Environmental and economic assessment of hydrogen compression with the metal hydride technology

Abstract

A critical step in the hydrogen supply chains is the compression phase, which is often associated with high energy consumption and environmental impacts. An environmental and cost analysis of a metal hydride (MH) compressor and competing technologies (an air booster and a commercial hydrogen compressor), is performed for an application to fuel cell driven forklifts. The MH compressor shows limited environmental impacts only when a source of waste heat is available for hydrogen desorption. In these case, impacts would be similar to a generic compressor, but larger than those generated by an air booster. The equivalent economic cost is 6 € per kg of compressed hydrogen for the MH compressor, which is much higher than for the air booster, but lower than for a generic hydrogen compressor. Technical aspects to be improved for large-scale applications of MH compressors are identified. • Environmental and costs analysis of a metal hydride compressor have been established. • Environmental and costs comparison of different H 2 compression solution. • Metal hydride compressors show limited impact only under specific working conditions. • The alloys, used for the hydrogen sorption, show limited environmental impacts.