energy_mass_balancecostinghydrogen
Screening of specific liquefaction energy and levelized cost of liquefaction (EUR/kg) for turning gaseous H2 into LH2 at -253 C.
Delivered electricity price to the liquefaction plant.
Real discount rate used to compute the capital recovery factor.
Economic life for levelized cost. IDEALHY uses 20 years; DOE liquefier lifetime is 40 years.
Annual fixed O&M as a fraction of total CAPEX. IDEALHY assumes 4%.
Levelized cost of liquefaction (LCOL)
Plant-gate cost to turn 1 kg of gaseous H2 into LH2
LCOL breakdown: capital share
Annuity contribution to LCOL (~43% at the IDEALHY point)
LCOL breakdown: electricity share
Electricity contribution to LCOL (~39% at the IDEALHY point)
Total project CAPEX
Installed cost plus indirect/owner factor (zero here: source is all-in)
Scaled specific CAPEX
Installed plant cost intensity after the HDSAM 0.8-power scale curve
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Refrigeration cycle. Selects reference specific liquefaction energy and reference CAPEX intensity.
Specific liquefaction energy (plant SEC)
Electricity drawn per kg of LH2 (process + plant auxiliaries), at nameplate
Second-law (exergetic) efficiency
Reversible Carnot floor (2.88 kWh/kg) divided by actual plant SEC
Reversible (Carnot) energy floor
Second-law minimum work to liquefy H2 from 20 bar
Effective electricity consumption (part-load adjusted)
Plant SEC scaled by a screening part-load penalty
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Nameplate liquefaction capacity in tonnes of LH2 per day.
Full-load operating hours per year. 8000 h ~ 91% load factor (IDEALHY base case).
Annual operating hours
Full-load equivalent operating hours per year
Annual LH2 output
Liquefied hydrogen delivered at the plant gate
Annual electricity input
Refrigeration plant electrical demand based on effective SEC
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Price of the gaseous H2 feed, used to value process/leakage losses (feed/LH2 ratio ~1.017).
Delivered cost incl. boil-off allowance
LCOL plus a downstream holding-loss penalty (0.1-0.2 %/day)
Calculator context
Screening calculator for a cryogenic hydrogen liquefaction plant that cools gaseous H2 (typ. 20-80 bar, ambient) down to liquid hydrogen (LH2) at about -253 C (20-23 K) using a refrigeration cycle (Claude/precooled, Brayton-Nelium or mixed-refrigerant). It is physically distinct from mechanical compression (which only raises pressure) and from salt-cavern storage. Two deliverables: (A) the specific liquefaction energy of the plant (kWh of electricity per kg of LH2, bundling the refrigeration process and plant auxiliaries) together with its second-law (exergetic) efficiency relative to the 2.88 kWh/kg reversible Carnot floor; and (B) the plant-gate levelized cost of liquefaction (LCOL) via a standard annualized-cost / annual-output build-up: annualized CAPEX (capital recovery factor on a HDSAM-style 0.8-power scaling curve), fixed O&M, electricity, and a feed-hydrogen loss term. A boil-off allowance (~0.1-0.2 %/day) is exposed as a downstream holding-loss penalty on top of the plant-gate cost. Calibrated against the IDEALHY economic model (1.72 EUR/kg at 50 t/day, 8000 h/yr, 100 EUR/MWh) and cross-checked against DOE Record 19001. Excludes upstream H2 production and downstream delivery.
35 assumptions used in the calculations
Prevents division-by-zero and NaN propagation in edge cases.
Market range Not applicable (numerical parameter).
Avoids inline literals in DSL expressions per spec.
Market range Exact.
Avoids inline literals in DSL expressions per spec.
Market range Exact.
Calendar-year hours, used for the load factor.
Market range 8760 (non-leap year); 8784 (leap year).
Converts daily nameplate throughput to annual via operating hours.
Market range Exact.
Converts kWh-based specific consumption to MWh for cost accounting.
Market range Exact.
Converts tonnes per day to kg per day for production and CAPEX intensity.
Market range Exact.
Converts ratios to percent and percent rates to fractions.
Market range Exact.
Required because the DSL has no strings.
Market range Not applicable.
Required because the DSL has no strings.
Market range Not applicable.
Required because the DSL has no strings.
Market range Not applicable.
Validates the selector domain.
Validates the selector domain.
Captures the rise in specific energy when the liquefier runs below full load.
Prevents part-load operation from improving on the nameplate specific energy.
Market range 1 (by definition).
Avoids unrealistically large penalties at low operating hours in a screening model.
Thermodynamic reference for the second-law efficiency.
Reference plant SEC for the Claude/precooled cycle.
Reference plant SEC for the Brayton (Nelium) cycle.
Reference plant SEC for conventional / mixed-refrigerant liquefiers in operation today.
Reference size at which the specific CAPEX equals the reference value.
Economy-of-scale exponent for total liquefier CAPEX; specific CAPEX scales as C^(0.8-1).
Reference installed CAPEX intensity for the Claude/precooled cycle.
Reference installed CAPEX intensity for the Brayton (Nelium) cycle.
Reference installed CAPEX intensity for conventional / mixed-refrigerant plants.
Prevents unrealistically low specific CAPEX from extrapolating the scale curve to very large sizes.
Prevents unrealistically high specific CAPEX when scaling to very small sizes.
The cascade is kept for readability but the factor is zero since the source cost is already installed.
Market range 0 here; 0.2-0.8 if starting from bare-equipment cost.
Kept for readability but zero because the reference CAPEX is all-in.
Market range 0 here; 0.1-0.5 if starting from a narrower scope.
Cold box and heat exchangers are a major share of liquefier cost.
Compression machinery is the second major share of liquefier cost.
Remaining balance-of-plant share of liquefier cost.
Values the gaseous H2 lost in the liquefaction process.
Continuous evaporation of LH2 in storage/transport.
Holding duration over which boil-off accumulates.
Primary reference
Stolzenburg et al., Efficient Liquefaction of Hydrogen: Results of the IDEALHY Project (2013); DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Record 19001 (2019).
