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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Blockchain
Sec. Blockchain in Industry
Volume 7 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbloc.2024.1408743
This article is part of the Research Topic Blockchain and Tokenomics for Sustainable Development View all 4 articles

Is It Green? Designing a Blockchain-Based Certification System for the EU Hydrogen Market

Provisionally accepted
Jonathan Schmid Jonathan Schmid 1*Jolien Ubacht Jolien Ubacht 1*Jan van Oudheusden Jan van Oudheusden 2Emile Chappin Emile Chappin 1
  • 1 Delft University of Technology, Faculty Technology, Policy and Management, Delft, Netherlands
  • 2 CGI, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Energy production and consumption are major contributors to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, exacerbating one of the major challenges of modern societies: climate change. Thus, societies must switch to more sustainable energy sources. Green hydrogen emerges as a promising alternative energy carrier, facilitating storage and utilization across various industries. However, amidst different production processes, solely sustainable electrolysis stands out as an environmentally benign production method. Hydrogen producers must prove provenance and sustainable production to regulatory bodies and hydrogen buyers to comply with the regulations for sustainable development. Blockchain provides a viable solution encompassing trustworthy and secure information sharing between untrusted partners. In this article, we employ a design science research approach to develop a blockchain-based certification system (BLC-CS) for green hydrogen. Through collaboration with experts in both gathering requirements and evaluation, we design an artifact that streamlines the certification process for producers, regulators, and consumers. Our proposed solution facilitates information gathering, verification, and reporting, contributing to the advancement of sustainable energy practices. We provide a comprehensive discussion of the BLC-CS's feasibility for green hydrogen certification including technical extensions, recommendations for practitioners, and directions for future research.

    Keywords: Blockchain, sdg, Hydrogen, energy transition, Energy Security, tokenization, Energy certificate, IoT Inference 1. Problem motivation and identification Grounding/ Theory

    Received: 28 Mar 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Schmid, Ubacht, van Oudheusden and Chappin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Jonathan Schmid, Delft University of Technology, Faculty Technology, Policy and Management, Delft, Netherlands
    Jolien Ubacht, Delft University of Technology, Faculty Technology, Policy and Management, Delft, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.