Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Blue Hydrogen with Different Production Technologies and Logistics Options

Abstract

Hydrogen is expected to be an important commodity for many sectors of a modern climate neutral economy. As green hydrogen supply is unlikely to meet the surging demand fast enough in the next years, blue hydrogen production could be a solution to ramp up the hydrogen economy and allow an earlier transition of sectors and processes currently based on fossil energy sources. Against this background, in this paper we evaluate the carbon footprint of blue hydrogen production with different technologies and supply chains and examine the most important parameters that affect it. Our results show that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is capable of reducing carbon emissions significantly, especially if it is combined with hydrogen production by autothermal reforming (ATR). Nevertheless, especially because of pre-chain emissions of natural gas blue hydrogen is far from being climate neutral. One of the most important parameters for total emissions is the transportation distance of natural gas via pipeline which implies that process chains are more favorable that allow a hydrogen production near a natural gas source. In order to estimate the carbon footprint of both natural gas and blue hydrogen reliably, a trustworthy and transparent monitoring system for methane and other emissions of the natural gas supply chain is necessary.

Keywords: Blue hydrogen, SMR, ATR, CCS, GHG footprint, hydrogen economy