Efficiency evaluation of a sustainable hydrogen production scheme based on super efficiency SBM model

The hydrogen production transition from coal to renewable energy is key to realize low-carbon in the whole hydrogen energy system. To accelerate the transition, this study proposes a sustainable hydrogen production scheme combining coal-based hydrogen production with renewable hydrogen production. Specifically, the excess alkalinity generated by water electrolysis can capture the CO2 from coal-based hydrogen production. Additionally, the oxygen generated by water electrolysis can be provided for coal-based hydrogen production. Different from previous studies, we use the super efficiency SBM model with undesirable outputs to calculate the efficiency of coal-based hydrogen production, renewable hydrogen production and the integrated scheme. Results show that the efficiency of the integrated scheme with the reasonable configuration is 2.01. And it has the highest efficiency ranking, followed by coal-based hydrogen production and hydrogen production from wind energy, which are 1.07 and 0.84, respectively. On the other hand, the hydrogen production from solar energy is 0.32, which has the lowest ranking. Therefore, the integrated scheme can provide the low-carbon hydrogen by the inexpensive cost. Popularizing the integrated scheme should promote the large-scale of renewable hydrogen production, thereby guiding the green transformation of hydrogen production. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.