Renewable Hydrogen Magnesium pilot plant
Integrated Renewable-Hydrogen-Magnesium pilot plant for green-energy
high-capacity production
Fabrizio D’Errico
(Project Coordinator)
Politecnico di Milano, Department of Mechanics, Milano (ITALY)
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
Project KEY TARGETS
• Bridging the gap between research and market to introduce on
marketplace a promising eco-efficient technology (resulting from several
years of R&D both on the process and the material aspects) for raw
magnesium extraction from renewable and inexhaustible resources;
• Demonstrating the feasibility in terms of economic self-sustainability
of such a carbon-free scalable industrializing pathway, suitable for
integrated production of magnesium and hydrogen, the two basic
elements for early markets in the hydrogen economy.
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
Broad context and starting point: Hydrogen Economy barriers
and magnesium solution
 One of the most promising process for a carbon free hydrogen production is the water
electrolyzing, if electricity consumed for process is produced from renewable sources;
 Hydrogen economy is far from developing since infrastructure is not able to satisfy
potential demand from users;
 With no adequate infrastructure for delivering to end-users, demand side could not
increase (“eggs and chicken” problem);
 Capital costs for infrastructure are major impediments to competitive prices of delivered
hydrogen on marketplace;
 Cost-effective solutions for storage and hydrogen delivery are needed to overcome
prohibitive capital costs for the infrastructure;
 In transition phase, building end-users demand requires high synergies among
stakeholders so to lead transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen economy, gradually
implementing simplified but economically self-sustained systems;
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
Basic concept
To overcome main barriers of high capital costs for transferring hydrogen from
these remote production plants and for the delivering to end-users:
Main interesting solution for sustain in early markets
transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen energy system is
to store hydrogen into container tanks trough magnesium
hydrides then transferred at power generation stations
(remote conversion sites),
where hydrogen is desorbed from tanks and then employed
to produce green-electricity
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
As-Is scenario for current magnesium market
 The raw magnesium production in Western countries have been
shutting down for last years, since production plants are not competitive
with cheapest magnesium produced by China (Pigdeon process, mainly)
 Pigdeon processes (thermal) are too much un-clean for magnesium
prime production to be successfully exploited for weightsaving transport
sector and reduce CO2 emissions (take into account the whole LCA!)
Magnesium metal production
k ton
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1995
Partership di progetto :
World
China
2000
2005
year
2010
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
To-Be Scenario
 Electricity costs that drive primarily raw magnesium extraction cost via-electrolytical
process are drastically cut whether electricity powering electrolysis process comes from
solar thermal;
 Ores for magnesium extraction are produced inexhaustibly in a line-process from
renewable sources, that is from desalination of seawater to produce MgCl2 brine
 Distilled water byproduct obtained during evaporation phase for MgCl2 precipitation is the
input product for hydrogen production by water electrolysis (powered by solar energy)
 Magnesium production cost is therefore decoupled from electricity cost (today major
cost share) from grid (electricity will be on-site produced)
 Magnesium produced keeps low production cost, but increased its value in for the
hydrogen production and delivering supply-chain (magnesium will be processed to
realize high value Mg-based materials for hydrogen storage, key for hydrogen trading)
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
The RHM Project: the pilot
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
The GREEN ENERGY MARKET served by RHM upscaled plants
REPS UNIT
(Renewable Energy Primary
Source)
Electricity
DPSS UNIT
(Desalination& Partial Salt
Separation)
Pure H2O
MgCl2 brine
Salt by-products
ME UNIT
WE UNIT
(Electrolysis of MgCl2)
(Water Electrolysis)
Water users
H2
Mg
Transformation
processing for MgH2
storage systems
exhausted
Recharged
Shipping/
transport
New container
Shipping/
transport
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
General Infrastructure (PEC Srl)
PARTNERS and main TASKS
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment:
Grazie per l’attenzione
Fabrizio D’Errico
LIFE10 ENV IT 323 – RHM Pilot Plant
Project Coordinator
Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Meccanica
Via La Masa 34, Milano
fabrizio.derrico@polimi.it
Partership di progetto :
Progetto co-finanziato dalla Commissione Europea,
DG Environment: