a methodology for assessing the sustainability of hydrogen production from solid fuels评估方法的可持续性从固体燃料制氢.pdfVIP

Sustainability 2010, 2, 1472-1491; doi:10.3390/su2061472 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 /journal/sustainability Article A Methodology for Assessing the Sustainability of Hydrogen Production from Solid Fuels Nirmal V. Gnanapragasam, Bale V. Reddy and Marc A. Rosen * Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7K4, Canada; E-Mails: nirmal.vijay@ (N.V.G.); bale.reddy@uoit.ca (B.V.R.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: marc.rosen@uoit.ca; Tel.: +1-905-721-8668; Fax: +1-905-721-3370. Received: 21 February 2010; in revised form: 1 April 2010 / Accepted: 24 May 2010 / Published: 28 May 2010 Abstract: A methodology for assessing the sustainability of hydrogen production using solid fuels is introduced, in which three sustainability dimensions (ecological, sociological and technological) are considered along with ten indicators for each dimension. Values for each indicator are assigned on a 10-point scale based on a high of 1 and a low of 0, depending on the characteristic of the criteria associated with each element or process, utilizing data reported in the literature. An illustrative example is presented to compare two solid fuels for hydrogen production: coal and biomass. The results suggest that qualitative sustainability indicators can be reasonably defined based on evaluations of system feasib