2017 Volume 13 Issue 4 Pages 325-331
The utilization of hydrogen as an energy carrier is promoted in major countries as one of the major climate change countermeasures. Regarding hydrogen energy utilization, it is important that not only reducing greenhouse gas emission at the use stage, but also reducing the emissions from hydrogen production until its use be evaluated. Therefore, the Ministry of the Environment regarded a need of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), which is a technique to assess environmental impacts through life cycle of products or services. The Ministry of the Environment established LCA guidelines for hydrogen energy manufacturers, sales companies and final users to evaluate their own hydrogen energy business in Japan. In order to reduce manhour for the calculation and reduce the error in the calculation, a LCA calculation tool was also developed. This tool equipped with two types of LCI databases, process-based database and input-output table based database. Furthermore, manual of the tool and samples using the tool were produced. The tool, manual and samples are available on the website of the Ministry of the Environment.
