Thermodynamic modeling of the Power-to-Gas technology with methane and hydrogen as a chemical storage

Peter Ivanov; Andrey Zhuk

doi:10.59400/esc3366

Thermodynamic modeling of the Power-to-Gas technology with methane and hydrogen as a chemical storage

Peter Ivanov
Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences, 125412 Moscow, Russia
Andrey Zhuk
Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences, 125412 Moscow, Russia

Article ID: 3366

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59400/esc3366

Keywords: thermodynamic modeling, TQ-diagrams, Power-to-Gas, solid oxide fuel cells, internal conversion of methane

Abstract

A novel toolset is developed for the thermodynamic modeling of the direct and reverse energy conversion processes in the scope of Power-to-Gas technology, which means the use of gases as chemical storage of electricity. The direct process is well commercialized, electrolysis of water, or of vapor in the high temperature version. The reverse process, up to recently, has been considered unreasonable due to the high demand for electrolysis hydrogen for other processes. An appearance of highly efficient convertors of chemical energy of gases into electricity, like solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), claims to reconsider the Power-to-Gas technology as a whole, firstly from a thermodynamic point of view. It is done in this paper using a one-way conversion approach in terms of thermodynamic cycle and thermodynamic potentials. To deal with the heat flow through the energy conversion plants, the pinch analysis was used by means of composed TQ-diagrams for heat sources and heat sinks. The toolset was tested on two options of the technology with methane and hydrogen as chemical storage. Methane option, compared with hydrogen, seems to be thermodynamically more efficient, because there are two cases of thermally integrating the exothermal and endothermal processes: high temperature electrolysis (SOEC technology) with methanation, and the internal reforming of methane in SOFC.

Published

2025-07-10

How to Cite

Ivanov, P., & Zhuk, A. (2025). Thermodynamic modeling of the Power-to-Gas technology with methane and hydrogen as a chemical storage. Energy Storage and Conversion, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.59400/esc3366

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Vol. 3 No. 3 (2025)

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Article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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