Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction and Economic Benefits of Hydrogen Fuel Cells in the Building Sector

The transition to a low-carbon building sector will be greatly aided by hydrogen fuel cells. This paper examines their carbon emission reduction and economic advantages via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH), alongside multiple carbon pricing scenarios. When using coal-produced hydrogen as a hydrogen source, hydrogen fuel cell applications have no carbon reduction effect. When hydrogen production from natural gas steam reforming is employed, the carbon reduction per unit of hydrogen in the HFC-CHP system ranges from 2.34 to 4.07 kgCO₂e, with a hydrogen cost per unit between 24.32 and 37.78 RMB/kg. When using blue hydrogen, the carbon reduction increases to 4.70–9.08 kgCO₂e, with costs ranging from 22.86 to 39.97 RMB/kg. Green hydrogen achieves the highest carbon reduction of up to 10.99 kgCO₂e, but costs rise to 47.51 RMB/kg under this pathway. The results revealed that pipeline transport outperforms trailer transport in carbon reduction and economic efficiency at the same distance. Simultaneously, solely incorporating the carbon market as a hydrogen subsidy measure is insufficient to close the cost disparity between hydrogen fuel cell energy supply and traditional energy supply methods. More types of subsidy measures are needed to enhance the competitiveness of hydrogen energy.