Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production by Natural Gas Reforming in Brazil
Sandra Harumi Fukurozaki1; Antônio Braulio Neto1; Luzia Bouzan Costa Oliveira1; José Octavio Armani Paschoal2
1 University of São Paulo; 2 Instituto Inova
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-2561
Resumo
The focus of this paper is on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of hydrogen production, via natural gas reforming, in order to examine its potential environmental consequences. LCA is a systematic set of procedures for calculating the environmental impact of a product or service through all stages of its life cycle. The analysis has been carried out considering engineering data obtained from a hydrogen plant demonstration project in Brazil. The size of this plant was set at 11,476 kg/year. An inventory was provided for the manufacturing, transport, and installation phases, as well as hydrogen production and equipment maintenance. The cumulative energy demand to produce 1.31 kg/h was estimated at 4.73E02MJ and the greenhouse gas emissions were at 1.64 kg CO2eq. The following categories of impact were analyzed: acidification, global warming potential, eutrophication and ozone depletion. This paper highlights that the impacts of hydrogen production from a natural gas reforming is primarily determined by the fossil fuel consumed by the system.
Palavras-chave: life cycle assessment; hydrogen production; natural gas reforming; environmental impacts; global warming potential