IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i20p6558-d654612.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Indicators for the Manufacturing and Use of a Fuel Cell Prototype and Hydrogen Storage for Portable Uses

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Garraín

    (CIEMAT–Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Departamento de Energía, Avda. Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Santacruz Banacloche

    (CIEMAT–Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Departamento de Energía, Avda. Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio

    (CIEMAT–Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Departamento de Energía, Avda. Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Antonio Martínez-Chaparro

    (CIEMAT–Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Departamento de Energía, Avda. Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Yolanda Lechón

    (CIEMAT–Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Departamento de Energía, Avda. Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

A sustainability assessment regarding the manufacturing process and the use of a new proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), specially designed for portable hydrogen applications, is presented. The initial fuel cell prototype has been configured by taking into account exclusively technical issues. However, a life cycle analysis considering environmental and socioeconomic impacts is crucial to improve the model to develop a more sustainable product. From the environmental perspective, the durability of the system and its efficiency are key elements required to decrease the potential overall impacts. High electricity consumption for manufacturing requires a commitment to the use of renewable energies, due to the high current value of the projected impact of climate change (42.5 tonnes of CO 2 eq). From the socioeconomic point of view, the dependence of imported components required for the synthesis of some materials displaces the effects of value added and employment in Spain, potentially concentrating the largest impact on countries such as Singapore, Japan and the UK, whereas the cell assembly would have a greater benefit for the country of fabrication. These results provide a basis for new research strategies since they can be considered standard values for improving future upgrades of the fuel cell in terms of sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Garraín & Santacruz Banacloche & Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio & Antonio Martínez-Chaparro & Yolanda Lechón, 2021. "Sustainability Indicators for the Manufacturing and Use of a Fuel Cell Prototype and Hydrogen Storage for Portable Uses," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:20:p:6558-:d:654612
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/20/6558/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/20/6558/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Calds, N. & Varela, M. & Santamara, M. & Sez, R., 2009. "Economic impact of solar thermal electricity deployment in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1628-1636, May.
    2. Cox, Brian & Bauer, Christian & Mendoza Beltran, Angelica & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & Mutel, Christopher L., 2020. "Life cycle environmental and cost comparison of current and future passenger cars under different energy scenarios," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    3. Sharma, Sunita & Ghoshal, Sib Krishna, 2015. "Hydrogen the future transportation fuel: From production to applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1151-1158.
    4. Gavin Harper & Roberto Sommerville & Emma Kendrick & Laura Driscoll & Peter Slater & Rustam Stolkin & Allan Walton & Paul Christensen & Oliver Heidrich & Simon Lambert & Andrew Abbott & Karl Ryder & L, 2019. "Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles," Nature, Nature, vol. 575(7781), pages 75-86, November.
    5. Antonio Valente & Diego Iribarren & Javier Dufour, 2020. "Validation of GreenH 2 armony ® as a Tool for the Computation of Harmonised Life-Cycle Indicators of Hydrogen," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, April.
    6. Sharma, Ashish & Strezov, Vladimir, 2017. "Life cycle environmental and economic impact assessment of alternative transport fuels and power-train technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1132-1141.
    7. Mitja Mori & Rok Stropnik & Mihael Sekavčnik & Andrej Lotrič, 2021. "Criticality and Life-Cycle Assessment of Materials Used in Fuel-Cell and Hydrogen Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-29, March.
    8. Banacloche, Santacruz & Cadarso, Maria Angeles & Monsalve, Fabio & Lechon, Yolanda, 2020. "Assessment of the sustainability of Mexico green investments in the road to Paris," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    9. Banacloche, Santacruz & Cadarso, María Ángeles & Monsalve, Fabio, 2020. "Implications of measuring value added in exports with a regional input-output table. A case of study in South America," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 130-140.
    10. Norihiko Yamano & Nadim Ahmad, 2006. "The OECD Input-Output Database: 2006 Edition," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2006/8, OECD Publishing.
    11. Yisong Chen & Xu Hu & Jiahui Liu, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of Fuel Cell Vehicles Considering the Detailed Vehicle Components: Comparison and Scenario Analysis in China Based on Different Hydrogen Production Schemes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-24, August.
