i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3

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Estimation of electrolytic hydrogen production

potential in Venezuela from renewable energies

F. Posso a,b,*, J. Zambrano b,1

a
Universidad de Los Andes-Núcleo Tachira, Departamento de Ciencias, San Cristobal 5001, Venezuela
b
Decanato de Investigacion, Universidad Nacional Experimental de Ta
chira, San Cristobal, Venezuela

article info abstract

Article history: An initial estimation of the potential for hydrogen (H2) production in Venezuela is made,
Received 30 November 2013 obtained by water electrolysis using electricity from renewable sources, taking advantage
Received in revised form of the great potential of the country for solar, wind and mini hydro energies. For the first
8 May 2014 two, its potential maps is obtained from insolation and wind speed maps, respectively,
Accepted 6 June 2014 prepared from satellite data, and for mini-hydro, the potential is obtained from docu-
Available online 3 July 2014 mentary information. To calculate the amount of H2 to produce is used the Higher Heating
Value, considering the electrolytic system overall efficiency of 75%, including power re-
Keywords: quirements of the electrolyzer, auxiliary equipment, and system losses. In addition, in the
Electrolytic hydrogen production calculation of usable renewable potential are excluded land areas under special adminis-
Solar energy tration, marine, lake and urban areas, and other limitations are considered concerning
Solar-hydrogen energetic system energy conversion efficiencies and useful areas available for the location of the different
Venezuela renewable technologies.
The results give a total production of 2.073
1010 kg of H2/year, with a contribution of
95% of solar photovoltaic energy. The H2 produced covers entirely the energy requirements
of rural population without energy service, and the remainder could be used as a chemical
feedstock in industrial processes such as oil refining or petrochemical, whose demand in
not entirely satisfied with the annual production of H2 from the country, or even for export.
It is concluded that the results are the initial point of a detailed research, with more ac-
curate estimation of the potentials that include economic and social topics related with the
production on H2, on the way to determine the feasibility of developing of the Solar-H2
system, in its different forms in Venezuela.
Copyright © 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

type of solar energy, direct or indirect; and the H2 is the sec-

Introduction ondary source or energetic vector. It is a clean, self-sufficient
and appropriate system to overcome the drawbacks of inter-
The Solar-Hydrogen Energetic System (SHES), can be defined mittency and storage related with electric generation from
as an energetic system in which the primary source is any renewable energy (RE), and therefore, able to motorize the

