Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) in Automotive Applications: Environmental Relevance of the Manufacturing Stage

Garraín, Daniel; Lechón, Yolanda; Rúa, Cristina de la

doi:10.4236/sgre.2011.22009

Cited by 43 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…2 Often life cycle inventories are rather simple and do not reflect adequately the complexity of the system or the inventories are undisclosed. [27][28][29][30] Some studies focus on few environmental indicators, such as energy demands and/or climate change, but do not address the full range of environmental impacts. [26][27][28][29]31 New technologies, in particular nanotechnology, are suited to support the fuel cell technology in producing improved fuel cell systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[27][28][29][30] Some studies focus on few environmental indicators, such as energy demands and/or climate change, but do not address the full range of environmental impacts. [26][27][28][29]31 New technologies, in particular nanotechnology, are suited to support the fuel cell technology in producing improved fuel cell systems. 32,33 Higher efficiency making the technology more affordable is achieved by reductions of noble metal catalyst loading through the improvement of catalyst utilization and activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life cycle assessment of PEM FC applications: electric mobility and μ-CHP

Notter

Kouravelou

Karachalios

et al. 2015

Energy Environ. Sci.

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Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEM FCs) are seen as a suitable technology supporting the transformation towards decarbonised societies. Decision makers face the problem that there is no sound basis of the environmental performance of cutting edge technology available. We developed a comprehensive product system for two types of high temperature (HT) PEM FCs and conducted a life cycle assessment. One system utilizes functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as carbon support materials for platinum. The reference product applies carbon black. MWCNTs render possible platinum savings of 27% simultaneously retaining equal performance parameters as for the reference FC.The inventories include all components of a FC starting with the production of the carbon support material, the catalyst powder with platinum nanoparticles, a membrane, a gas diffusion layer, bipolar flow plates up to the FC stack and the FC unit including end of life treatment. Our analysis shows that platinum is the key material in HT PEM FCs and the benefits from platinum savings outweigh by far the impacts on the MWCNT production. The HT PEM FC was adjusted such that it typifies (1) a PEM FC for an electric vehicle (FCEV) allowing comparison with internal combustion engine vehicles (ICVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) or (2) a PEM FC suitable for micro-combined heat and power (m-CHP) to be compared with a Stirling engine. We found an environmental advantage of a FCEV vis-à-vis the ICV, but only if hydrogen is produced with renewable electricity. We found similar environmental impacts for the FCEV and the BEV when both vehicles are propelled with renewable energy. Both m-CHP plants produce similar amounts of useful energy and have comparable environmental performance. Nonetheless, the PEM FC produces more electricity (less heat) than the Stirling engine. System expansion such that both systems deliver equal amounts of electricity and heat resulting in an advantage of nearly 20% for the PEM FC powered system. Thus, the PEM FC technology offers great potential to reduce a personal environmental (and carbon) footprint -a prerequisite on the way of a transformation to more sustainable societies. Broader contextThe prospect of changing electricity production from nuclear and fossil to predominantly renewable energy carriers as planned for example in Switzerland or Germany leads to new requirements of the electricity grid and a new electricity supply pattern. Renewable energy sources release energy congenitally intermittent over diurnal and annual cycles. The PEM FC technology can support the energy turnaround manifold. For individuals our results show that fuel cell electric vehicles provide an environmentally benign technology for individual mobility. PEM FCs in combined heat and power plants are efficient devices to convert a fuel into electricity and heat for housing applications. Both fields of application provide great potential to reduce the individual environmental footprint. Decision makers planning a nationwide strategy...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of PEM FC applications: electric mobility and μ-CHP

Notter

Kouravelou

Karachalios

et al. 2015

Energy Environ. Sci.

