Overlook the Hydrogen Energy from Life Cycle Perspective

Abstract

Hydrogen is a secondary energy that can be produced from various kinds of primary and renewable energies, that emits no environmental emissions at its use phase and that can be applied to variety of technologies. In terms of the environmental advantages of hydrogen, however, the conventional counterpart technologies that are competitive with hydrogen technologies differ by the purpose of utilising hydrogen. Moreover, the hydrogen supply chain cannot be completely zero emissions due to energies and materials inputs to the processes comprising the supply chain. This article describes the points of attention when evaluating the value of hydrogen from life cycle perspective and introduces the results of life cycle GHG emissions associated with intercontinental supply chain of hydrogen from renewables using energy carriers to address issues for conducting life cycle inventory analysis of hydrogen.