Technical and economic assessment of hydrogen production from heavy fuel oil via thermochemical conversion routes

Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is a high-carbon residual fraction produced during crude oil refining. Due to its unique properties, HFO utilization poses various challenges including high costs and negative environmental impacts from conventional combustion-based applications. Direct burning of HFO releases large quantities of carbon dioxide, contributing to global climate change concerns. Additionally, the heteroatomic impurities and heavy metals contained in HFO feedstocks can generate harmful tailpipe emissions when combusted. This work explores an alternative thermochemical route for upgrading HFO into valuable energy products through integrated gasification and steam methane reforming. Process simulation models were developed coupling oxygen-steam gasification of HFO with downstream syngas processing units to produce hydrogen. Case 1 represented the base case, where HFO is converted into syngas which is further transformed into hydrogen. On the other hand, Case 2 represents the integrated gasification and reforming setup to enhance the hydrogen yields by leveraging heat from HFO gasification for natural gas reforming. Technical assessments found Case 2 achieved higher cold gas and process efficiencies in comparison to Case 1, increasing hydrogen output per feedstock by over 13%. Case 2 represented a 25% lower total investment cost per ton of hydrogen produced, 30% higher net present value, and levelized hydrogen cost below existing steam reforming benchmarks. Parametric analyses provided insight into optimizing syngas quality and maximizing integration between processing steps. Briefly, this study presents an attractive opportunity to upgrade HFO into a valuable clean energy carrier, hydrogen, while enhancing process efficiency through thermally coupled gasification and reforming.