 chira, Departamento de Ciencias, San Cristo

* Corresponding author. Universidad de Los Andes-Núcleo Ta  bal 5001, Venezuela. Tel.: þ58
2763421520; fax: þ58 2763045043.
E-mail addresses: fausto@ula.ve, fpossor@hotmail.com (F. Posso), jzambra@unet.edu.ve (J. Zambrano).
1
Tel.: þ58 2763532454; fax: þ58 2763532949.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.06.033
0360-3199/Copyright © 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3
sustainable development of a country or region [1]. A crucial
stage for the development of the SHES is the H2 production
with numerous studies that demonstrates its feasibility [2,3],
while working intensely to achieve in the medium term,
production costs competitive with the conventional produc-
tion process by reforming of natural gas, with the lowest cost
currently [4]. In Latin America, Brazil is a leader in R&D on H2
production from RE, especially hydropower [5,6], In turn,
although Venezuela exhibits great potential of these primary
sources, its development is minimal, and, except for large-
scale hydro, without an effect on the energy balance of the
country. Although country's degree of electrification is close to
96%, an important sector of rural population, about 25%, has
no permanent energy services, for this reason is difficult,
expensive, and therefore improbable, its satisfaction with the
traditional energy system [7]. Since these rural communities
are disseminated throughout the country, probably located in
areas with exploitable potential of solar energy, its energy
needs could be met by SESH in its various forms, thus over-
coming the situation of energy deprivation. Complementarity
and synergy between electricity and H2 would allow the en-
ergy autonomy to these isolated and depressed areas,
improving their quality of life, stimulating the local economy
to be employment-intensive, preserving the culture and sus-
tainable endogenous development. Moreover, it is also
recognized that any action or project that proposes the SESH
implantation, requires a primary estimation of potential H2
production because it would be an appropriate starting point
for more comprehensive studies on the feasibility of a specific
SESH. In this context, the principal objective of this paper is to
make a preliminary estimate of the production potential of
electrolytic H2 in Venezuela from those forms of solar energy
with potential of a significant magnitude in the country,
considering its use as an energy vector in the rural areas of the
country, and eventually as an input in improvement pro-
cesses of heavy crudes, refining and petrochemical.
An important contribution associated to the purpose of
this paper is the free access software, HYDRA (H2 Demand and
Resource Analysis) developed by the National Renewable En-
ergy Laboratory (NREL), that provides information about de-
mand, sources, production, costs, infrastructure and
distribution of H2 for a determined country [8]. About the H2
production potential, it includes different fossil and renew-
able sources, and presents the results in different potential
maps with different detail level, thus, for the US, the software
shows the production potential for states and counties, while
for Latin America it does not show results, maybe for the lack
of information about renewable resource in the region. In fact,
there is not documental evidence about the renewable H2
production in these countries, but are available estimations
for specific regions in several countries and for some RE, then
some essential cases are presented.
In the Co  rdoba province from Argentina the production
potential of H2 obtained by electrolysis for the automotive
sector has been evaluated using the wind energy as electric
source. The wind energy is evaluated based on wind maps of
the province, and are selected whose regions with levels
above Class 4, a capacity factor of 0.39 is considered, excluding
natural areas and those with gradients above 20%, for the
electrolysis system an efficiency of 75% is assumed. The
11847
yearly total amount of H2 generated in 10 departments of the
Province is 3.734
107 Ton H2/year, enough for providing until
10 times the energy required for the automotive sector of the
entire province [9].
A prospective study about the viability of H2 production
considering the wind potential of La Patagonia, this energy is
accounted with the use of seven weather station located at
southern Chilean lands, using meteorological and statistical
models, getting a capacity factor of 0.55 for wind source. The
H2 is produced by electrolysis with unsalted sea water, after
that, the liquid H2 is transported by ship to the central region
for its use. The H2 production is equivalent to substitute 7.1%
of oil consumption it is around 380,000 kg H2/year [10].
In Ecuador the potential of H2 production from hydroelec-
tricity is evaluated, the study considers that certain turbinable
spilled water in several hydroelectric plants over the country
could be used to additional generation oriented to H2 pro-
duction by electrolysis. The hydroelectric plant HidroPaute is
selected for the study; it has an installed capacity of 1100 MW,
contributing with 32% of total generation of the country, with
a capacity factor of 62% in 2011. Two scenarios of H2 produc-
tion are considered: in the first one is assumed that is avail-
able a 30% of water spilled in 2011; in the second situation this
amount is duplicated. Considering an electrolysis process ef-
ficiency of 75%, it has obtained for the first scenario 5400.8 Ton
H2/year and 10,801.7 Ton H2/year for the second one, which is
used for chemical and energy requirements [11].
In Brazil [3] have studied the H2 production from solar
photovoltaic (PV), wind, and hydroelectricity energies, the
same sources considered in this paper. The study evaluates
the technical and economic performance of a hypothetical
production plant of electrolytic H2 with a capacity of 30 MW
located at northeast Brazil. The evaluation of the potential of
generation of solar PV and wind energies is based on the Solar
Atlas and Brazilian Wind Potential Atlas, the hydroelectric
energy is provided by a Hydroelectrical Central located at
northeast of the country and it is able to deliver the required
energy to surpass the electrical requirements of the electrol-
ysis plant. It is considered an availability factor of 95%, con-
version efficiency of 80%. The overall annual production is
56.26
106 m3 H2/year, for export only.
In other ambit [2], have estimated the amount of H2 from
renewable energies available in the US, with the use of solar
PV and wind energies, with the aim to provide the automotive
sector. The potential from both sources is estimated with
software based on GIS. For the solar option, the radiation data
corresponds to monthly means for 40 km2 cells, considering
3% of this area for solar photoelectric conversion, excluding
forest parks, marine and lake areas, assuming 10% of solar PV
efficiency. For the wind case, are considered the winds Class 3
or higher, and placing in every cell turbines of 5 MW and also
considering the mentioned exclusions. The efficiency for the
electrolysis process is 75% and the results are expressed with
a potential map of the country, organized by counties,
obtaining an overall annual potential of 1.110
1012 kg H2/
year for 2010.
From this revision, is clear that methodology used to
calculate the production potential of H2 by electrolysis, has
the following characteristics: a. the use of potential maps of
the renewable resources, generated thought different models
11848 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3

