Ecological Evaluation Of H2 Energy Supply In Industry

Abstract

Limiting climate change through global CO2 emissions is one of the central challenges of the 21st century. This requires a profound transformation of our energy systems and a far-reaching switch to innovative and emission-free technologies in all sectors, from power generation to the major energy consumption sectors of industry, transport and building heating. Hydrogen will play a significant role in a future energy and economic system. In this paper, H2 energy supply scenarios are developed, evaluated and compared as an alternative to a reference scenario that uses conventional technologies to meet electricity, heating and cooling needs. The H2 energy supply scenarios are simulated with both purchased and self-produced hydrogen. Both the different colours of the hydrogen and the CO2 intensity of the electricity mix are taken into account. To cover the electricity and heat demand, different H2 technologies are considered and combined with each other to different H2 energy supply scenarios. Subsequently, the scenarios are evaluated with regard to their ecology and compared with the reference scenario. From this, it can be deduced how hydrogen technologies can represent an ecologically sensible alternative to conventional technologies today and in the future.