Hydrogen use in an urban district: environmental impacts a possible scenario based on coal

Authors

Dept. of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome "Tor Vergata" Via del Politecnico n. 1, 00133 Roma

Abstract

Hydrogen technology is becoming ever more relevant because hydrogen use can help containing
greenhouse gas emission if CO2 capture and storage techniques are implemented in the hydrogen production
technology (when hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels). For this reason this work aims at carrying
out a comparative analysis of possible energy scenarios in urban districts: a medium-small Italian city is
taken into consideration, and its energy consumptions, both for domestic and industrial use, are evaluated.
The current situation, in which conventional technologies meet the energy needs, is compared to a hypothetical
scenario where clean energy vectors, namely hydrogen and electricity, are utilized together with
traditional primary energy supply. Hydrogen production by means of coal decarbonization is investigated,
as well as hydrogen use in advanced energy systems for transport and for electric and thermal energy
generation.

Keywords