    12. Abed Alaswad & Abdelnasir Omran & Jose Ricardo Sodre & Tabbi Wilberforce & Gianmichelle Pignatelli & Michele Dassisti & Ahmad Baroutaji & Abdul Ghani Olabi, 2020. "Technical and Commercial Challenges of Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, December.
    13. Kirsten S. Wiebe & Norihiko Yamano, 2016. "Estimating CO2 Emissions Embodied in Final Demand and Trade Using the OECD ICIO 2015: Methodology and Results," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2016/5, OECD Publishing.
    14. Sethu Sundar Pethaiah & Kishor Kumar Sadasivuni & Arunkumar Jayakumar & Deepalekshmi Ponnamma & Chandra Sekhar Tiwary & Gangadharan Sasikumar, 2020. "Methanol Electrolysis for Hydrogen Production Using Polymer Electrolyte Membrane: A Mini-Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Annika Tampe & Kristina Höse & Uwe Götze, 2023. "Sustainability-Oriented Assessment of Fuel Cells—A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-33, September.
    2. Guangjin Pan & Yunpeng Bai & Huihui Song & Yanbin Qu & Yang Wang & Xiaofei Wang, 2023. "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power System—Development Perspectives for Hybrid Topologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-16, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Halder, Pobitra & Babaie, Meisam & Salek, Farhad & Shah, Kalpit & Stevanovic, Svetlana & Bodisco, Timothy A. & Zare, Ali, 2024. "Performance, emissions and economic analyses of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    2. Yang Yang & Libo Lan & Zhuo Hao & Jianyou Zhao & Geng Luo & Pei Fu & Yisong Chen, 2022. "Life Cycle Prediction Assessment of Battery Electrical Vehicles with Special Focus on Different Lithium-Ion Power Batteries in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-23, July.
    3. Kolahchian Tabrizi, Mehrshad & Bonalumi, Davide & Lozza, Giovanni Gustavo, 2024. "Analyzing the global warming potential of the production and utilization of lithium-ion batteries with nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode chemistries in European Gigafactories," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    4. Qi, Meng & Park, Jinwoo & Lee, Inkyu & Moon, Il, 2022. "Liquid air as an emerging energy vector towards carbon neutrality: A multi-scale systems perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    5. Steven Jackson & Eivind Brodal, 2021. "Optimization of a Mixed Refrigerant Based H 2 Liquefaction Pre-Cooling Process and Estimate of Liquefaction Performance with Varying Ambient Temperature," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Stančin, H. & Mikulčić, H. & Wang, X. & Duić, N., 2020. "A review on alternative fuels in future energy system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    7. Michael Keen & Ian Parry & James Roaf, 2022. "Border carbon adjustments: rationale, design and impact," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 209-234, September.
    8. Albert, Osei-Owusu Kwame & Marianne, Thomsen & Jonathan, Lindahl & Nino, Javakhishvili Larsen & Dario, Caro, 2020. "Tracking the carbon emissions of Denmark's five regions from a producer and consumer perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    9. Desreveaux, A. & Bouscayrol, A. & Trigui, R. & Hittinger, E. & Castex, E. & Sirbu, G.M., 2023. "Accurate energy consumption for comparison of climate change impact of thermal and electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    10. López, Luis-Antonio & Arce, Guadalupe & Cadarso, María-Ángeles & Ortiz, Mateo & Zafrilla, Jorge, 2023. "The global dissemination to multinationals of the carbon emissions ruling on Shell," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 406-416.
    11. Lee, Dong-Yeon & Elgowainy, Amgad & Vijayagopal, Ram, 2019. "Well-to-wheel environmental implications of fuel economy targets for hydrogen fuel cell electric buses in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 565-583.
    12. Guido Busca, 2024. "Critical Aspects of Energetic Transition Technologies and the Roles of Materials Chemistry and Engineering," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-32, July.
    13. Usaola, Julio, 2012. "Participation of CSP plants in the reserve markets: A new challenge for regulators," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 562-571.
    14. Zauresh Atakhanova & Peter Howie, 2020. "Metal intensity of use in the era of global value chains," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 33(1), pages 101-113, July.
    15. Ruffini, Eleonora & Wei, Max, 2018. "Future costs of fuel cell electric vehicles in California using a learning rate approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 329-341.
    16. Kirsten S. Wiebe & Martin Bruckner & Stefan Giljum & Christian Lutz, 2012. "Calculating Energy-Related Co 2 Emissions Embodied In International Trade Using A Global Input--Output Model," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 113-139, November.
    17. Marin, Giovanni & Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Finance and the reallocation of scientific, engineering and mathematical talent," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    18. Gu, Xubo & Bai, Hanyu & Cui, Xiaofan & Zhu, Juner & Zhuang, Weichao & Li, Zhaojian & Hu, Xiaosong & Song, Ziyou, 2024. "Challenges and opportunities for second-life batteries: Key technologies and economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    19. Sanya Carley & Sara Lawrence, 2014. "Energy-Based Economic Development," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4471-6341-1, February.
    20. L. Ngai & Roberto Samaniego, 2009. "Mapping prices into productivity in multisector growth models," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 183-204, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:20:p:6558-:d:654612. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.