Developing coal to hydrogen is a crucial way to alleviate the conflict between demand and supply of hydrogen. A coal to hydrogen process based on ash agglomerating fluidized bed (AFB) gasification is carried out and simulated in this paper. Life cycle primary fossil energy consumption (PFEC) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions analysis are carried out to provide theoretical guidance for the development of the coal to hydrogen process. Two scenarios, the coal to hydrogen process with CO2 capture and storage (CCS) and without CCS, are analyzed. The results show that the PFEC of the scenario with CCS is 2.32% higher than the corresponding value of the scenario without CCS, whereas the GHG emissions of the scenario with CCS are 81.72% lower than the corresponding value of the scenario without CCS. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis shows that life cycle PFEC and GHG emissions are sensitive to the hydrogen transport mode and hydrogen transport distance. Suggestions are also proposed for the development of the coal to hydrogen process based on AFB gasification. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.