Chapter 15 - Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Supply Chain: A Case Study for Japanese Automotive Use

Abstract

A “well-to-wheel” analysis in the Japanese context was conducted to understand the role of hydrogen in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the vehicle transport sector from a life cycle perspective. It was assumed that the renewable hydrogen was produced in Australia and Norway, transported to Japan using liquid hydrogen (LH) and methylcyclohexane (MCH), and used in fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Emissions from natural gas reforming hydrogen and gasoline pathways were also calculated. All the input data to the processes comprising the supply chains were collected from the literature and the Japanese life cycle assessment database was used for the calculations. The results suggest that FCVs should have a global warming advantage over gasoline vehicles. If the counterpart is set to gasoline hybrid vehicles, however, the advantage would depend upon the choice of a low-carbon hydrogen supply chain and the tank-to-wheel performance of the FCV. Because the main GHG hotspots of renewable hydrogen pathways are identified as hydrogen liquefaction for the LH and dehydrogenation for the MCH supply chains, technology development and process design are indispensable for these processes and supply chains in order to make the imported renewable hydrogen supply chain low carbon.