Climate, air quality, and equity benefits from hydrogen substitution for fossil fuels used in process heat

Brian M. Gentry (), Garvin A. Heath, Vikram Ravi, Allen L. Robinson and Peter J. Adams
Additional contact information
Brian M. Gentry: Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Engineering and Public Policy
Garvin A. Heath: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Strategic Energy Analysis Center
Vikram Ravi: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Strategic Energy Analysis Center
Allen L. Robinson: Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science
Peter J. Adams: Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Engineering and Public Policy

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Fossil fuel combustion for process heat in heavy industry accounts for ~15% of all United States CO2 emissions and emits PM2.5 and its precursors, emissions that have a disproportionate impact on minority populations. Decarbonizing process heat in the U.S. via hydrogen substitution presents an opportunity to reduce emissions of CO2 and PM2.5 and mitigate resulting exposure disparity. Here, we show that hydrogen substitution in steelmaking provides a large reduction in CO2 emissions and air quality-related premature mortality, while hydrogen substitution in petroleum refining substantially benefits disadvantaged communities. When reductions in CO2 emissions and premature mortality are monetized using standard regulatory values, we find that the sum of air pollution and climate benefits outweighs the difference in private cost associated with hydrogen substitution in steelmaking, regardless of the method of hydrogen production. The approach developed here can support evaluations of equity-focused decarbonization strategies in other industries and for specific sites.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65216-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65216-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65216-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().