Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage in Hydrogen Production: A Combined Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Assessment

This paper presents a coupled techno-economic and life cycle assessment of “blue” hydrogen to be produced at a hydrogen facility through steam methane reforming (SMR) equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS). Blue hydrogen was modeled in ChemCAD, while an integrated asset model represented the carbon capture and storage chain. An unabated carbon dioxide (CO2) configuration release 11.99 kgCO2-eq/kgH2. Capturing ≥95% of the CO2 stream lowers the carbon footprint to 6.59 kgCO2-eq/kgH2 but raises the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) from $1.82/kgH2 (no CO2 capture) to $3.22/kgH2; the U.S. 45Q tax credit reduces it to $2.59/kgH2. Incorporating CCS reduces the levelized net present value from $0.87/kgH2 to…

• NE
  National Energy Technology Laboratory

  Award: DE-FE0031890