Environmental studies of green hydrogen production by electrolytic process: A comparison of the use of electricity from solar PV, wind energy, and hydroelectric plants

Abstract

In this paper is developed an environmental comparison analysis associated with electrolytic process of hydrogen production using renewable electricity generated by solar photovoltaic (PV), wind energy, and hydroelectric systems. The electrolytic process and the electricity generation are particularly explained, and the global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions are analysed, highlighting advantages and disadvantages associated with the production of green hydrogen. The hydrogen production processes are compared considering those different scenarios, enabling the determination of pollutant emissions factors, as the equivalent dioxide carbon and ecological efficiency. As a conclusion, the sustainability study using environmental analysis showed that electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar and water) have ecological impacts on hydrogen production. Comparatively, the best level of ecological efficiency obtained was in the production of green hydrogen from electricity from hydroelectric plants, followed by wind and photovoltaic (PV) plants.