Title: TECHNO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF GREEN HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FROM RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

Authors:
Chidimma A. Anyikwa & Bernadine Ifeoma Onah

Abstract: Abstract The world energy shift to the low-carbon system has attracted the importance of green hydrogen as a clean and multi-purpose energy carrier. Green hydrogen, which is produced using water electrolysis that is fueled by renewable energy sources, is a promising approach to decarbonizing the industry, transportation, and power generation sectors that are difficult to abate. Nevertheless, it is impeded by its high cost of production, lack of intermittency of renewable energy and lack of integrated structures that can simultaneously assess the technical, economic and environmental performances. The aim of the study is to come up with an elaborate techno-economic and environmental appraisal scheme to compare hydrogen production systems that are renewable-powered. The study is conducted using a simulation-based assessment framework that modeled renewable powered green hydrogen production system including solar photovoltaic, wind powered and hybrid solar-wind configurations. The research relied on simulation dataset, renewable energy resource data, electrolyzer performance parameters, economic cost models, and environmental life cycle assessment data obtained from published literature and benchmark datasets. Findings show that hybrid solar-wind systems are better than single-source systems in terms of higher hydrogen generation, lower levelized cost of hydrogen (5.2 USD/kg H2) and payback period and lower carbon footprint (0.8 kg CO2/kg H2). The combination framework offers a powerful method of system optimization and decision-making, which are useful to the policy makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers in developing cost-effective, efficient, and green hydrogen production systems. Keywords: Green Hydrogen, Renewable Energy, Techno-Economic Assessment, Environmental Sustainability.

Publication Date: 2026-06-04