Comparative life cycle assessment of green hydrogen production across cities in Saudi Arabia

Green hydrogen forms the backbone of numerous current decarbonization initiatives, integrating high energy density with a comparatively low environmental impact. In this paper, the environmental footprint of producing green hydrogen using photovoltaic (PV) energy and a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer is investigated across major Saudi Arabian cities, employing a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) approach and the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) method. The results indicate that production location plays a crucial role in shaping environmental outcomes. Among the assessed cities, Tabuk exhibits the lowest environmental impacts across all categories, while Dammam shows the highest, with global warming potentials of 6.45 and 7.42 kg CO2-eq/kg H2, respectively. A detailed system breakdown reveals that PV modules and battery storage are the primary contributors to global warming potential. Sensitivity analysis identifies PV module efficiency and the specific energy consumption of the electrolyzer as the most influential parameters. Uncertainty analysis also shows that Tabuk has the lowest environmental impacts, confirming its favorable environmental profile for green hydrogen production among the studied cities.