Towards sustainable hydrogen production: An integrated approach for Sustainability, Complexity, and Systems Thinking in the energy sector

The energy sector constitutes a dynamic and complex system, indicating that its actions are influenced not just by its individual components but also by the emergent behavior resulting from interactions among them. Moreover, there are crucial limitations of previous approaches for addressing the sustainability challenge of the energy sector. Changing, transforming, and integrating paradigms are the most relevant leverage points for transforming a given system. In other words, nowadays the integration of new predominant paradigms in order to provide a unified framework could aim at this actual transformation looking for a sustainable future. This research aims to develop a new unified framework for the integration of the following three paradigms: (1) Sustainability, (2) Complexity, and (3) Systems Thinking which will be applied to achieving sustainable energy production (using hydrogen production as a case study). The novelty of this work relies on providing a holistic perspective through the integration of the aforementioned paradigms considering the multiple and complex interdependencies among the economy, the environment, and the economy. For this purpose, an integrated seven-stage approach is introduced which explores from the starting point of the integration of paradigms to the application of this integration to sustainable energy production. After applying the Three-Paradigm approach for sustainable hydrogen production as a case study, 216 feedback loops are identified, due to the emerged complexity linked to the analyzed system. Additionally, three system dynamics-based models are developed (by increasing the level of complexity) as part of the application of the Three-Paradigm approach. This research can be of interest to a broad professional audience (e.g. engineers, policymakers) as looks into the sustainability of the energy sector from a holistic perspective, considering a newly developed Three-Paradigm model considering complexity and using a Systems Thinking approach.