Life cycle assessment of hydrogen, electricity, and heat Co-production system based on chemical looping technology and SOFC

The hydrogen industry encompasses various applications, including transportation, power generation, and energy storage, and this development trend poses higher requirements for future energy systems. It is necessary to design a hybrid system that integrates hydrogen, electricity, and heat production. To better evaluate this integration, this paper conducts a life cycle assessment of the hydrogen-electricity-heat cogeneration process based on the chemical looping technology and solid oxide fuel cell. In this study, the Gabi software is used for the modeling process. The impact assessment methods ReCiPe 2016 and IPCC are selected, including midpoint-endpoint analysis and GWP 100a analysis. The results show that by consuming biogas of 8.64E+08 kg, the electricity output and hydrogen generation are obtained as 6.58E+09 MJ and 1.14E+07 kg, respectively. The operation stage and the demolition stage contribute most to the improvement in environmental impacts, while the construction and transportation stages harm the environment. The chromium alloy, stainless steel 316, and copper in the construction stage cause significant damage to the environment. The electricity production during the operation phase is the decisive factor influencing the values of various environmental indicators. The endpoint values for ecosystem, human health, and resource utilization are −1.96E+03 species∙yr, −5.93E+05 DALY, and 4.09E+10 $, respectively.