Working conditions in hydrogen production: A social life cycle assessment

Abstract

Social impacts of novel technology can, parallel to environmental and economic consequences, influence its sustainability. By analyzing the case of hydrogen production by advanced alkaline water electrolysis (AEL) from a life cycle perspective, this paper illustrates the social implications of the manufacturing of the electrolyzer and hydrogen production when installed in Germany, Austria, and Spain. This paper complements previous environmental and economic assessments, which selected this set of countries based on their different structures in electricity production. The paper uses a mixed method design to analyze the social impact for the workers along the process chain. Appropriate indicators related to working conditions are selected on the basis of the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The focus on workers is chosen as a first example to test the relatively new Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment (PSILCA) database version 2.0. The results of the quantitative assessment are then complemented and compared through an investigation of the underlying raw data and a qualitative literature analysis. Overall, advanced AEL is found to have least social impact along the German process chain, followed by the Spanish and the Austrian. All three process chains show impacts on global upstream processes. In order to reduce social impact and ultimately contribute to Sustainable Development, policymakers and industry need to work together to further improve certain aspects of working conditions in different locations, particularly within global upstream processes.

Diffusion of labor standards through supplier–subcontractor networks: An agent‐based model

“…Supporting the normative stance of industrial ecology research (Ehrenfeld, 2007), labor issues have recently entered the debate on life cycle sustainability assessment (Wulf, Zapp, Schreiber, Marx & Schloer, 2017) under the label of “social life cycle assessment” (Kuehnen & Hahn, 2017). An investigation of hydrogen production by advanced alkaline water electrolysis and its effects on working conditions, for instance, pointed to adverse impacts on global upstream supply chain stages (Werker, Wulf & Zapp, 2019). The current study investigates the diffusion of labor standards through supply networks with a special focus on network characteristics and power.…”

Setting Thresholds to Define Indifferences and Preferences in PROMETHEE for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of European Hydrogen Production

“…The LCSA of the hydrogen production is based on three different already existing assessments: the LCA [17], LCC [18] and S-LCA [19]. The previous LCA [17] compared the environmental effects considering nine impact categories.…”

“…Table 5. Specific material and energy inputs per kg of hydrogen produced [65] and their respective industrial sectors (input PSILCA) [19]. While the technology parameters are identical for all countries under consideration, the supply of inputs is country-specific.…”

“…Here, the current situation of AEL is assessed. Three European countries (Austria, Germany and Spain) are compared as potential production locations based on earlier publications by the authors [17][18][19]. To find unambiguous statements about the preferential location in three selected Western European countries, we integrate MCDA in the interpretation phase of the LCSA without allowing compensation.…”

Sustainability Assessment of Innovative Energy Technologies – Hydrogen from Wind Power as a Fuel for Mobility Applications

“…Another approach is social LCA according to the UNEP/SETAC guidelines [28], with a clear focus on the whole product life cycle. These assessments can either evaluate social issues of a specific process [29] or be a more generic hot spot analysis [30]. Furthermore, social indicators can tend to be socio-political [31] or socio-economic [32], while the economic dimension is assessed by a more business-oriented approach.…”