Hydrogen Production via Natural Gas Reforming Process – A Life Cycle Assessment Approach

Hydrogen Production via Natural Gas Reforming Process – A Life Cycle Assessment Approach

Murat , Öztürk

The use of hydrogen as a sustainable alternative fuel and energy carrier is gaining more acceptance as the environmental impact of hydrocarbons becomes more significant. Hydrogen can be produced from various energy sources, such as steam reforming of natural gas, coal gasification, water electrolysis and thermo-chemical water splitting. Hydrogen production is accomplished by steam reforming of natural gas and other fossil primary energy at approximately 97% of total and less than 3% is based on renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, etc. Today, steam reforming of natural gas is the most important and economic ways of the hydrogen production. The environmental performance of products or processes has become a key issue, which is why ways to minimize the effects on the environment are investigated. One of the effective ways for this purpose is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this paper, LCA of hydrogen production by natural gas reforming (NGR) process are investigated for environmental affect. The investigation uses LCA, which is an analytical tool to identify and quantify environmentally critical phases during the life cycle of a system or a product and/or to evaluate and decrease the overall environmental impact of the system or product. Keywords: Environmental effects, hydrogen production, LCA, natural gas reforming

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05-31

1253