Environmental Impact Assessment of Coal Gasification Hydrogen Production in China: A Life Cycle Assessment of Grey and Blue Hydrogen

Hydrogen possessing a high energy density, high calorific value, and being free of pollution, is an ideal energy resource for achieving China’s dual carbon objectives. Green hydrogen is essential for the future use of hydrogen, particularly from the point of view of sustainability. Nevertheless, the present manufacturing of green hydrogen is considerably more complex than that of grey hydrogen and blue hydrogen. Therefore, this study analyses the environmental impact of grey and blue hydrogen production in China via the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, by ISO-14040 and ISO-14044 standards, based on two primary production using data from Ecoinvent 3.9.1., coal gasification with and without CCS (carbon capture and storage). The results indicated that the implementation of CCS can lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with a decrease of up to 54.62%. Although there has been a decrease, it was illustrated that CCS still leads to an increase in the use of nonrenewable resources, particularly natural gas, as a result of the energy requirements for CCS operations. Furthermore, although CCS effectively reduces GHG emissions, it unintentionally results in a slight rise in other environmental consequences such as marine ecotoxicity and human toxicity. These findings emphasise utilizing renewable energy sources to maximize environmental benefits in hydrogen production.