Life cycle assessment on the role of H2S-based hydrogen via H2S-methane reforming for the production of sustainable fuels

Meeting current decarbonization targets requires a shift to a hydrogen energy nexus, yet, water is a valuable resource for hydrogen production, shifting the perspective to the use of H2S instead within the context of circular economy. A comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts, using a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA), was developed focusing on the operation of hydrogen sulfide-methane reforming (H2SMR) for H2 production benchmarked to conventional technologies, steam methane reforming (SMR) and SMR + carbon capture (CC), as feedstock to produce sustainable fuels (i.e., methanol and ammonia). The environmental impact of the different application routes was evaluated in terms of normalized impact categories and monetized indicators by calculating the environmental damage cost. The results indicated that the environmental impact increased when moving from H2SMR