Multicriteria analysis of seawater electrolysis technologies for green hydrogen production at sea

The production of green hydrogen through the electrolysis of seawater using marine renewable energies offer numerous advantages. Nonetheless, the combination of marine renewables and electrolysis technologies has not reached commercial status yet. This study aims to see which electrolysis technology presents the best prospects of applicability in the short term by conducting a multicriteria comparison, where economic, environmental and social factors have been selected. Due to the different nature of the involved factors, the analysis is inherently complex. For its simplification, multicriteria decision-making methods are used. However, such methods could lead to various types of inconsistencies, and in order to avoid them, five distinct multicriteria decision-making methods have been employed. This combination enables checking the ranking consistency and its robustness, conferring the results a higher reliability. The results of the study reveal that Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis at sea presents the best prospects of applicability in the short term.