Life Cycle Assessment of Enriched Methane Produced by a Concentrated Solar Power Plant Coupled with a Steam Reforming Process

The global energy related challenges, mainly due to the worldwide growing energy consumption gone with a reduction ofoil and gas availability, is leading to an increasing interest on hydrogen as energy carrier. Molten salts at temperatures up to 550 ~C can be used as solar heat carrier and storage system, and hydrogen selective membranes can be used to drive reforming reaction at lower temperatures than conventional （〈 550 ~C）, with hydrogen purification achieved thereby. The combination of new technologies such as membranes and membrane reactors, concentrating solar power （CSP） systems and molten salt heat carriers, allows a partial decarbonation of the fossil fuel together with the possibility to carry solar energy in the current natural gas grid. The aim of this work is to present a life cycle assessment of a novel hybrid plant for the production of a mixture of methane and hydrogen, called enriched methane, from a steam reforming reactor whose heat duty is supplied by a molten salt stream heated up by an