A grey-based group decision-making methodology for the selection of hydrogen technologies in life cycle sustainability perspective

The objective of this research is to develop a grey-based group decision-making methodology for the selection of the best renewable energy technology (including hydrogen) using a life cycle sustainability perspective. The traditional grey relational analysis has been modified to better address the issue of uncertainty. The proposed methodology allows multi-person to participate in the decision-making process and to give linguistic evaluation on the weights of the criteria and the performance of the alternative technologies. In this paper, twelve hydrogen production technologies have been assessed using the proposed methodology, electrolysis of water technology by hydropower has been considered to be the best technology for hydrogen production according to the decision-making group.     

Cost-benefit analysis of different hydrogen production technologies using AHP and Fuzzy AHP

In this paper, cost-benefit analysis is performed to compare eight different hydrogen production technologies using the classical analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the Fuzzy AHP. The technologies considered are steam methane reforming, coal gasification, partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, biomass gasification, photovoltaic-based electrolysis, wind-based electrolysis, hydro-based electrolysis, and water splitting by chemical looping. For each of the hydrogen production technologies, five criteria are used for evaluation: greenhouse gas emissions, raw material and utilities consumption, energy efficiency, scalability, as well as waste disposal and atmospheric emissions. The results obtained for benefits category using AHP and Fuzzy AHP are plotted against the normalized equivalent annual costs of each technology. It is concluded that the fossil fuel based processes appear to have less beneficial qualities including greater environmental impacts, but are more cost-effective. On the other hand, the renewable based processes appear to have more benefits as well as being more expensive for hydrogen production. However, the cost-benefit analysis results imply that the process of water splitting by chemical looping among the renewable approaches is the most promising new technology.     

Review and analysis of the hydrogen production technologies from a safety perspective

Hydrogen can be produced via many different technologies; however, from a safety standpoint there exists no framework for selecting the right technology. Here, we provide a structured framework for assessment of the most desirable hydrogen production technology based on efficiency, safety, and infrastructure, by using a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and life-cycle index (LInX) approach. We apply this modified MCDM approach to steam methane reforming (SMR), autothermal reforming, partial oxidation, alkaline electrolysis, polymer electrode membrane electrolysis, and solid oxide electrolyzer cell processes. Our results show that SMR is the most desirable technology based on the efficiency, safety, and infrastructure criteria. We employ fuzzy set theory to address subjectivity and uncertainty challenges in the data and found that although the technologies based on electrolysis have an environmental advantage, they exhibit higher uncertainties than non-renewable technologies such as SMR. Overall, this new framework addresses the challenge to find the most desirable and safer technology for hydrogen production.     

Feasibility study of renewable energy sources for developing the hydrogen economy in Pakistan

Hydrogen energy can play a pivotal part in enhancing energy security and decreasing hazardous emissions in Pakistan. However, hydrogen energy can be sustainable and clean only if it is produced from renewable energy sources (RES). Therefore, this study conducts feasibility of six RES for the generation of hydrogen in Pakistan. RES evaluated in this study include wind, solar, biomass, municipal solid waste (MSW), geothermal, and micro-hydro. RES have been evaluated using Fuzzy Delphi, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), and environmental data envelopment analysis (DEA). Fuzzy Delphi finalizes criteria and sub-criteria. FAHP obtains relative weights of criteria considered for choosing the optimal RES. Environmental DEA measures relative efficiency of each RES using criteria weights as outputs, and RES-based electricity generation cost as input. The results revealed wind as the most efficient source of hydrogen production in Pakistan. Micro-hydro and Solar energy can also be used for hydrogen production. Biomass, MSW, and geothermal achieved less efficiency scores and therefore are not suggested at present.     

