Techno-economic and life cycle analyses of battery-assisted hydrogen production systems from photovoltaic power

The implementation of energy systems and technologies has been incentivized by the assessment of various aspects, including social and economic acceptance and sharing rational technology targets. In this study, battery-assisted hydrogen production systems were analyzed with regard to their environmental and techno-economic aspects. The costs of hydrogen production were minimized by the capacity optimization of the system components based on different development levels of contained technologies. The cost minimization indicated the upper limit of battery cost for reducing hydrogen cost. The relation with the cost of electrolyzer can be formulated in some assumptions. Greenhouse gas emissions and the abiotic resource depletion of cost-minimized systems were also analyzed. The performance of battery assisted hydrogen production on unit cost and greenhouse gas emission may be high enough to be competitive with other hydrogen production or fossil fuel use. In contrast, the environmental impact of this system on the abiotic resource depletion is too large to be environmentally competitive to other options. Technology and system improvements such as metal recycling are important factors for the system. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The implementation of energy systems and technologies is incentivized by various aspects such as social and economic acceptance. Battery-assisted hydrogen production systems have been analyzed in terms of environmental and techno-economic aspects, showing competitive performance in unit cost and greenhouse gas emissions but lacking environmental competitiveness in abiotic resource depletion. Technology and system improvements are crucial for the system.