Harvesting renewable hydrogen from an energy crop in Serbia: Quantifying the energy saving potential, possible utilization, and environmental benefits

This research aimed to evaluate the hydrogen production potential of Miscanthus as an energy crop cultivated on unused agricultural land in Serbia. An assessment of hydrogen generation potential from Miscanthus was carried out through three scenarios: Hydrogen via combustion and electrolysis (SC1), hydrogen via steam water gasification (SC2), and hydrogen via a biogas steam reforming process (SC3). The highest potential was obtained in scenario SC3 (10,187.5 tons), while the potentials in Scenarios SC2 and SC1 amount to 9067.97 tons and 4290.46 tons, respectively. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the reliability of the output and test assumptions in this investigation. Additionally, possible applications of hydrogen potential in electricity production, road transport, and steel production were assessed. Further, the environmental benefit of these scenarios was estimated by considering the amount of fossil fuel displaced and the avoided CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. The calculated hydrogen potentials can displace lignite from in the 58,907.91 - 139,874.14 tons range. Also, an economic assessment was conducted for observed scenarios. Hydrogen production costs were estimated as 7.70, 2.19, and 8.89 € per kg H2 in SC1, SC2 and SC3, respectively. This article can contribute to integrating energy crop cultivation and hydrogen production.