Techno-economic impact of liquefaction improvements on the liquid hydrogen value chain: Bridging efficiency and economics

Liquid hydrogen (LH 2 ) is a promising energy carrier due to its high energy density and superior storability, yet its high production cost, driven by extreme cryogenic requirements, remains a major barrier to a sustainable hydrogen economy. This study presents an integrated multi-scale framework that directly links process-level refrigeration cycle improvements to value-chain economics for hydrogen liquefaction and the LH 2 supply chain. Within this framework, thermodynamic performance is evaluated at the process level, while cost competitiveness is assessed at both the process and value chain levels. Across the liquefaction configurations considered, operating conditions were optimized to minimize the specific energy consumption (SEC) of hydrogen liquefaction. Among the designs evaluated, the triple-pressure bypass Claude (TPB-Claude) design reduced the SEC to 7.611 kWh/kg LH 2 , corresponding to a specific liquefaction cost of $1.367/kg LH 2 . Propagated through the value chain, this yielded a levelized cost of import (LCOI) of $2.089/kg for nine 50-TPD trains, decreasing to $1.76/kg for a single 450-TPD train through economies of scale. The comparative analysis against on-site electrolytic hydrogen production identified the conditions for cost competitiveness: LH 2 imports become cost-competitive when the importer-exporter electricity price difference exceeds $0.04/kWh and the exporter's electricity price remains below $0.08/kWh; single-train scale-up relaxes the required electricity price difference to $0.03/kWh in most of the analyzed price range. These quantitative conditions provide directly applicable criteria for hydrogen import strategies and liquefaction technology targets.