Eco-efficiency of hydrogen supply chains: NDEA-based approach

While there is a broad agreement in academia and the business community that hydrogen (H2) could significantly contribute to energy policy goals, there is no single shared vision of a sustainable hydrogen supply chain (HSC). The large number of sources for hydrogen production (various fossil fuels, biomass, water) and the different methods for extracting, distributing, and storing it make creating an efficient supply chain a challenge. The commonly used optimization techniques based on linear programming require a new mathematical problem to be formulated and solved for each case. Instead, this study aims to develop an innovative optimization approach for the hydrogen supply chain that does not require complete knowledge of the end-user hydrogen demand and applies to any region. Based on the Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) method, hybrid Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Value Sensitive Design (VSD) approach, the integral eco-efficiency indicator constructed by this approach is a weighted linear combination of economic parameters (CAPEX and OPEX) and environmental parameters (ecotoxicity, oxidation potential, eutrophication potential and climate change). The proposed approach has been tested on 22 different hydrogen supply chain options, confirming its efficiency and ability to inform national and international decision-making. For example, a pan-European decision support system could be based on continuously updated data from the EcoInvent database on environmental parameters of hydrogen production, storage, and transport technologies, and updated data on economic parameters from the European Hydrogen Observatory.