A Techno-Economic, Carbon Intensity, and Policy Assessment of Hydrogen Production in the United States

Details

• Creators:
  Sierra-Jimenez, Valentina ; Brandt, Kristin ; Garcia, Aidan ; Garcia-Perez, Manuel ; Wolcott, Michael P.
• Corporate Creators:
  Washington State University
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  ASCENT Carbon Costs Decarbonization Economic Analysis Environmental Protection Hydrogen Production Policy Making
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2026.154856
• Resource Type:
  Journal Article
• Right Statement:
  Open Access; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Elsevier
• Abstract:
  Comparing studies that involve techno-economic analyses (TEA) and life cycle assessments (LCA) for different hydrogen production technologies is challenging due to inconsistent assumptions across studies. Thus, this research develops a harmonized framework to assess seven hydrogen production pathways - water electrolysis, methane pyrolysis, biomass gasification, steam methane reforming, autothermal reforming, partial oxidation, and dry methane reforming, under consistent U.S.-specific techno-economic, carbon intensity (CI), and policy assumptions. Process models developed with Aspen Plus produce mass and energy balances, informing opensource TEA and cradle-to-gate CI estimates. Thermal conversion pathways produce hydrogen at $0.8–$3.9/kg, while electrolysis-based methods range from $4.5–$18.5/kg, contingent on both electrolyzer and the source of electricity used. Several low-carbon emitting pathways meet emerging clean hydrogen standards, but only some achieve cost parity with conventional hydrogen under current U.S. federal and state incentives. This framework enables consistent cross-technology comparison and supports informed decisions on hydrogen sourcing, including applications such as sustainable aviation fuel production or fuel cell electric vehicles.
• Content Notes:
  This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Please cite this article as: Valentina Sierra-Jimenez, Kristin Brandt, Aidan Garcia, Manuel Garcia-Perez, Michael P. Wolcott, A techno-economic, carbon intensity, and policy assessment of hydrogen production in the United States, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 231, 2026, 154856, ISSN 0360-3199, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2026.154856.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  Federal Aviation Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c5151e89dfa8f4d4a5bcc5b94b9b12a1ebb01f96fe3904d258098a4063d153c891647a41ffc4fe46fc4792a348b060b3d385f7cdd0d6e4bbf9a90c54ff5b5bba
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/92353/dot_92353_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 10.73 MB ]