Life-Cycle Assessment of Renewable-based Hydrogen Production via PEM Electrolyzer in Indonesia

By 2030, Indonesia intends to reduce greenhouse gases by 29%. With growing concerns about climate change and the need to decarbonize the industrial, and energy systems, the Indonesian government has been motivated to consider clean hydrogen from renewable resources as a sustainable fuel for major industrial sector, such as in the manufacture of aluminum, iron, and steel. Among all hydrogen production methods, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) is the best option when high-purity hydrogen is required. This paper seeks to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) on renewable-based hydrogen production via the PEM electrolyzer. The proposed case study contains the wind power, PEM electrolyzer, H2 compression, and desalination unit to prepare the water for the electrolysis process. The 1 kg H2 generation is considered as a function unit for calculating all LCA’s indicators. The system boundary is divided into four subsystems, and all inputs-output processes, energy flows, emissions to air, and water, etc. are included. The CML-IA approach is used for the characterization and normalization of 8 midpoint environment impacts using the World 2001 dataset. The proposed LCA on the H2 production is carried out in OpenLCA 2.1 software. The results reveal that electricity generation and H2 compression are the most considerable subsystems. Between of all indicators, human toxicity, acidification, and photochemical ozone creation impacts have the most significant role, respectively. It should be noted that the sensitivity analysis for ±20% deviation on the results approves the main achievements of this study.