LCA of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Considering Different Power System Architectures

Gianmarco Gottardo, Andrea Basso Peressut (), Silvia Colnago, Saverio Latorrata, Luigi Piegari and Giovanni Dotelli ()
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Gianmarco Gottardo: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
Andrea Basso Peressut: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
Silvia Colnago: Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Ponzio 34, 20133 Milano, Italy
Saverio Latorrata: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
Luigi Piegari: Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Ponzio 34, 20133 Milano, Italy
Giovanni Dotelli: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-19

Abstract: Fuel cell electric vehicles are a promising solution for reducing the environmental impacts of the automotive sector; however, there are still some key points to address in finding the most efficient and less impactful implementation of this technology. In this work, three electrical architectures of fuel cell electric vehicles were modeled and compared in terms of the environmental impacts of their manufacturing and use phases. The three architectures differ in terms of the number and position of the DC/DC converters connecting the battery and the fuel cell to the electric motor. The life cycle assessment methodology was employed to compute and compare the impacts of the three vehicles. A model of the production of the main components of vehicles and fuel cell stacks, as well as of the production of hydrogen fuel, was constructed, and the impacts were calculated using the program SimaPro. Eleven impact categories were considered when adopting the ReCiPe 2016 midpoint method, and the EF (adapted) method was exploited for a final comparison. The results highlighted the importance of the converters and their influence on fuel consumption, which was identified as the main factor in the comparison of the environmental impacts of the vehicle.

Keywords: fuel cell electric vehicles; DC/DC converters; life cycle assessment; hydrogen; proton exchange membrane fuel cell (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: 2023
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