Life cycle assessment of gas atomised sponge nickel for use in alkaline hydrogen fuel cell applications

Abstract

N. (2013). Life cycle assessment of gas atomised sponge nickel for use in alkaline hydrogen fuel cell applications. Journal of Power Sources, 243, 242-252.http://dx.This paper presents a cradle-to-grave comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of new gas atomized (GA) sponge nickel catalysts and evaluates their performance against the both cast and crush (CC) sponge nickel and platinum standards currently used in commercial alkaline fuel cells (AFC). The LCA takes into account the energy used and emissions throughout the entire life cycle of sponge nickel catalysts -ranging from the upstream production of materials (mainly aluminium and nickel), to the manufacturing, to the operation and finally to the recycling and disposal. Through this assessment it was found that the energy and emissions during the operational phase associated with a given catalyst considerably outweigh the primary production, manufacturing and recycling. Primary production of the nickel (and to a lesser extent dopant materials) also has a significant environmental impact but this is offset by operational energy savings over the electrode's estimated lifetime and end of life recyclability. From the results it can be concluded that higher activity spongy nickel catalysts produced by gas atomization could have a significantly lower environmental impact than either CC nickel or platinum. Doped GA sponge nickel in particular showed comparable performance to that of the standard platinum electrode used in AFCs.

Purification of Nickel Sulfate by Batch Cooling Crystallization

“…Fig. 3 presents the solubility of NiSO 4 as a function of the mass ratio of Cl -/SO 4 2at 65°C, and the results indicate that an increase in the ratio of Cl -/SO 4 2decreases the solubility of NiSO 4 in water. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, during the solution preparation phase, the observation of crystals in the solution was challenging because the color of the solution was dark green.…”

“…Moreover, various valuable metal elements, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper, are contained in these waste streams [2,3]. As one of the most valuable metals, nickel is widely used in numerous industrial applications due to its catalytic, electronic, and anticorrosion properties [4,5]. Nickel recovery from industrial hydrometallurgical process streams, electrowinning side streams, urban mining, and other waste sources is important not only from an economical point of view, but also in terms of the future sustainability of finite resources.…”

“…Purity of NiSO 4 Á6H 2 O crystals as a function of mass ratio of Cl -/SO4 2at three different cooling rates.…”

“…Impurities of Mg (a), Na (b), and Cl (c) remaining in crystal products, related to initial solution impurities, as a function of the mass ratio of Cl -/SO4 2at three different cooling rates.…”

Environmental and economic assessment of a cracked ammonia fuelled alkaline fuel cell for off-grid power applications

“…The fuel cell Balance of Plant (BoP) used in the study by Staffell and Ingram was based on data for other fuel cell types adapted from literature. Further, Wilson et al [23] present a thorough LCA of the production of the Raney nickel catalyst for use in AFCs. In terms of the costs of AFCs there is also relatively little reliable information in the literature, which varies widely depending on assumptions made in the analysis, and is often derived from cost estimates made for other fuel cell types [6,24e27].…”