Multicriteria renewable energy planning using an integrated fuzzy VIKOR & AHP methodology: The case of Istanbul

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, it is aimed at determining the best renewable energy alternative for Istanbul by using an integrated VIKOR-AHP methodology. Second, a selection among alternative energy production sites in this city is made using the same approach. In the proposed VIKOR-AHP methodology, the weights of the selection criteria are determined by pairwise comparison matrices of AHP. In energy decision making problems, the judgments of decision makers are usually vague. As it is relatively difficult for decision makers to provide exact values for the criteria, the evaluation data for the alternative energy policies should be expressed in linguistic terms. In order to model this kind of uncertainty in human preferences, fuzzy logic is applied very successfully. Thus, both classical VIKOR and classical AHP procedures are performed under fuzzy environment. The originality of the paper comes from the application of the proposed integrated VIKOR-AHP methodology to the selection of the best energy policy and production site. It is found that wind energy is the most appropriate renewable energy option and Çatalca district is the best area among the alternatives for establishing wind turbines in Istanbul.     

Environmental and economic aspects of hydrogen production and utilization in fuel cell vehicles

A smooth transition from gasoline-powered internal combustion engine vehicles to ecologically clean hydrogen fuel cell vehicles depends on the process used for hydrogen production. Three technologies for hydrogen production are considered here: traditional hydrogen production via natural gas reforming, and the use of two renewable technologies (wind and solar electricity generation) to produce hydrogen via water electrolysis. It is shown that a decrease of environmental impact (air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions) as a result of hydrogen implementation as a fuel is accompanied by a decline in the economic efficiency (as measured by capital investments effectiveness). A mathematical procedure is proposed to obtain numerical estimates of environmental and economic criteria interactions in the form of sustainability indexes. On the basis of the obtained sustainability indexes, it is concluded that hydrogen production from wind energy via electrolysis is more advantageous for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and traditional natural gas reforming is more favorable for reducing air pollution.     

Evaluation of hydrogen production methods using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

In this paper, seven common hydrogen production processes are evaluated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in respect to five criteria. The processes to be evaluated are steam methane reforming (SMR), partial oxidation of hydrocarbons (POX), coal gasification (CG), biomass gasification (BG), the combination of photovoltaics and electrolysis (PV–EL), the combination of wind power and electrolysis (W–EL) and the combination of hydropower and electrolysis (H–EL). The selected criteria that were used in the evaluation, for each of the seven hydrogen production processes are CO₂ emissions, operation and maintenance costs, capital cost, feedstock cost and hydrogen production cost. According to the evaluation, the processes that combine renewable energy sources with electrolysis (PV–EL, W–EL and H–EL) rank higher in classification than conventional processes (SMR, POX, CG and BG).     

Fuzzy Multi-actor Multi-criteria Decision Making for sustainability assessment of biomass-based technologies for hydrogen production

The purpose of this paper is to develop a sustainability assessment method to rank the prior sequence of biomass-based technologies for hydrogen production. A novel fuzzy Multi-actor Multi-criteria Decision Making method which allows multiple groups of decision-makers to use linguistic variables to assess the biomass-based technologies for hydrogen production has been developed. Fifteen criteria relevant to in economic, environmental, technological and social-political aspects have been used in sustainability assessment. Four biomass-based technologies including pyrolysis, conventional gasification, supercritical water gasification and fermentative hydrogen production have been studied by the proposed method, and biomass gasification has been considered as the most sustainable scenario and can be chosen for further development.     

碳中和愿景下绿色制氢技术发展趋势及应用前景分析

围绕目前主流的绿色制氢技术,综述国内外“绿氢”技术的最新研究进展,重点阐述电解水制氢技术（碱性电解水法、质子交换膜电解水法、固体氧化物电解水法）、太阳能分解水制氢技术（光催化法、光热分解法、光电化学法）以及生物质制氢技术（热化学转化法、微生物法）的产氢原理、技术难点和改进方法等,讨论比较各类“绿氢”技术的优缺点,分析未来绿色制氢技术的应用前景和发展方向。     

Investigation of solar energy utilization for production of hydrogen and sustainable chemical fertilizer: A case study

