Laying the ground for product environmental footprint category rules of hydrogen devices through product categorisation

The development of an environmentally sustainable hydrogen economy requires addressing environmental impacts along the entire hydrogen value chain. In order to support this transition, the present work aims at paving the way for the development of the first Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs) for hydrogen devices. To that end, this work presents two main outputs: (i) a categorisation of hydrogen devices, and (ii) a set of recommendations for selected product categories and subcategories for PEFCR development. The categorisation procedure considers five stages of the hydrogen value chain referred to as product families: devices for hydrogen production, conditioning, storage, transport, and use. Under each family, an overview of the available hydrogen technologies is provided and common technical and environmental aspects of the involved devices are identified according to the rules provided by the European Commission Recommendation 2021/2279 on the use of the Environmental Footprint methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations. This led to the definition of 11 product categories, for five of which a further subdivision into subcategories is proposed. Furthermore, recommendations for drafting hydrogen-related PEFCRs are provided for a selection of product categories and subcategories in line with the aforementioned Commission Recommendation, additionally drawing on hydrogen-specific environmental life cycle assessment guidelines and existing PEFCRs not related to hydrogen. This serves as a cornerstone for the development of the first PEFCRs specific to hydrogen devices. ✓ An overview of devices for hydrogen production, conditioning, storage, transport and use is provided ✓ Hydrogen-related products are categorised for Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) purposes ✓ 11 product categories and 14 subcategories are defined for hydrogen-related products ✓ Recommendations for PEF category rules are drawn for selected product categories and subcategories ✓ Categorisation for PEF studies supports the deployment of an environmentally friendly hydrogen economy