A comparative study on life cycle analysis of molten carbon fuel cells and diesel engines for marine application

Abstract

The study performed a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) plant for marine applications. The results are compared to a benchmark conventional diesel engine (DE) which operates as an auxiliary power generating unit. The LCA includes manufacturing of MCFC and DE, fuel supply, operation and decommissioning stages of the system's life cycle. As a new technology in its very early stages of commercialisation, some detailed data for the FC systems are not available. In order to overcome this problem, a series of scenario analysis has also been performed to evaluate the effect of various factors on the overall impact, such as change in power load factors and effect of recycling credit at the end of life cycle. Environmental benefits from fuel cell operation are maximised with the use of hydrogen as an input fuel. For the manufacturing stage of the life cycle, input material and process energy required for fuel cell stack assemblies and balance-of-plants (BOP) represent a bigger impact than that of conventional benchmark mainly due to special materials used in the stack and the weights of the BOP components. Additionally, recovering valuable materials through re-use or re-cycle will reduce the overall environmental burden of the system over its life cycle

How can life cycle assessment foster environmentally sound fuel cell production and use?

“…steel, nickel-Ni, chromium-Cr), as well as on increasing fuel cell life time. Alkaner and Zhou [6] also found confirming results in a case of MCFC manufacturing and use for marine application. According to these authors, in the operational phase MCFCs fuelled by hydrogen perform better than diesel engines, but in the manufacturing phase "input material and process energy required for fuel cell stack assemblies and balance-of-plants (BoP) represent a bigger impact than that of conventional benchmark mainly due to special materials used in the stack and the weights of the BoP components."…”

Analysing the possibilities of using fuel cells in ships

“…This is especially true if this process is compared with the one that produces the equivalent unit in diesel engines [27].…”

A comparison between fuel cells and other alternatives for marine electric power generation

“…MCFCs operate at a high operating temperature (650 o C) with a high tolerance to air contamination and carbon monoxide, a contaminant found in the fuel. However, it is sensitive to sulphur or sulphur compounds in hydrocarbon fuels (Alkaner and Zhou, 2006).…”