Life Cycle Assessment of a Hydrogen Valley

This thesis aims to investigate the environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of key components within a Hydrogen Valley, where multiple end-users are fed by green hydrogen. To comprehensively understand the hydrogen valley concept, eight comparative case studies were conducted to investigate different technological pathways, including hydrogen production through electrolysis and steam methane reforming, transportation via pipeline and tube trailers, storage options, and end-use applications such as fuel cell electric vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, steelmaking, and ammonia production. The results reveal that producing hydrogen through electrolysis powered by renewable electricity can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70% compared to conventional, fossil-based pathways. The hydrogen produced is either utilized on-site or transported to end-users to feed a fleet of fuel cell electric vehicles and heavy-duty trucks, or serves as a key feedstock for industrial decarbonization. The results highlight that the final use of hydrogen for both mobility and industrial applications produces valuable environmental benefits. However, the findings also show that electricity generation for electrolysis and compression stages remains the dominant hotspot across most scenarios. Moreover, the manufacturing of advanced materials such as carbon fiber tanks, fuel cell stacks, and electrolyzer components further contributes to environmental impacts related to acidification and material resource depletion.