with data from weather stations or satellite measurements, as

Table 2 e Comparison between renewable energy
input variables. b. The use of capacities and efficiencies fac-
potentials of several countries [13].
tors to calculate the usable renewable energy, considering the
Country Solar potential Wind
available area for siting the devices for energetic conversion. c.
(TWh/year) Potentiala (km2)
The H2 amount that could be obtained is calculated account-
ing the efficiency of the electrolysis process and the avail- Argentina 7853.43 418,022.00
Bolivia 3220.15 26,611.00
ability of H2 production plant.
Colombia 2889.94 57,996.00
Finally, the potential of H2 production for Latin American Ecuador 606.28 229,084.00
countries has been treated very little, studies are for specific Guyana 575.82 N.A.
regions of a country and for different purposes, which is not Mexico 6469.15 38,687.00
exactly use in the rural sector, whose population in a signifi- Peru 3576.84 671,212.00
cant percentage lacks permanent energy service. The aim of Suriname 402.46 N.A.
Venezuela 2586.86 10,950.00
this work is to contribute to both.
a
Winds class 3e7 at 50 m.

Renewables energies in Venezuela

Venezuela exhibits a great potential of RE in their different
types, as indicated in Table 1. However, its development in the
country is negligible, largely due to Venezuela also has large
reserves of fossil fuels, especially oil, considered the largest in
the world, and whose intensive operation for over 60 years,
have shaped the energy sector, the country economy and even
the Venezuelan society itself.
Additional data for gross RE potential for Venezuela is
presented by the NREL [13] and predicts 258,686 TW/year of
potential for solar energy and estimates winds Class 3e7 with
an area of 10,950 km2, a brief comparison between RE poten-
tials of the countries within the region is shown in Table 2. It
can be noticed that Venezuela has a solar potential similar to
other nearby countries but its wind potential is very low due to
geographical restrictions related to the coastal mountain
range.
Also, are available more accurate estimations of the solar
and wind potentials [14,15], in form of potential maps, as
shown in Fig. 1, which have been made from satellite mea-
surements of average annual values of wind speed and inso-
lation, respectively, corresponding to grids of 1 of longitude
and latitude, setting a two-dimensional matrix located be-
tween 73 and 60 west longitude and between 12 and 1
north latitude, Fig. 2. These values are the basis for the
calculation of potential production of H2 in Venezuela.
In harnessing the RE, the Venezuelan government has
been pushing several actions to promote and develop them,
and the most important are: the construction of two wind
Table 1 e Renewable energy potential in Venezuela [8].
Source Specifications
Mini-hydro Until 50 MW/utility
Bioenergy Firewood, plantings, waste
Solar energy 15% conversion, 1% NTa, 0.3 MPb
Wind energy 3% conversion, 4% NT
Geothermal energy 2.5 NT
Others RE Oceanic, hybrid
Large scale hydro
Total
a
National territory.
b
Marine platform.
farms, located in the northwestern coastal area, with a total
generating capacity of about 200 MW, right now in its initial
operation, generating about 25 MW that are delivered to the
electric grid [16], Regarding the solar photovoltaic (PV), the
program “Sembrando Luz”, designed to provide permanent
and efficient energy services to the rural and isolated pop-
ulations that are not connected to the traditional power grid,
had installed for 2012 around 3139 systems, with a total power
of 2.5 MW supplying more than 257 thousand residents of 1020
rural communities [17]. Other types of RE, there are only small
initiatives with no effect on the energy balance of the country.
The hydrogen market in Venezuela
Hydrogen production
The overall H2 produced in Venezuela, in 2010, reached
4850 MNm3 H2 [16], is produced via natural gas reformed, and
is captive class, because it is fully consumed where it is
generated. There is currently a deficit of H2 with chemical
purposes that is estimated to rise with the increase of oil ac-
tivity in the Faja del Orinoco and materialize expansions in
petrochemical plants, according to PDVSA's development
plans in the medium term [18].
Hydrogen consumption
The H2 produced “in situ” is used as an input in the process of:
a. Improvement of heavy oil, in order to obtain a synthetic oil,
syncrude, with a higher commercial value, b. hydrogenation
in the production of fuels derived from petroleum, and c.
Potential Petrochemical processes, especially for the production of
(GW)
ammonia [17]. If the H2 from renewable sources is used as a
4.5 vector to satisfy the energy needs of the rural sector, the
11.7 required amount is obtained by considering the energy con-
157.2
sumption per capita in this sector, that arises to 191 kWh/year
48.9
and the number of people to provide energy reaches
5.2
18.36 828,000 hab [19]. Then, assuming a 75% efficiency in the con-
63.8 version in the electrolysis process respect to the higher heat-
309.6 ing value (HHV), the amount of H2 required is:
CPC NH
CH2 ¼ (1)
FCE
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3 11849

