New paper on emissions standards for low-carbon hydrogen in Nature Communications

How low-carbon should “green” hydrogen be? A new paper co-authored with PhD alumnus and current Carnegie post-doc Dr. Stefano Mingolla (lead author) addresses this question, modeling ammonia plants retrofitted with low-carbon wind and solar PV as an example for broader challenges faced by the chemical industry. The paper was published today in Nature Communications.

The paper studies the effect of a range of decarbonization targets for hydrogen synthesis on the economic viability and technical feasibility of retrofitting existing European ammonia plants for on-site electrolytic hydrogen production. A “sweet spot” target is identified that allows a 95% reduction in life-cycle emissions relative to hydrogen produced via carbon-intensive steam methane reforming (SMR) while still maintaining cost-competitiveness with SMR in renewables rich regions.

The research is designed to guide policymakers in defining cost-effective decarbonization targets and identifying region-based strategies to support an electrolytic hydrogen-fed ammonia industry. The paper is the result of a research collaboration between HKUST and ETH Zurich. Other co-authors include Paolo Gabrielli, Alessandro Manzotti, Matthew Robson, Kevin Rouwenhorst, Francesco Ciucci, Giovanni Sansavini, Magdalena Klemun and Zhongming Lu.