Renewable energies play a vital role in the economic and social development and progress of many countries. As one of the most significant sources of renewable energy, solar energy has been used due to its availability in many regions. Generating electricity for hydrogen production is one of the applications of solar energy. In petrochemical complexes, hydrogen is often used for producing fertilizers, especially urea fertilizers. The present study aims at investigating five major Iranian petrochemical complexes in terms of their suitability for the construction of a solar plant to produce electrolysis‐based green chemical fertilizers. To this end, a multicriteria decision‐making model is proposed, which includes the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and extended TODIM method of multicriteria decision making (including crisp, interval, and fuzzy numbers). The present research investigates 10 criteria for prioritizing petrochemical complexes, classified into four general categories, namely, climatic, geographic, environmental, and probability of natural disaster occurrence categories. Having calculated the weight of the criteria using the fuzzy AHP method, the alternatives are prioritized using the extended TODIM method. The methods of simple additive weighting (SAW), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and VIKOR were then used for validation of the results. Results showed that the Shiraz Petrochemical Complex has the highest priority and Khorasan Petrochemical Complex has the lowest priority for producing green fertilizer via solar energy–assisted water electrolysis. By using the solar system, Shiraz Petrochemical Complex can emit over 1900 tons less pollutants in the environment per day and provides up to 8% of its annual total production through clean energy.     

Sustainable and economic hydrogen cogeneration from nuclear energy in competitive power markets

Hydrogen is becoming the reference fuel for future transportation. However, hydrogen production either directly or indirectly needs to satisfy three criteria: no associated emissions, including CO₂; wide availability; and affordability. Water electrolysis is the only available technology today able to meet the first and second criteria. The third criterion includes costs of electrolysis and electricity. The primary requirements for affordable electrolysis are low capital cost and high utilization. Consequently, the electricity supply must enable high utilization as well as being itself low-cost and emissions-free. The only proven, large-scale source of electricity is evolved nuclear technologies, producing electricity at rates competitive with today's CO₂-emitting, fossil-fueled technologies. As an example, we show sustainable deployment using cogeneration in a typical competitive power market.     

非化石能源制氢技术综述

在现今的经济社会和未来的低碳经济中H2将发挥重要作用.非化石能源制氢是化石能源短缺和温室气体排放等约束下的可持续制氢路径.综述了可再生电力电解制氢、核能制氢、太阳能制氢和生物质能制氢等四种非化石能源制氢技术的工作原理、流程设备和技术特点,最后对我国未来非化石能源制氢的路线选择进行了评论.     

Hydrogen electrolyser technologies and their modelling for sustainable energy production: A comprehensive review and suggestions

The advancement of hydrogen technology is driven by factors such as climate change, population growth, and the depletion of fossil fuels. Rather than focusing on the controversy surrounding the environmental friendliness of hydrogen production, the primary goal of the hydrogen economy is to introduce hydrogen as an energy carrier alongside electricity. Water electrolysis is currently gaining popularity because of the rising demand for environmentally friendly hydrogen production. Water electrolysis provides a sustainable, eco-friendly, and high-purity technique to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen and oxygen produced by water electrolysis can be used directly for fuel cells and industrial purposes. The review is urgently needed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the current state of water electrolysis technology and its modelling using renewable energy sources. While individual methods have been well documented, there has not been a thorough investigation of these technologies. With the rising demand for environmentally friendly hydrogen production, the review will provide insights into the challenges and issues with electrolysis techniques, capital cost, water consumption, rare material utilization, electrolysis efficiency, environmental impact, and storage and security implications. The objective is to identify current control methods for efficiency improvement that can reduce costs, ensure demand, increase lifetime, and improve performance in a low-carbon energy system that can contribute to the provision of power, heat, industry, transportation, and energy storage. Issues and challenges with electrolysis techniques, capital cost, water consumption, rare material utilization, electrolysis efficiency, environmental impact, and storage and security implications have been discussed and analysed. The primary objective is to explicitly outline the present state of electrolysis technology and to provide a critical analysis of the modelling research that had been published in recent literatures. The outcome that emerges is one of qualified promise: hydrogen is well-established in particular areas, such as forklifts, and broader applications are imminent. This evaluation will bring more research improvements and a road map to aid in the commercialization of the water electrolyser for hydrogen production. All the insights revealed in this study will hopefully result in enhanced efforts in the direction of the development of advanced hydrogen electrolyser technologies towards clean, sustainable, and green energy.     

