Impact of electricity price and desalination cost on green hydrogen production from high-salinity seawater in the Gulf of Suez

Wael W. Eskander, Moustafa A. Fouz, Sameh Shaaban, Ahmed A. Swidan

Abstract


A principal binding element in employing and storing renewable energy is electrolytic hydrogen production, which is globally recognized as a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy carrier. This study focuses on investigating the feasibility of utilizing Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis for sustainable hydrogen production. One of the key challenges in utilizing PEM is that it requires ultra-high-purity water, which constrains the direct usage of seawater resources. As such, this study aims to assess the technical and economic feasibility of producing hydrogen at a high-salinity zone, namely; Gulf of Suez (>40,000 mg/L) using a PEM electrolyser operating at 300 L/h. A cost-optimized desalination process and demineralization system was numerically simulated using the WAVE software, achieving the required conductivity of 0.1–1 µS/cm. Although, the sensitivity analysis reveals that the cost of the water desalination process contributes less than 0.2% of the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH), it was found that the electricity accounts for over 70%, establishing it as the dominant cost driver.

 

Received: 01 February 2026

Accepted: 27 March 2026

Published: 19 April 2026


Keywords


PEM electrolyzer, Sensitivity Analysis, SWRO, Techno-economic Assessment, WAVE simulation

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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21622/resd.2026.12.1.1935

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Copyright (c) 2026 Wael W. Eskander, Moustafa A. Fouz, Sameh Shaaban, Ahmed A. Swidan

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development

E-ISSN: 2356-8569

P-ISSN: 2356-8518

 

Published by:

Academy Publishing Center (APC)

Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)

Alexandria, Egypt

resd@aast.edu