Hydrogen transportation using liquid organic hydrides: A comprehensive life cycle assessment

The liquid organic hydride (LOH-H-2) technology has gained significant attention for hydrogen transportation. There are, however, open questions on LOH-H-2 environmental performance due to the presence of energy-intensive dehydrogenation and separation steps. Therefore, in this study, we have conducted the life cycle assessment of LOH-H-2 to quantify its total environmental footprint and benchmark the results with conventional compressed hydrogen technology (G-H-2). In the LCA model, we have used the ReCiPe end point method and the IPCC 2013 global warming potential methods. Our results suggest that the dehydrogenation-cum-separation stage in LOH-H-2 contributes to the largest environmental footprint and the dehydrogenation conversion should be maintained above 99% to gain environmental advantage over G-H-2. Through breakeven point analysis, we found that LOH-H-2 could be an environmentally favorable option when H-2 is transported beyond 395 km, 365 km, 295, and 265 for USA, Europe, China and India respectively. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.