UC Irvine

In 2016, the transportation sector in California emits 41% of the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the state’s GHG emissions reduction goals necessitate reducing GHG emissions from this sector. One strategy is through the increased adoption of zero-emission vehicles. One option is fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), using fuel produced from renewable (carbon-neutral and zero-carbon) hydrogen pathways.This thesis conducts techno-economic analyses for a set of carbon-neutral hydrogen production pathways from biomass via anaerobic digestion (AD) to synthetic natural gas (SNG). The scope of analysis is from the transportation of feedstocks to AD facilities to the delivery of the renewable hydrogen fuel to stations. The biomass feedstocks included in the analyses are municipal solid waste (MSW), food waste, and animal manures. Technologies considered to convert SNG to hydrogen are steam methane reformation and tri-generation. Geographic information systems (GIS) software is utilized to account for the high spatial-dependency of the transportation aspects of the production pathways. It was found that across all biomass feedstocks, (1) tri-generation is more expensive but less emissions-intensive than steam methane reformation for the generation of carbon-neutral hydrogen, (2) the transportation segment accounts for a large majority of pathway emissions while a small contribution to the cost of hydrogen, and (3) the optimal scenario to minimize both cost and emissions is to site 5 AD facilities in the State with an average size of 1,243,889; 187,204; and 449,132 dry tons of biomass per year, for MSW, food waste, and animal manure, respectively.