Hydrogen production technologies: parameterized data and calculation model for location-specific technology selection based on economic and ecological assessment

There is a lack of profound information concerning the economic and ecological performance of available technology options for hydrogen production, preventing investments in new production facilities. This article provides a database with economic and ecological parameters for nine hydrogen production technologies (alkaline-, proton exchange membrane-, high-temperature electrolysis, steam-, autothermal reforming, coal-, biomass gasification, supercritical water gasification and dark fermentation) and three carbon capture technologies. Additionally, periphery such as biomass drying and product gas compression is considered. The standardized data is introduced into a parameterized calculation model that allows the assessment of the net present value, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the considered lifetime, and the GHG emissions per kg hydrogen produced for each technology combination. The parameterization enables adopters of the model to consider location-specific circumstances by inserting temporal- and spatial-specific cost- and emission factors. The calculation model is translated into a low-threshold calculation tool provided as supplementary material.