Environmental and economic assessment of large-scale hydrogen supply chains across Europe: LOHC vs other hydrogen technologies

The transition to decarbonized energy systems positions hydrogen as a critical vector for achieving climate neutrality, yet its large-scale transportation and storage remain key challenges. This study presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) and economic analysis of large-scale H2 supply chains, evaluating the liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) system based on benzyltoluene/perhydro-benzyltoluene (H0-BT/H12-BT) against conventional technologies: compressed gaseous hydrogen (CGH2), liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid ammonia (LNH3). The analysis includes multiple H2 transportation scenarios across Europe, considering the steps: conditioning, sea transportation, post-processing and land distribution by truck or pipeline. Environmentally, LOHC currently faces higher environmental impacts than CGH2, driven by energy-intensive dehydrogenation process. Truck-based distribution further amplifies impacts, particularly over long distances, while pipeline-based distribution significantly reduces the environmental burdens where infrastructure exists. Sensitivity analysis reveals that using H2 for dehydrogenation heat lowers process-level impacts but increases overall supply chain impacts, questioning its net environmental benefit. Economically, LOHC remains competitive despite high dehydrogenation costs, benefiting from low sea transportation expenses, compatibility with existing fossil fuel infrastructure and potential for future CAPEX and OPEX improvements. While CGH2 outperforms LH2 and LNH3, avoiding energy-intensive liquefaction and cracking, its storage requirements add considerable costs. For land distribution, LOHC trucks are optimal at lower capacities, whereas repurposed natural gas pipelines favour CGH2 at higher scale, reducing costs by up to 84 %. Despite current trade-offs, the scalability, flexibility and synergies with existing infrastructure position LOHC as a promising solution for long-distance H2 transport, contingent on technological maturation to mitigate dehydrogenation impacts.