Assessment of hydrogen production from municipal solid wastes as competitive route to produce low-carbon H₂

An economic and CO₂ emission impact assessment of the production of H₂ from municipal solid waste in the two configurations of retrofitting an existing waste to energy plant with an electrolysis unit (WtE + El) and of hydrogen production via waste gasification (WtH₂) is made with respect to reference cases of H₂ production by steam reforming of methane (SMR) or of water electrolysis (El). The results are analyzed with reference to two scenarios depending on whether the fate of waste disposal emissions for SMR and El is accounted. The costs of H₂ production as a function of waste gate fee and CO₂ taxation as well as the CO₂ emissions for both scenarios and the four cases of H₂ production analyzed are reported. The results show that produce H₂ from a WtE plant hybridized with an electrolyzer could be economic only when the plant is free from depreciation costs and no CO₂ taxation exists. Conversely, WtH₂ solution results preferable when CO₂ taxation will be applied to the non-biogenic fraction of waste. Conditions when WtH₂ may results competitive to SMR are defined, in terms of both cost of production and CO₂ emissions. With respect to El case, WtH₂ results more competitive under the assumption made in terms of combined costs and CO₂ emissions.