Role prioritization of hydrogen production technologies for promoting hydrogen economy in the current state of China

Hydrogen production technologies play an important role in the hydrogen economy of China. However, the roles of different technologies played in promoting the development of hydrogen economy are different. The role prioritization of various hydrogen production technologies is of vital importance for the stakeholders/decision-makers to plan the development of hydrogen economy in China and to allocate the finite R&D budget reasonably. In this study, DPSIR framework was firstly used to identify the key factors concerning the priorities of various hydrogen production technologies; then, a fuzzy group decision-making method by incorporating fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS was proposed to prioritize the roles of different technologies. The proposed method is capable of allowing multiple groups of stakeholders/decision-makers to participate in the decision-making and addressing problems with uncertainty and imprecise information. The prioritization results by using the proposed method demonstrated that the technologies of coal gasification with CO2 capture and storage and hydropower-based water electrolysis were regarded as the two most important hydrogen production pathways for promoting the development of hydrogen economy in China among the five assessed technologies.