Fig. 1 e Wind map (Left). Insolation map (Right).

 (Fig. 3). It is clear that the HHV energy is used as a basis for
kWh
191 year hab
ð828; 000 habÞ calculation, with an overall efficiency of 75%, which includes
kg H2
CH2 ¼
 ¼ 3012342:86 (2)
kWh year the requirements of the electrolyzer and auxiliary equipment,
52:5 kg H2
and losses of the electrolytic system [2].
Moreover, in determining the land area available for har-
nessing the potential of RE, certain restrictions are taken
Hydrogen production in Venezuela from RE considered, such as: a. Areas under Special Administration
Regime (ABRAE, for its acronym in Spanish), defined as pro-
General considerations tected areas, covering an area equivalent to 46% of the land
surface [20], including national parks and recreational, natural
This study considers as primary renewable sources for H2 monuments, biosphere reserves and wildlife. b. Urban areas,
production the solar direct energy, and indirect solar classified obtained from distribution maps of urban populations are also
in: small hydro and wind, all usable with great potential in excluded [21], and whose occupancy rate is taken into account
Venezuela [12,13]. In every case, H2 is produced by electrolysis in the grid that corresponds to the geopolitical distribution of
of water with electricity generated from the selected RE, these settlements.

Fig. 2 e Bidimensional grid used for the potential estimation of H2.

11850 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3

Fig. 3 e Routes for the production of electrolytic hydrogen from some RE.

