energy_mass_balancecostinghydrogen
Screening reaction energy and levelized cost (EUR/kg H2) of binding hydrogen into a toluene/methylcyclohexane liquid organic carrier for ambient-condition transport (hydrogenation leg only).
Delivered electricity price for feed pumping and recycle-gas compression auxiliaries.
Price of fresh toluene used to make up carrier losses each cycle. In a closed loop only losses are charged.
Real discount rate used to compute the capital recovery factor (CRF).
Economic lifetime for levelized cost calculation.
Levelized hydrogenation cost (LCO_hyd)
Total annual cost divided by annual H2 bound (hydrogenation leg only)
Levelized cost: CAPEX component
Annualized CAPEX share of the levelized hydrogenation cost
Levelized cost: toluene make-up component
Carrier make-up share of the levelized hydrogenation cost
Scaled specific plant CAPEX
Installed plant cost per unit of hourly H2 binding capacity after scale curve and clamps
Total project CAPEX (all-in)
Installed plant cost plus indirect/owner costs (screening scope)
Annualized CAPEX (CRF-based)
Total project CAPEX converted to an annual payment equivalent
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Catalyst family for the hydrogenation reactor. Affects auxiliary electricity, reference CAPEX and O&M assumptions.
Hydrogen binding rate of the hydrogenation plant (kg H2 charged onto the carrier per hour).
Toluene carrier mass per kg H2
Fresh toluene needed to bind one kg of hydrogen (stoichiometric basis)
Methylcyclohexane (charged carrier) per kg H2
Mass of the hydrogen-rich liquid leaving the reactor per kg H2
Reaction heat released per kg H2
Exothermic heat the reactor cooling loop must reject (not an electricity input)
Average annual utilization of the hydrogenation plant. Used to annualize throughput and costs.
Annual hydrogen bound
Hydrogen charged onto the carrier over the year
Annual auxiliary electricity
Electrical energy for pumping and recycle-gas compression
Annual toluene make-up
Fresh toluene charged to replace carrier losses (closed-loop basis)
Annual reaction heat rejected
Low-grade heat (180-200 C) available from the reactor cooling loop
Effective auxiliary electricity
Pumping and recycle-gas compression per kg H2, adjusted by capacity-factor penalty
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Plant equipment cost (installed basis)
Toluene inventory + hydrogenation island + balance of plant
CAPEX breakdown: toluene inventory
Initial carrier charge (~10 days), the dominant CAPEX item
CAPEX breakdown: hydrogenation island
Reactor, heat exchangers and recycle compressor
CAPEX breakdown: balance of plant
Storage, utilities, controls and civil works
Calculator context
Screening model for the hydrogenation (charging) leg of a toluene/methylcyclohexane (MCH) liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC). Hydrogen is chemically bound onto toluene (C7H8 + 3 H2 -> C7H14) so it can be shipped and stored as an ambient, low-vapour-pressure liquid, then released downstream by dehydrogenation (excluded here). The model computes the carrier mass balance per kg H2, the exothermic reaction heat that the reactor cooling loop must reject, the auxiliary electricity for feed pumping and recycle-gas compression at ~10 bar, and a levelized hydrogenation cost (EUR/kg H2) built from annualized CAPEX (capital recovery factor), fixed O&M, toluene make-up and auxiliary electricity. Reference techno-economics follow Argonne National Laboratory (Papadias, Peng, Ahluwalia 2021, OSTI 1807903): the toluene inventory dominates plant CAPEX (~51%) and the hydrogenation island (reactor, heat exchangers, recycle compressor) is ~31%; levelized MCH production lies between ~0.30 USD/kg-H2 (closed-loop capex-only) and ~1.35 USD/kg-H2 (one-way toluene). All costs are EUR (2023) screening estimates, not a vendor quote.
48 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.
Converts between grams (molar masses) and kilograms.
Market range Exact.
Converts kWh to MWh for annual energy reporting.
Market range Exact.
Converts reaction enthalpy from kJ to kWh-thermal.
Market range Exact.
Used for capacity-factor annualization.
Market range 8760 (non-leap year); 8784 (leap year).
Converts the gravimetric capacity expressed in wt% to a fraction.
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.
Validates the selector domain.
Validates the selector domain.
Represents non-ideal auxiliary operation at lower utilization in a simple way.
Prevents the penalty from improving performance below the reference consumption.
Market range 1 (by definition).
Avoids unrealistically large penalties at low capacity factors in a screening model.
Stoichiometric H2 uptake per toluene molecule.
Market range 3 (exact, stoichiometric).
Converts moles of toluene to mass.
Market range 92.14 (exact).
Molar mass of the charged carrier (documentation/cross-check).
Market range 98.19 (exact).
Converts hydrogen mass to moles.
Market range 2.016 (exact).
Cross-checks the stoichiometric carrier mass and gives MCH per kg H2.
Market range 6.1 wt% (toluene/MCH system).
Documents the volumetric storage density (context for transport advantage).
Market range 47 kg H2/m3 (ambient).
Endothermic dehydrogenation enthalpy; hydrogenation is its exothermic reverse.
Drives the exothermic reaction heat that must be rejected by the cooling loop.
Market range -69 to -67 kJ/mol H2.
Documents the reactor pressure that sets recycle-gas compression duty.
Documents the reactor temperature and grade of rejected heat.
Sets the recycle-gas duty (excess H2 above stoichiometric is recompressed).
High single-pass conversion supports the near-complete carrier charging assumption.
Market range >99% demonstrated.
High selectivity supports treating the product as essentially pure MCH.
Market range ~99% demonstrated.
Carrier make-up needed to replace losses each charging cycle.
Screening auxiliary electricity intensity for a Pt-catalyzed reactor at 10 bar.
Screening auxiliary electricity intensity for a Ni-catalyzed reactor.
Anchors the specific-CAPEX scale curve at the ANL reference plant size.
Market range Order 1000-3000 kg H2/h for mid-scale plants.
Reference installed plant cost per unit of hourly H2 binding capacity for a Pt catalyst.
Reference installed plant cost per unit capacity for a cheaper Ni catalyst.
Represents economies of scale for the hydrogenation plant.
Represents economies of scale for the hydrogenation plant.
Prevents unrealistically low specific costs from scaling outside the intended range.
Prevents unrealistically high specific costs from scaling outside the intended range.
Allocates plant CAPEX to the carrier inventory (dominant share).
Allocates plant CAPEX to the reactor/HX/compressor island.
Allocates the remaining plant CAPEX to storage, utilities, controls and civil works.
Installation is already included in the reference specific CAPEX; no extra factor applied.
Market range 0 here; 0.2-0.6 if starting from a bare-equipment cost.
Indirect and owner costs are already included in the reference CAPEX; no extra factor applied.
Market range 0 here; 0.1-0.5 if starting from an installed-equipment cost.
Represents routine maintenance, staffing and catalyst service for a Pt reactor.
Represents routine maintenance and catalyst service for a Ni reactor.
Prevents implausibly low O&M fractions.
Prevents implausibly high O&M fractions.
Documentation anchor for the upper bound of the levelized hydrogenation cost.
Market range Upper bound ~1.35 USD/kg-H2 (one-way carrier).
Documentation anchor for the lower bound of the levelized hydrogenation cost.
Market range Lower bound ~0.30 USD/kg-H2 (closed loop, capex only).
Primary reference
Argonne National Laboratory (Papadias, Peng, Ahluwalia 2021, OSTI 1807903) — Hydrogen carriers: toluene hydrogenation techno-economics; Wikipedia LOHC; Chiyoda SPERA.
