THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF RENEWABLE HYDROGEN FOR ENERGY STORAGE AND MOBILITY APPLICATIONS Print

THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF RENEWABLE HYDROGEN FOR ENERGY STORAGE AND MOBILITY APPLICATIONS


Mihai Balan*, Mihaela Buga1, Adrian Badea2


1National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies – ICSI Rm. Valcea, 240050, Rm. Valcea, Uzinei Street no. 4, P.O. Box Râureni 7, Valcea, Romania; 2University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Romania


ABSTRACT

Energy storage technologies are regarded as key components of the ongoing energy transition towards decarbonization and lower GHG emissions. A simplified LCA is performed in order to determine the environmental impact of renewable hydrogen for energy storage and mobility applications in two impact categories: global warming potential (GWP) and cumulative energy demand (CED) and compare it to the reference hydrogen production scenario which is steam reforming. The results clearly indicate that renewable hydrogen is a more sustainable option, while underlying the importance of the energy mix used in the compression stage.

Keywords: renewable hydrogen, LCA, energy storage, mobility.


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*Corresponding author: Mihai Balan, E-mail: mihai.balan@icsi.ro, phone: 0250732744; Fax: 0250732746