TY - JOUR

T1 - Resource-Efficient Gigawatt Water Electrolysis in Germany

T2 - A Circular Economy Potential Analysis

AU - Matz, Levin

AU - Bensmann, Boris

AU - Hanke-Rauschenbach, Richard

AU - Minke, Christine

N1 - Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Christine Minke gratefully acknowledges financial funding of her junior researcher position in the Caroline Herschel Program of Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Funding from Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture originating from the “Niedersächsisches Vorab” programme within the project “H2-Wegweiser” (Grant No. ZN3770) and “InnoEly” (Grant No. ZN3771) is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2024/2/3

Y1 - 2024/2/3

N2 - Green hydrogen will play a key role in the future energy system. For the production of green hydrogen, an installation of alkaline (AWE) and proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) of several gigawatts per year is projected in the upcoming decades. The development of the hydrogen economy is associated with a great demand for scarce and expensive resources. To reduce resource demand and avoid supply bottlenecks, actions toward a circular economy are required. In the present study, three circular economy actions (repair, reuse, and recycling) are analyzed with regard to AWE and PEMWE installation taking Germany as an example. It is found that, so far, only recycling is a viable strategy for a circular economy. For further analysis, a model is developed to assess the impact of recycling on resource demand for AWE and PEMWE scale-up. Mass flows from end-of-life recycling are intergrated into the model, and their economic value is estimated. The results imply that closed-loop recycling can reduce the cumulated primary resource demand by up to 50% in the long run. However, recycling will first be relevant after 2040, while water electrolysis capacities installed before still depend on primary materials. The outlook on the economic value of the recycling materials indicates a volume of up to 2.15 B € per decade for PEMWE and 0.98 B € per decade for AWE recycling. To realize the potential, a recycling industry specialized for those technolgies considering the whole value chain covering dismantling, collection, and recycling must be introduced.

AB - Green hydrogen will play a key role in the future energy system. For the production of green hydrogen, an installation of alkaline (AWE) and proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) of several gigawatts per year is projected in the upcoming decades. The development of the hydrogen economy is associated with a great demand for scarce and expensive resources. To reduce resource demand and avoid supply bottlenecks, actions toward a circular economy are required. In the present study, three circular economy actions (repair, reuse, and recycling) are analyzed with regard to AWE and PEMWE installation taking Germany as an example. It is found that, so far, only recycling is a viable strategy for a circular economy. For further analysis, a model is developed to assess the impact of recycling on resource demand for AWE and PEMWE scale-up. Mass flows from end-of-life recycling are intergrated into the model, and their economic value is estimated. The results imply that closed-loop recycling can reduce the cumulated primary resource demand by up to 50% in the long run. However, recycling will first be relevant after 2040, while water electrolysis capacities installed before still depend on primary materials. The outlook on the economic value of the recycling materials indicates a volume of up to 2.15 B € per decade for PEMWE and 0.98 B € per decade for AWE recycling. To realize the potential, a recycling industry specialized for those technolgies considering the whole value chain covering dismantling, collection, and recycling must be introduced.

KW - 3 R’s

KW - Alkaline water electrolysis

KW - Circular economy

KW - Hydrogen economy

KW - Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184217415&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s43615-024-00345-x

DO - 10.1007/s43615-024-00345-x

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85184217415

JO - Circular Economy and Sustainability

JF - Circular Economy and Sustainability

SN - 2730-597X

ER -