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

氢被认为是未来的清洁燃料。然而，重要的是要认识到，其生产，分配和使用可能对环境，社会和负担能力产生负面影响。从不同氢技术路线的生命周期角度审查碳足迹、能源需求、成本和社会影响（例如，绿色绿松石或蓝色氢）将构成未来氢技术选择可持续性的完整图景。在这里，研究的挑战是围绕新的氢生产和应用路线在整个生命周期内深入了解整个能源和工业系统，而不是只看单个点。可持续性只能通过综合经济、环境和社会影响指标的全系统方法进行评估。该项目将结合联合收割机系统集成（SI）、技术经济和生命周期评估（TEA & LCA）以及多标准决策（MCDA）框架作为重要工具，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，并在整个工业系统层面识别改进机会，实现工业共生创新。我们将整合上述整套系统工具，并将其与过程数字孪生模型相连接，为更广泛的氢系统创建实时评估平台。创新方面是所提出的数字孪生知情MCDA框架，包括SI，TEA，LCA和社会影响数据，允许真实的时间反映变化过程和技术的影响，从而在可持续氢技术开发的早期阶段为可持续性决策提供咨询功能。及其相关的生命周期成本和环境影响的新型氢系统，基础设施和集成;相比，在英国，亚洲和全球范围内的最先进的technologyevaluations。

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.