Life cycle sustainability assessment of hydrogen from biomass gasification: A comparison with conventional hydrogen

Hydrogen is a key product for a cleaner energy sector. However, the suitability of the different hydrogen production options should be checked from a life-cycle perspective. The Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) methodology is helpful for this purpose, allowing a thorough interpretation of a product system's performance by integrating economic, environmental and social indicators. This work presents an LCSA of renewable hydrogen from biomass gasification, and its sustainability benchmarking against conventional hydrogen from steam methane reforming. Environmental (global warming and acidification), economic (levelised cost) and social (child labour, gender wage gap, and health expenditure) life-cycle indicators are characterised and jointly interpreted. The results show that hydrogen from biomass gasification cannot yet be thoroughly considered a sustainable alternative to conventional hydrogen mainly due to economic and social concerns. However, improvement actions leading to an increase in process efficiency would significantly enhance the system's performance in each of the three sustainability dimensions. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.