Hydrogen from solar energy,a clean energy carrier from a sustainable source of energy

Solar energy is going to play a crucial role in the future energy scenario of the world that conducts interests to solar-to-hydrogen as a means of achieving a clean energy carrier. Hydrogen is a sustainable energy carrier, capable of substituting fossil fuels and decreasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission to save the world from global warming. Hydrogen production from ubiquitous sustainable solar energy and an abundantly available water is an environmentally friendly solution for globally increasing energy demands and ensures long-term energy security. Among various solar hydrogen production routes, this study concentrates on solar thermolysis, solar thermal hydrogen via electrolysis, thermochemical water splitting, fossil fuels decarbonization, and photovoltaic-based hydrogen production with special focus on the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system. Energy management and thermodynamic analysis of CPV-based hydrogen production as the near-term sustainable option are developed. The capability of three electrolysis systems including alkaline water electrolysis (AWE), polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis, and solid oxide electrolysis for coupling to solar systems for H₂ production is discussed. Since the cost of solar hydrogen has a very large range because of the various employed technologies, the challenges, pros and cons of the different methods, and the commercialization processes are also noticed. Among three electrolysis technologies considered for postulated solar hydrogen economy, AWE is found the most mature to integrate with the CPV system. Although substantial progresses have been made in solar hydrogen production technologies, the review indicates that these systems require further maturation to emulate the produced grid-based hydrogen.     

Renewable-powered hydrogen economy from Australia's perspective

This article broadly reviews the state-of-the-art technologies for hydrogen production routes, and methods of renewable integration. It outlines the main techno-economic enabler factors for Australia to transform and lead the regional energy market. Two main categories for competitive and commercial-scale hydrogen production routes in Australia are identified: 1) electrolysis powered by renewable, and 2) fossil fuel cracking via steam methane reforming (SMR) or coal gasification which must be coupled with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). It is reported that Australia is able to competitively lower the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) to a record $(1.88–2.30)/kg_H2 for SMR technologies, and $(2.02–2.47)/kg_H2 for black-coal gasification technologies. Comparatively, the LCOH via electrolysis technologies is in the range of $(4.78–5.84)/kg_H2 for the alkaline electrolysis (AE) and $(6.08–7.43)/kg_H2 for the proton exchange membrane (PEM) counterparts. Nevertheless, hydrogen production must be linked to the right infrastructure in transport-storage-conversion to demonstrate appealing business models.     

Canada’s program on nuclear hydrogen production and the thermochemical Cu–Cl cycle

This paper presents an overview of the status of Canada’s program on nuclear hydrogen production and the thermochemical copper–chlorine (Cu–Cl) cycle. Enabling technologies for the Cu–Cl cycle are being developed by a Canadian consortium, as part of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) for hydrogen production with the next generation of nuclear reactors. Particular emphasis in this paper is given to hydrogen production with Canada’s Super-Critical Water Reactor, SCWR. Recent advances towards an integrated lab-scale Cu–Cl cycle are discussed, including experimentation, modeling, simulation, advanced materials, thermochemistry, safety, reliability and economics. In addition, electrolysis during off-peak hours, and the processes of integrating hydrogen plants with Canada’s nuclear plants are presented.     

