Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment of hydrogen production from natural gas using current and emerging technologies

This study presents techno-economic analyses and life cycle assessments of four hydrogen production technologies using natural gas as a feedstock. Steam methane reforming, auto-thermal reforming and two innovative technologies: syngas chemical looping (SCL) and chemical looping reforming (CLR) are evaluated and compared. Thermodynamic analysis indicates that the CLR option can achieve the highest thermal efficiency (84%, LHV), even when CO2 capture and liquefaction units are added. The financial analysis shows that the minimum hydrogen selling price of this system is 50%-90% of the price for the other technologies and finally, a carbon price of only $5/tonne CO2 is required to make the CLR option (with zero direct carbon emissions) more financially attractive than SMR. While the analyses show that the CLR option is capable of achieving promising results there remain challenges to scale-up and commercialization of this technology including uniform flow distribution and reactivity of oxygen carrier.