Sustainability Assessment of Hydrogen Production Technologies

The present study compares the sustainability performance of alternative processes proposed for industrial high purity hydrogen production by steam reforming. Five reference schemes were defined to represent either processes used in the current industrial practice or processes proposed as improved alternatives. A specific methodology, based on the definition and estimation of key performance indicators, was developed to allow the sustainability assessment of the reference processes considered. The outcome of the analysis allowed, on one hand, the comparison of the expected sustainability performance of alternative reference process schemes and, on the other, the identification of the critical elements of each option.