Why turquoise hydrogen will Be a game changer for the energy transition

With hydrogen being promoted as a promising energy vector for a decarbonized world, low -carbon hydrogen production methods are of interest to replace the current Steam-Methane -Reforming production of & ldquo;grey & rdquo; hydrogen. While existing studies focus on the life-cycle -assessment of green hydrogen produced by water electrolysis, an alternative, which has attracted growing interest due to a much lower energy intensity (10-30 kWh/kgH2 < 50-60 kWh/kgH2), is turquoise hydrogen produced by the pyrolysis of methane. Specifically, this study conducts a life-cycle-assessment on hydrogen produced by the pyrolysis of methane via thermal-plasma. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted on the environmental-metric time -horizon and on the methane emissions rates. Results show that the carbon-intensity of hydrogen produced using this novel method is 88.3-90.8% lower than that of grey hydrogen. Furthermore, using renewable-natural-gas with a feedstock percentage as low as 8-18% leads to a negative hydrogen carbon-intensity (reaching-4.09 to-10.40 kgCO2e/kgH2 at 100% renewable natural gas), the lowest compared to grey, blue, and green hydrogen, making tur-quoise hydrogen a game-changer for the energy transition. (c) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study assesses the life cycle of hydrogen produced from methane pyrolysis via thermal-plasma, and finds that the carbon-intensity of the hydrogen produced using this method is 88.3-90.8% lower than that of grey hydrogen. Furthermore, with the use of renewable natural gas, the carbon-intensity can even reach negative values, making turquoise hydrogen a potential game-changer for the energy transition.