A parametric life cycle framework to promote sustainable-by-design product development: Application to a hydrogen production technology

The operationalization of the framework is conducted, for the first time in the context of sustainable design, by combining the use of the Brightway2 and lca_algebraic Python packages. Overall, the proposed approach succeeds in providing a complete sustainability perspective to the design of emerging technologies. Regarding the tangible lessons learned on the hydrogen-related case study, product concepts are proven to progressively improve the sustainability performance of the technology.

It is noticeable that the enhancement of the economic competitivity is more limited than that achieved at the remaining sustainability indicators (i.e., environmental, social and material criticality metrics). In line with the outcomes of the life cycle contribution assessment, multi-criteria decision analysis ratings lead to concluding that a sustainable-by-design SOEC stack product concept should prioritize limiting its material intensity. | This work has been carried out within the framework of the projects eGHOST and SH2E.

These projects have received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) under Grant Agreements No. 101007166 and 101007163, respectively. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research. The contents of this document are provided “AS IS”.

It reflects only the authors view and the Joint Undertaking is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Raphael Jolivet for his selfless technical support on the use of the lca_algebraic Python package.