A Life Cycle Assessment and Economic Perspective of Biohydrogen Production

The energy and transportation sectors are majorly dependent on fossil fuels to meet its ever-growing demand. Hydrogen, a non-carbon-based fuel is a suitable alternative as it eliminates the carbon emissions linked to fuel combustion. However, currently hydrogen is primarily produced from natural gas, coal, electrolysis, heavy oil, and naphtha. A shift to biological processes for production of hydrogen may be a more environment-friendly alternative. In order to establish the environmental performance of biohydrogen production over current commercial technologies, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies are conducted. LCA can evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with various biohydrogen production processes by considering the material, energy, fuel, and emissions involved. In addition to environmental performance, the economics of biohydrogen production should be competitive enough with commercial hydrogen production processes to make biohydrogen the primary choice for market use. Hence, economic analysis is undertaken to evaluate the cost of production based on commercial scale production of biohydrogen. This chapter presents the LCA and economic assessment studies with regard to biohydrogen production to enable stakeholders and policy-makers in decision-making.