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Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Biohydrogen Production from Biomass Resources

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Biohydrogen Production: Sustainability of Current Technology and Future Perspective

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to assess environmental impacts of biohydrogen production regarding anthropogenic climate change, emissions with an acidification impact and further impact categories by means of a life cycle approach. In conjunction with reducing the use of fossil resources, there is a need to prioritize those technologies that will provide the least impact on the environment. Thus, a variety of processes of hydrogen production derived from biomass feedstock are investigated related to environmental effects. This case study considers biohydrogen production derived from biomass sources from forestry and short rotation coppice (SRC), herbaceous biomass (i.e. wheat straw), energy crops (mainly maize and grain) and biowaste in Germany. The technology with the most promising results regarding the environmental impact is steam methane reforming (SMR) of a substrate mix from nonfood substrates compared to steam methane reforming of natural gas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Hamburg University of Technology, Eissendorfer Str. 40, 21073, Hamburg, Germany

    Christina Wulf, Lisa Thormann & Martin Kaltschmitt

  2. The Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Christina Wulf

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  1. Christina Wulf
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  2. Lisa Thormann
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  3. Martin Kaltschmitt
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Correspondence to Christina Wulf .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India Technology Bhawan, New Delhi, India

    Anoop Singh

  2. School of Environment and Sustainable Development, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

    Dheeraj Rathore

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Wulf, C., Thormann, L., Kaltschmitt, M. (2017). Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Biohydrogen Production from Biomass Resources. In: Singh, A., Rathore, D. (eds) Biohydrogen Production: Sustainability of Current Technology and Future Perspective. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3577-4_13

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