Hydrogen production
In this case, the SESH basically consists in the coupling a PV
power generation, wind and mini-hydroelectric system with
an electrolytic system. Although its development and wide-
spread use involves overcoming several technological and
economic challenges, is one of the most promising routes for
the production of renewable H2 [22,23]. On the other hand,
considering that this is a potential estimation study, it is
assumed that all the energy produced by renewable means
will be used in the transformation process to H2. The possible
routes for the production are shown in Fig. 3.
Establishment of usable areas
To obtain the potential of solar photovoltaic and wind energy,
primary information is taken from NASA [24], which consists
of representative values of certain meteorological variables
and corresponding to the two-dimensional mesh shown in
Fig. 2 in which each of the 89 squares has an area of 12,100 km2.
Taking into account that the procedure for determining the H2
production is the same for all grid cells that include the Ven-
ezuelan territory, as an illustration of the calculation for one
square is presented, the number 34, selected because exhibits
an insolation value very close the national average. The useful
area per grid as a function of the grid area (AU), the ABRAE and
the factor of available area (fA,D) is presented in Equation (3).
power. Equation (5) expresses the instantaneous power pro-
duced by a PV system:
PPV ¼ GT AN;FV factiv hcell hinv hother (5)
where GT is the actual total radiation, Npanel the number of PV
panels, AN,FV is the net superficial area with PV panels, factiv is
the fraction of superficial area with active solar cells, hcell is
the conversion efficiency of the PV module, hinv is the con-
version efficiency of the DCeAC inverter and the parameter
hother is proposed by CEC [26] as shown in Equation (6), where
hother corresponds to the deviation of standard condition of
test, htemp is the reduction factor for temperature, hloss is the
reduction factor for electrical losses and hdirt is the reduction
factor for dirt.
hother ¼ hstd htemp hloss hdirt (6)
Also, the annual average insolation over a daily basis as a
function of GT(i) is:
P8760 hr
GTðiÞ Dti
Fdaily ¼ i¼1
(7)
365 day
From Equations (5), (6) and (7) and considering that Dti
corresponds to a step of 1 h, the annual energy by PV is pre-
sented in the Equation (8):
EPV;annual;C ¼ ð365 dayÞFdaily AN;FV factiv hcell hinv hstd htemp hloss hdirt

AU ¼ AC ABRAE fA;D (3)

The parameters associated with the production of solar PV
The net area of the grid (AN,C) is obtained from Equation (4), to any grid are presented in Table 4, and specifically to the grid
considering the population factor (fP): 34, from the Equation (8):
 
AN;C ¼ AU 1  fP (4) EPV;annual;C ¼ 1:515
1010 kWh=year

The influencing parameters in the calculation of (AN,C) are

Wind model
shown in Table 3.
This alternative for producing renewable H2 has attracted
considerable interest, particularly in the case of hybrid
PV model
The proposed model uses a modification of the simple model
of EnergyPlus Engineering Reference [25], in which the radia-
tion incident on the PV panel is multiplied by several factors Table 4 e Parameters associated with the
for efficiency parameters that adjust the maximum usable production of solar PV [24,26,27].
Parameter Value
Fdaily ðkWh=m dayÞ
2
5.55
Table 3 e Parameters influencing the AN;FV ¼ AN;C ðkm2 Þ 65.34
selection of usable area. factiv 86.5%
hcell 20.8%
Parameter Value
hinv 90%
AC (km2) 12,100 hstd 95%
ABRAE 54% htemp 90%
fA,D 1% hloss 95%
fP variable hdirt 93%
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3 11851

systems, in conjunction with PV and Solar Thermal systems

[22]. For the calculation of production H2 potential, are taken
into account only those two-dimensional mesh grids with
winds of Class 2 or higher, i.e., winds with a speed equal to or
greater than 4.4 m/sec, considered economically viable for
generating electricity with current technology or for it develop
in the short term [2], that imply consider the 20% of the
squares of the mesh. To predict the power output of the wind
system, a simplified model shown in Equation (9) is used, a
reference performance curve of a commercial wind turbine for
low speed is selected [28], which is shown in Fig. 4, and then
the maximum power ðPaeroðvwind Þ Þ as a function of wind speed is Fig. 5 e Selected arrangement for the wind model.
directly obtained. Also is considered the efficiency of a DCeAC
inverter hinv and the corresponding electrical losses factor
hloss. kWh
Ewind;annual;C ¼ 3:363
108
year
Pwind ¼ Paeroðvwind Þ hinv hloss (8)
Mini-hydro model
The annual average wind energy captured by each grid
To obtain the mini hydro potential, the information in Table 1
ðEwind;annual;C Þ, is calculated from Paeroðvwind Þ as a function of
is taken, in which the production capacity for this item (PMH) is
average annual wind speed obtained from NASA [19], the
4.5 GW, and considering that this resource can be continu-
number of wind turbines in the park (Nturb) and the effec-
ously exploited, can be said that the annual mini hydropower
tiveness factor of the array farr, as shown in Equation (10).
nationwide is given by Equation (12):
Xhr
8760
Ewind;annual;C ¼ Nturb farr PwindðiÞ Dti (9) EMH;annual ¼ PMH ð8760 hrÞ (10)
i¼1
Resulting:
Due to the fluid dynamic interference, wind farms typically
produce less energy than the sum of these wind turbines kWh
EMH ¼ 3:942
1010
placed isolated, such the location of wind turbines should be year
optimized depending on the characteristics of wind and
Total renewable energy
terrain. . Performed studies have found that a separation of
To obtain the total annual renewable energy (ET) that can
turbines 8e10 rotor diameters in the prevailing wind direction
potentially be used for production of H2, must be added the
and 5D in the perpendicular direction results in energy losses
energy produced in each grid for PV, wind and mini-hydro
to lower 10% [29,30]. With the intention of consider an
power, according to Equation (11).
arrangement that minimizes the failures, the configuration in
Fig. 5 is proposed. X
89
For the selected arrangement, the equivalent area of each ET ¼ ET;PV þ ET;wind þ ET;MH ET;FV ¼ EFV;annual;C ðiÞ
i¼1
turbine is equivalent to5D
10D, equivalent to 605,000 m2, (11)
X
89
with reference to the net area of the grid (AN,C), Then should be ET;eolica ¼ Ewind;annual;C ðiÞ
placed in it about 81 turbines. Considering the selected wind i¼1

