to hydrogen platform design. Diverging from the conventional decentralised hydrogen units catering to individual turbines, this study firstly introduces a pioneering centralised Offshore Green Hydrogen Platform (OGHP), which seamlessly integrates modular production, storage, and offloading modulars. The modular design of facilitates scalability as wind capacity increases. Through a detailed case study centred around a 100-Megawatt floating wind farm, the design process of offshore green hydrogen modulars and its floating sub-structure is elucidated. Stability analysis and hydrodynamic analysis are performed to ensure the safety of the OGHP under the operation conditions. The case study will enhance our understanding OGHP and its modularised components. The conceptual design of modular OGHP offers an alternative solution to “Power-to-X” for offshore renewable energy sector.

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