Abstract
Hydrogen produced from renewable energy has the potential to decarbonize parts of the transport sector and many other industries. For a sustainable replacement of fossil energy carriers, both the environmental and economic performance of its production are important. Here, the solar thermochemical hydrogen pathway is characterized with a techno-economic and life-cycle analysis. Assuming a further increase of conversion efficiency and a reduction of investment costs, it is found that hydrogen can be produced in the United States of America at costs of 2.1–3.2 EUR/kg (2.4–3.6 USD/kg) at specific greenhouse gas emissions of 1.4 kg CO2-eq/kg. A geographical potential analysis shows that a maximum of 8.4 × 1011 kg per year can be produced, which corresponds to about twelve times the current global and about 80 times the current US hydrogen production. The best locations are found in the Southwest of the US, which have a high solar irradiation and short distances to the sea, which is beneficial for access to desalinated water. Unlike for petrochemical products, the transport of hydrogen could potentially present an obstacle in terms of cost and emissions under unfavorable circumstances. Given a large-scale deployment, low-cost transport seems, however, feasible.
Highlights
Hydrogen is an energy carrier that has a wide range of applications, e.g., in industry, residential heating, energy storage, and transportation
Most of the hydrogen used is produced by the reforming of natural gas and coal [5], which is intrinsically tied to the eventual emission of greenhouse gas (GHG)
GHG reductions from solar thermochemical hydrogen according to its production potential, costs, and specific GHG emissions
Summary
Hydrogen is an energy carrier that has a wide range of applications, e.g., in industry, residential heating, energy storage, and transportation. Solar thermochemical hydrogen production is analyzed from a technoeconomic, an ecological, and a geographical point of view, where the United States of America are taken as the region of interest due to their attractive solar irradiation in the Southwest and large available areas. To this end, the production costs of a baseline case plant with a capacity of 100 tons per day and the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are estimated. GHG reductions from solar thermochemical hydrogen according to its production potential, costs, and specific GHG emissions
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