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“…Until now, several studies have been performed on assessing the environmental impact of the PEM fuel cell life-cycle. A LCA, taking into account the production and use stages, was carried out by Garraín (2011) to compare PEM fuel cell cars to internal combustion engine vehicles. Two comparative environmental studies between PEM fuel cell and ICE cars (Sørensen and Roskilde, 2004;Hussain et al, 2007), have been performed for three life-cycle stages (production, use and end-of-life stages), but without taking into account platinum recycling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental assessment of proton exchange membrane fuel cell platinum catalyst recycling

Duclos

Lupsea

Mandil

et al. 2017

Journal of Cleaner Production

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International audienceA proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, an alternative to combustion processes that consume fossil resources, is used to convert energy stored in the form of hydrogen into electricity. The membrane-electrode assembly (MEA), the core of this system, contains platinum, a noble metal, which is a limited resource. This paper presents an environmental assessment of a recycling process for the platinum catalyst contained in the MEA of a PEM fuel cell. During this study, four hydrometallurgical platinum recovery processes from Pt/C particles have been developed at the laboratory scale. The considered process alternatives are composed of the four following steps: leaching, separation, precipitation and filtration. Approximately 76% of the platinum can be recovered as [NH4]2PtCl6 salt using the most efficient process alternatives. In this case, platinum leaching is carried out with a mixture of H2O2 and HCl, followed by liquid/liquid platinum extraction and a precipitation step.The environmental assessment was performed using the SimaPro 8 tool coupled with the EcoInvent 3.1 database. The environmental impacts were estimated for a 25 cm2 active area MEA considering the production and end-of-life stages of the MEA life-cycle using the CML-IA baseline V3.02 method. The results show that more than half of the main impacts of the MEA life-cycle can be avoided for four relevant impact categories if platinum is recovered in the end-of-life of the product

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“…The redox process, or dissolve of hydrogen and oxygen, between the electrodes used still occurred, although there are no bacteria subjected into the MFC. There are lots of studies regarding fuel cell without bacteria association that achieved a greater success such as polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) [10] and alkaline fuel cell (AFC) [11]. However, MFC is the most unique and versatile system amongst all fuel cells due to its ability to treat wastewater, although its power generation is low as compared to other fuel cell systems.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Study of Microbial Fuel Cell’s Performance Using Three Different Electrodes

Alkhair

Hassan

Mohamed

et al. 2018

MJAS

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Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is an alternative method of renewable energy which have gained considerable attention due to its capability to generate electricity and treat wastewater such as palm oil mill effluent (POME). MFC's mechanism on its electrochemical process is still lacking and further studies is needed. The objectives of this study are (1) to determine the compatibility of MFC device in generating electricity by using three different electrodes and (2) to study the effect of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to MFC's performance. In this work, the MFC device is associated with 3 different electrodes which are carbon brush (CB), carbon cloth (CC) and pre-treated carbon cloth (PCC) on its anode chamber. There are 2 types of substrates used in this experiment which are POME with the presence of bacteria (POME+) and POME without bacteria in it (POME-). The experiment was carried out for 120 hours and its power generation was monitored. The experimental result shows that PCC with POME+ yielded the highest power density of 49.88 mW/m 2 at 27 hours as compared to the others. In addition, CC with POME-has the highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) deduction which indicates the POME treatment was deducted by 45.93%. NaOH affected the performance of MFC but is insignificant to influence the redox reaction of MFC.Keywords: bio-electricity, fuel cell, wastewater treatment Abstrak Sel Bahan Bakar Mikrob (MFC) merupakan kaedah alternatif tenaga boleh diperbaharui yang mendapat perhatian yang baik kerana kemampuannya menjana elektrik dan merawat air kumbahan seperti sisa kilang minyak sawit (POME). Mekanisma MFC bagi proses elektrokimia masih kurang dan kajian lanjut diperlukan. Objektif kajian ini adalah (1) menentukan kesesuaian peranti MFC dalam menghasilkan elektrik dengan menggunakan tiga elektrod yang berbeza dan (2) untuk mengkaji kesan natrium hidroksida (NaOH) kepada prestasi MFC. Dalam kerja ini, peranti MFC dikaitkan dengan 3 elektroda yang berbeza iaitu berus karbon (CB), kain karbon (CC) dan pra rawatan kain karbon (PCC) di ruang anodnya. Terdapat 2 jenis substrat yang digunakan dalam eksperimen ini iaitu POME dengan kehadiran bakteria (POME+) dan POME tanpa bakteria di dalamnya (POME-).

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Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) in Automotive Applications: Environmental Relevance of the Manufacturing Stage

Cited by 43 publications

References 7 publications

Life cycle assessment of PEM FC applications: electric mobility and μ-CHP

Life cycle assessment of PEM FC applications: electric mobility and μ-CHP

Environmental assessment of proton exchange membrane fuel cell platinum catalyst recycling

Comparative Study of Microbial Fuel Cell’s Performance Using Three Different Electrodes

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