The economics of hydrogen production: The case of a GEN-IV reactor coupled with a high-temperature electrolysis plant

High-Temperature Steam Electrolysis (HTSE) is a hydrogen production process requiring thermal and electrical power. From a technical standpoint, Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) can provide the thermal and electrical power needed for an HTSE plant. This work reports an economic analysis to estimate the Levelized Cost Of Hydrogen (LCOH) by integrating HTSE in an NPP Balance-Of-Plant (BOP). The key novelties concerning the minimal literature on this topic are: (A) we used the ALFRED reactor, a Gen IV demonstrator of lead technology (LFR), and detailed HTSE plants as a case for the NPPs, to estimate capital and operational costs of coupling the nuclear and the HTSE plants; (B) we considered hydrogen cogeneration, with the LFR connected to the grid and not solely to the hydrogen plant; (C) we utilized actual data for the electricity price and optimized the NPP management by considering producing hydrogen when the electricity price is low (usually nighttime) and producing electricity for the grid when its price is high (peak hours). This enabled us to perform precise techno-economic analysis, comparing different configurations, estimating the LCOH, and evaluating the production time that minimizes it. Capital, operational, and opportunity costs are estimated, and, in the optimized scenarios, the LCOH is 5–6 $/kg and produced for 17–18 h a day on average. Indeed, producing hydrogen for longer increases costs due to the loss of revenues from selling electricity during peak hours. An LCOH of 5–6 $/kg is in the ballpark of other studies considering wind and solar but higher than fossil fuel-based production.