Environmental impact assessment of hydrogen production via steam methane reforming based on emissions data

Hannah Cho, Vladimir Strezov*, Tim J. Evans

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)
407 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Steam methane reforming (SMR) using natural gas is the most commonly used technology for hydrogen production. Industrial hydrogen production contributes to pollutant emissions, which may differ from the theoretical estimates due to process conditions, type and state of installed pollution control equipment. The aim of this study was to estimate the impacts of hydrogen production using facility-level real emissions data collected from multiple US EPA databases. The study applied the ReCiPe2016 impact assessment method and considered 12 midpoint and 14 endpoint impacts for 33 US SMR hydrogen production facilities. Global warming impacts were mostly driven by CO 2 emissions and contributed to 94.6% of the endpoint impacts on human health, while global warming impact on terrestrial ecosystems contributed to 98.3% of the total endpoint impacts on ecosystems. The impacts estimated by direct emissions from the 33 facilities were 9.35 kg CO 2e/kg H2 which increased to 11.2 kg CO 2e/kg H2 when the full life cycle of hydrogen production including upstream emissions was included. The average global warming impact could be reduced by 5.9% and 11.1% with increases in hydrogen production efficiency by 5% and 10%, respectively. Potential impact reductions are also found when natural gas hydrogen production feedstock is replaced by renewable sources, with the greatest reduction of 78.1% found in hydrogen production via biomass gasification, followed by 68.2% reduction in landfill gas and 53.7% reduction in biomethane-derived hydrogen production.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13585-13595
Number of pages11
JournalEnergy Reports
Volume8
Early online date20 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2022

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2022. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • Hydrogen
  • Impact assessment
  • Emissions
  • Emission reduction
  • Steam reforming
  • Life Cycle Assessment

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