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

Daniel Garraín, Santacruz Banacloche Sánchez, Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio, Antonio Martínez-Chaparro and Yolanda Lechón
Additional contact information
Daniel Garraín: 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

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-15

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.

Keywords: portable power; hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cell; life cycle assessment; extended multi regional input-output analysis; global value chains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/20/6558/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/20/6558/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:20:p:6558-:d:654612

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().