Climate change performance of hydrogen production based on life cycle assessment

Patel, Gulam Husain; Havukainen, Jouni; Horttanainen, Mika; Soukka, Risto; Tuomaala, Mari

doi:10.1039/d3gc02410e

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Regarding SMR, although all the studies converge to similar results, variations in the GWP in the range of 10-20% can be found when including CH 4 leakage during extraction and transport [37,44,45]. In fact, despite different authors referring to the fact that CH 4 leakages are negligible when accounting for the overall GHG emissions [29,46], they usually refer to the incidence of fugitive gas that occurs only within the SMR plant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The use of PV with PEM produced GHG emissions in the range of 1.19 kg CO2 /kg H2 -9.37 kg CO2 /kg H2 [30]. According to both Patel et al [29] and Zhang et al [30], the largest contribution to the GWP is attributed to solar plant construction, accounting for 96% and 78%, respectively. However, the absolute values differ significantly, accounting, respectively, for 2.4 kg CO2 /kg H2 and 7.3 kg CO2 /kg H2 .…”

Section: Ae_mono Pv Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The pyrolysis of methane and/or hydrogen sulfide was also investigated, reporting GHG emissions between 4.5 kg CO2eq /kg H2 and 8.1 kg CO2eq /kg H2 [29,38]. Sole methane pyrolysis, when operated with shipped liquefied NG instead of pipelines NG, produces approximately 37% more CO 2eq emissions, raising them from 5.9 kg CO2eq /kg H2 to 8.1 kg CO2eq /kg H2 .…”

Section: Ae_mono Pv Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

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Critical Review of Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production Pathways

Maniscalco,

Longo,

Cellura

et al. 2024

Environments

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In light of growing concerns regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the increasingly severe impacts of climate change, the global situation demands immediate action to transition towards sustainable energy solutions. In this sense, hydrogen could play a fundamental role in the energy transition, offering a potential clean and versatile energy carrier. This paper reviews the recent results of Life Cycle Assessment studies of different hydrogen production pathways, which are trying to define the routes that can guarantee the least environmental burdens. Steam methane reforming was considered as the benchmark for Global Warming Potential, with an average emission of 11 kgCO2eq/kgH2. Hydrogen produced from water electrolysis powered by renewable energy (green H2) or nuclear energy (pink H2) showed the average lowest impacts, with mean values of 2.02 kgCO2eq/kgH2 and 0.41 kgCO2eq/kgH2, respectively. The use of grid electricity to power the electrolyzer (yellow H2) raised the mean carbon footprint up to 17.2 kgCO2eq/kgH2, with a peak of 41.4 kgCO2eq/kgH2 in the case of countries with low renewable energy production. Waste pyrolysis and/or gasification presented average emissions three times higher than steam methane reforming, while the recourse to residual biomass and biowaste significantly lowered greenhouse gas emissions. The acidification potential presents comparable results for all the technologies studied, except for biomass gasification which showed significantly higher and more scattered values. Regarding the abiotic depletion potential (mineral), the main issue is the lack of an established recycling strategy, especially for electrolysis technologies that hamper the inclusion of the End of Life stage in LCA computation. Whenever data were available, hotspots for each hydrogen production process were identified.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Ae_mono Pv Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ae_mono Pv Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Critical Review of Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production Pathways

Maniscalco,

Longo,

Cellura

et al. 2024

Environments

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…7,18 Moreover, green methanol could be produced using the reverse water–gas shift reaction, transforming captured CO 2 into CO and also utilising low-carbon hydrogen. 6 The strong reliance of these routes on low-carbon electricity to produce hydrogen suggests that they could benefit substantially from the increasing penetration of renewable energy in the future electricity mix, 19,20 yet the specific extent to which they will improve remains unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%