Understanding the lifecycle carbon footprint and costs of sustainable hydrogen energy systems

氢被认为是未来的一种清洁燃料。然而，重要的是要认识到，它的生产、分配和使用可能会对环境、社会和可负担性产生负面影响。从不同氢技术路线(如绿松石或蓝氢)的生命周期角度考察碳足迹、能源需求、成本和社会影响，将形成未来氢技术选择的可持续性的完整图景。这里的研究挑战是围绕整个生命周期的新氢生产和应用路线对整个能源和工业系统的洞察，而不是仅仅关注单一的点。可持续性只能通过结合经济、环境和社会影响指标的全系统方法进行评估。该项目将结合系统集成(SI)、技术经济和生命周期评估(TEA&LCA)和多准则决策(MCDA)框架作为基本工具，通过系统评估碳足迹热点及其相关的经济、环境和社会影响，并在整个工业体系层面寻找改进机会，实现这种工业共生创新。我们将集成前面提到的整套系统工具，并将它们与过程数字孪生兄弟联系起来，为更广泛的氢气系统创建一个实时评估平台。创新方面是拟议的数字-孪生信息MCDA框架，包括SI、TEA、LCA和社会影响数据，允许实时反映不断变化的过程和技术的影响，从而使咨询功能能够在可持续氢技术开发的早期阶段进行可持续性意识决策。交付成果-一种新的方法和框架，可以系统地评估生命周期碳足迹及其相关的生命周期成本和环境影响；与英国、亚洲和全球最先进的技术评估相比。

Hydrogen is considered as a clean fuel for the future. Yet it is important to recognize that its production, distribution, and usage may have negative impacts on the environment, society, and the affordability. Examining the carbon footprint, energy requirements, costs and social impacts from a life cycle viewpoint of different hydrogen technology routes (e.g., green turquoise or blue hydrogen) will form a complete picture of the sustainability of the future hydrogen technology options.Here the research challenge is to gain insights into the whole energy and industrial system around the new hydrogen production and application routes over the entire lifecycle, instead of just looking at single point. Sustainability may only be assessed by means of a systems-wide approach, which combines economic, environmental, and social impact indicators. This project will combine system integration (SI), technoeconomic and lifecycle assessments (TEA & LCA) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDA) framework as essential tools, to enable such industrial symbiosis innovation, by systemic assessing hot spots of carbon footprintand their associated economic, environmental, and social impacts, and identifying opportunities for improvement at the whole industrial system level. We will integrate the aforementioned suite of whole system tools, and link them with a process digital twins to create a real-time assessment platform for the wider hydrogen systems. The innovative aspect is the proposed digital-twin informed MCDA framework embracing the SI, TEA, LCA and social impact data, allowing real time reflection of impacts with changing processes and technologies, and thus, enabling advisory features for sustainability- aware decision making during the early stage of sustainable hydrogen technology development.Deliverables-A novel methodology and framework that can systemically assess the life cycle carbon footprint, and their associated life cycle cost and environmental impact for novel hydrogen systems, infrastructures, and integrations; compared to the state-of-the art technologyevaluations in the UK, Asia and global context.