A Techno-economic Analysis of Produced Water Treatment for Green and Blue Hydrogen Production in Texas

Abstract Submission: Texas is positioning itself to be a global leader in an economical, at-scale hydrogen economy. Realization of a hydrogen economy is critically dependent on reliable water sources. Production of green and blue hydrogen requires copious quantities of water with stringent quality requirements. While water quantity and quality are real concerns to the development of the hydrogen economy, significant hydrogen producing regions in Texas (e.g., Permian Basin, Eagle Ford) are arid and already highly water-stressed.
In this study we determine the impact of regional water availability and costs on the levelized cost of hydrogen in the hydrogen economy in Texas by performing the following steps:
1) Determine the Texas-specific assessment of water requirements for hydrogen production taking into consideration various water resources including surface water, groundwater, reclaimed water, and oilfield produced water.
2) Perform a technical analysis via an existing in-house modeling tool of membrane- and thermal-based water treatment technologies to reveal the ideal water treatment options both in terms of energy consumption and recovered treated water.
3) Perform a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to estimate the cost of water treatment ($/liter) for various water streams, based on regional conditions.
4) Investigate the policy-related aspects of water sourcing for hydrogen production.
We determined that water costs play a material role in the hydrogen economy and that water policy—as it relates to hydrogen production—is missing from the conversation.

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