A hierarchical decision making model for the prioritization of distributed generation technologies: A case study for Iran

The purpose of this paper is to present an assessment and evaluation model for the prioritization of distributed generation (DG) technologies, both conventional and renewable, to meet the increasing load due to the growth rate in Iran, while considering the issue of sustainable development. The proposed hierarchical decision making strategy is presented from the viewpoint of either the distribution company (DisCo) or the independent power producer (IPP) as a private entity. Nowadays, DG is a broadly-used term that covers various technologies; however, it is difficult to find a unique DG technology that takes into account multiple considerations, such as economic, technical, and environmental attributes. For this purpose, a multi-attribute decision making (MADM) approach is used to assess the alternatives for DG technology with respect to their economic, technical and environmental attributes. In addition, a regional primary energy attribute is also included in the hierarchy to express the potential of various kinds of energy resources in the regions under study. The obtained priority of DG technologies help decision maker in each region how allocate their total investment budget to the various technologies. From the performed analysis, it is observed that gas turbines are almost the best technologies for investing in various regions of Iran. At the end of the decision making process, a sensitivity analysis is performed based on the state regulations to indicate how the variations of the attributes’ weights influence the DG alternatives’ priority. This proposed analytical framework is implemented in seven parts of Iran with different climatic conditions and energy resources.     

Performance analysis and economic competiveness of 3 different PV technologies for hydrogen production under the impact of arid climatic conditions of Morocco

For green hydrogen production, the choice of the appropriate renewable energy source to drive the water electrolysis process is crucial. Currently, solar Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most popular and cheapest renewable energy sources; however, the performance of this technology is highly affected by the weather condition especially after the exposition to harsh climate conditions for long periods. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to assess the appropriate PV technology for hydrogen production under the impact of arid climatic conditions. For this reason, we evaluated the hydrogen production from 3 PV technologies, namely: monocrystalline (m-Si), polycrystalline (p-Si) and amorphous (a-Si) technologies exposed outdoors for a period of 3 years under the arid climatic conditions of Errachidia, Morocco. In addition, the degradation rate of each technology has been calculated and its impact on hydrogen production and its cost has been investigated.The results show that, the technology with the higher yearly hydrogen yield is the p-Si with 37.07 kg/kWp, followed by the m-Si with 36.84 kg/kWp and finally the a-Si with 36.68 kg/kWp. As for the cost of hydrogen production, the lowest cost was found in the case of the p-Si technology as well with 4.89 $/kg, whereas for the m-Si and a-Si technologies it was found equal to 5.48 $/kg and 6.28 $/kg respectively. However, the evaluation the impact of the PV modules degradation reveals that p-Si is technology affect the most with an annual degradation rate of 0.92%, followed by the a-Si with 0.72% and m-Si technologies with 0.45%. Nonetheless, when taken in consideration the impact of the degradation on the cost of hydrogen production, the p-Si remain the most cost effective technology even though the cost has increase to 5.32 $/kg, 5.78 $/kg and 6.67 $/kg for the p-Si, m-Si and a-Si technologies respectively.     

Hydrogen production technologies: Attractiveness and future perspective

Transition to more renewable energies to render current energy demand and set aside conventional resources for the next generation needs promising strategies. Frame the future energy plan to address the energy crisis requires to have insight and foresight about the hereafter of technologies and their markets. Among different renewable energy resources, hydrogen demonstrates an encouraging future. Therefore, understanding the flexibility and compatibility of hydrogen production technologies is important to pave the way for this transition. One strategy to achieve the mentioned targets is to evaluate different hydrogen technologies based on their life cycle and their acceptance at the commercial scale. For the very first time, various hydrogen production technologies are evaluated in terms of the technology life cycle. A novel approach is employed to find the current state of the hydrogen production technologies market. By applying simple and free tools such as search traffic and patent search, the technology adoption curve and technology life cycle of each hydrogen production technology is assessed. Two criteria are utilized for this matter, patents as a technical indicator and Google trend as a technology interest indicator. For this matter 35 088 patents have been extracted and analysed. Then the data are fitted by logistic function curve to foresight different technologies' life cycle. The technology attractiveness of each hydrogen production technologies is determined by obtaining the ratio of published patents to granted ones. The level of acceptance of each hydrogen technology is assessed by using an adaptation diagram. By the combination of these two diagrams, the current status and future of the technologies are achieved and validated. Findings show that most of the hydrogen production technologies are in the slope of enlightenment and plateau of productivity stages.