Environmental impacts associated with hydrogen production in La Guajira, Colombia

Abstract

The global push to decarbonize sectors of the economy and phase-out coal use has attracted a renewed interest in hydrogen. At the forefront of this debate, Colombia, the world’s 6th largest coal exporter, must consider strategies to support a just transition for regions that depend economically on coal exports. However, the role of hydrogen as a part of the energy transition has yet to be examined from an environmental justice lens. A full-chain life-cycle assessment of hydrogen production is yet to be considered in Colombia. Using life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, we examine the greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and trace metal emissions associated with six potential Colombian liquid hydrogen production strategies: (1) electrolysis powered by the country’s national electricity grid, (2) on-site electrolysis powered by electricity produced by a wind farm, (3) off-site electrolysis powered by electricity produced by a wind farm, (4) electrolysis powered by electricity produced from a coal-fired power plant, (5) coal gasification without carbon capture and storage (CCS), and (6) coal gasification with CCS. Upstream conversion has an outsized influence on the sustainability of a hydrogen transition in Colombia. Impact levels for wind-powered electrolysis are lower than those of the coal- and grid-powered scenarios for every impact category analyzed, apart from emissions of aluminum to air, nitrogen emissions to water, and phosphorous, nitrate, and nitrite emissions to soil. The grid-based electrolysis scenario is found to consume the largest amount of water, while coal-fueled scenarios pathways raise concerns of greater life-cycle mercury, nickel, and arsenic emissions. While coal gasification with CCS reduced gasification CO2 emissions by 35%, the CCS scenario’s VOC emissions were 37% greater than gasification without CCS, given that increased levels of coal inputs were required to account for the loss of efficiency associated with the addition of CCS technology. For Colombia to benefit most from a hydrogen-based decarbonization transition with minimal environmental impacts, community-focused planning and wind-based hydrogen systems should be prioritized

The Role of Low-Emission Hydrogen in Developing Countries: A Techno-Economic Assessment of Hydrogen Pathways in Colombia

“…SMR plants without and with carbon capture and storage (CCS) are included as the most common technology of production [92]. Coal gasification with CCS is considered due to enormous domestic reserves of coal and the need for a transition in coal-production regions [81,83,93]. Gasification is also selected as the technology of hydrogen production from biomass, owing to the maturity of the technology and the characteristics of residual biomass in the country [41].…”

“…This work implements a back casting approach for the formulation of scenarios, defining the desired hydrogen targets as an endpoint and assessing the required transition pathways to achieve these goals [81]. It is important to note that the scenarios cannot be seen as forecasts; instead, they are meant to shed some light on the possible routes and portfolio of technologies to enable the development of the hydrogen economy in Colombia.…”

Net-Zero Industry: Options for Plastics, Textiles, Automobiles, and Fisheries in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru

“…Both could be produced overseas and imported to Colombia, but they could also be produced domestically. Colombia has both the geography and industrial base for producing low-cost electricity from renewable energy, a key input to so-called green hydrogen and ammonia (Muñoz-Fernández et al, 2022;Ullman & Kittner, 2022), and could also potentially produce so-called blue hydrogen from the coal industry if suitable carbon capture infrastructure were in place (Domínguez et al, 2022). 5 Colombia already has an existing mature petrochemical industry with the workforce and local knowledge to produce and export liquid fuels.…”