Environmental Impact Assessment of PEM Fuel Cell Combined Heat and Power Generation System for Residential Application Considering Cathode Catalyst Layer Degradation

Shota Tochigi () and Kiyoshi Dowaki ()
Additional contact information
Shota Tochigi: Department of Industrial Administration, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan
Kiyoshi Dowaki: Department of Industrial Administration, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: Recently, fuel cell combined heat and power systems (FC-CGSs) for residential applications have received increasing attention. The International Electrotechnical Commission has issued a technical specification (TS 62282-9-101) for environmental impact assessment procedures of FC-CGSs based on the life cycle assessment, which considers global warming during the utilization stage and abiotic depletion during the manufacturing stage. In proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), platinum (Pt) used in the catalyst layer is a major contributor to abiotic depletion, and Pt loading affects power generation performance. In the present study, based on TS 62282-9-101, we evaluated the environmental impact of a 700 W scale PEMFC-CGS considering cathode catalyst degradation. Through Pt dissolution and Ostwald ripening modeling, the electrochemical surface area transition of the Pt catalyst was calculated. As a result of the 10-year evaluation, the daily power generation of the PEMFC-CGS decreased by 11% to 26%, and the annual global warming value increased by 5% due to the increased use of grid electricity. In addition, when Pt loading was varied between 0.2 mg/cm 2 and 0.4 mg/cm 2 , the 10-year global warming values were reduced by 6.5% to 7.8% compared to the case without a FC-CGS.

Keywords: proton exchange membrane fuel cell; catalyst layer degradation; Pt loading; stationary fuel cell; residential application; power generation performance; environmental impact assessment; Life cycle thinking; global warming value; abiotic depletion value (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
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1985/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1985/ (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:16:y:2023:i:4:p:1985-:d:1071170

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 ().