Planning and development of waste-to-hydrogen conversion facilities: A parametric analysis

Abstract

Production of hydrogen fuel from municipal solid waste can serve as a potential solution to two looming environmental crises: global warming caused by undesirable emissions of greenhouse gases and the ever-increasing generation and accumulation of waste in the environment. However, the actual implementation and continuous operation of waste-to-hydrogen conversion facilities require consideration of numerous factors. This study explored the variability of several factors related to waste-to-hydrogen, such as location selection, geographic availability of municipal solid waste, pricing of by-products and waste acceptance, constantly fluctuating energy costs, and carbon credit market values from potential carbon trading systems. Four waste conversion processes previously studied for their triple-bottom-line sustainability have been used as baseline scenarios. The variability of multiple factors and their impacts were assessed via parametric analyses. The effects of these fluctuating factors on the economic and environmental performances of waste-to-hydrogen conversion and the establishment of processing facilities were captured. The results of this study will be beneficial for the industry, private investors, policymakers, and governments while making critical decisions such as location selection, deriving price formulas, and selecting plant capacity.