Exergetic life cycle assessment of a hydrogen production process

Exergetic life cycle assessment (ExLCA) is applied with life cycle assessment (LCA) to a hydrogen production process. This comparative environmental study examines a nuclear-based hydrogen production via thermochemical water splitting using a copper–chlorine cycle. LCA, which is an analytical tool to identify, quantify and decrease the overall environmental impact of a system or a product, is extended to ExLCA. Exergy efficiencies and air pollution emissions are evaluated for all process steps, including the uranium processing, nuclear and hydrogen production plants. LCA results are presented in four categories: acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential and ozone depletion potential. A parametric study is performed for various plant lifetimes. The ExLCA results indicate that the greatest irreversibility is caused by uranium processing. The primary contributor of the life cycle irreversibility of the nuclear-based hydrogen production process is fuel (uranium) processing, for which the exergy efficiency is 26.7% and the exergy destruction is 2916.3 MJ. The lowest global warming potential per megajoule exergy of hydrogen is 5.65 g CO2-eq achieved a plant capacity of 125,000 kg H2/day. The corresponding value for a plant capacity of 62,500 kg H2/day is 5.75 g CO2-eq.

► Development of a new exergy based LCA concept for nuclear-based hydrogen production.
► Evaluation of AP, EP, GWP and ODP for various plant lifetimes per MJ exergy of H2.
► Exergy efficiency and destruction evaluation in each process of H2 production.