turbine, the average wind speed in the grid example for the Then, the total renewable energy for every source is:
wind case (No. 4) is 6.18 m/s, the efficiency factors are similar
to those presented in the PV case and the photovoltaic effi- ET ¼ 1:146
1012 kWh=year
ciency factor is 90%, the total annual wind energy of that grid, ET;PV ¼ 1:088
1012 kWh=year
according to Equation (10) is: ET;wind ¼ 1:825
1010 kWh=year
ET;MH ¼ 3:942
1010 kWh=year

Calculation of amount of hydrogen to obtain

For the calculation of H2 to obtain, the Equation (11) is used, in
which is required the total renewable energy (ET) and energy
conversion factor for H2 (FCE), in which an availability factor
(fav) representing the period devoted to maintenance and the
value of 0.95 has been reported for the case of H2 production
plants by electrolysis [5,19]

E
mH2 ¼ fav (12)
FCE
Finally the annual amount of H2 for each renewable source
and the total are presented in Table 5.
Fig. 4 e Power curve for the selected wind turbine A summary of the potential reported in the literature and
(P ¼ 2000 kW D ¼ 110 m) [23]. obtained for Venezuela is shown in Table 6, although it is not
11852 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 1 8 4 6 e1 1 8 5 3

G solar radiation
Table 5 e Results by type of renewable energy and
m mass
overall.
N number
RE type Production H2 (kg/year) Contribution (%)
P power
10
PV 1.968
10 94.96 C consumption
Wind 3.303
108 1.59 F insolation
Minihydro 7.134
108 3.45
h efficiency
Total 2.073 £ 1010 100

Sub-indexes
A area
Table 6 e Reported H2 production potentials. activ active
Country, region Potential (kg H2/year) Year arr array
av availability
Argentina, Co  rdoba 37.34
10 6
2010
 C square grid
Brazil, Ceara 5.06
106 2010
Chile, Patagonia 3.8
105 2010 cell PV cell
Ecuador, Azuay 10.8
106 2014 D available
USA 1.110
1015 2005 PV photovoltaic
Venezuela 2.073
1010 2014 H habitant
inv inverter
MH mini-hydro
possible a fair comparison between them, correspond to N net
different situations and conditions, if it is useful for an un- P population
derstanding of the order of magnitude production potential of PC per capita
H2 in Venezuela, compared to other countries in Latin loss electric loss
America. std standard
T total
temp temperature
Conclusions turb turbine
U useful
It have been determined the total potential production of H2 in
Venezuela by water electrolysis with electricity from renew-
able sources, considering solar PV, wind and mini-hydro en- references
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the largest contribution mainly due to an exploitable potential
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