Dynamic life cycle assessment of solid oxide fuel cell system considering long-term degradation effects

Abstract

In this work, we conduct a detailed cradle-to-product life cycle analysis in order to quantify the environmental impact of generating electricity using a conventional natural gas-fueled solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). In contrast to previous studies, we account for SOFC degradation using a model previously developed by the authors to simulate deterioration in performance of SOFC over operating time. Midpoint environmental impacts were quantified using the ReCiPe 2016 and TRACI 2.1 US-Canada 2008 characterization methodologies in SimaPro. The resulting global warming potential was higher than those reported for SOFCs, which are underestimated because they neglect degradation. The results were compared with the environmental burdens associated with power generation using two conventional combined heat and power systems (i.e., gas turbines and internal combustion engines of various capacities), showing that even when accounting for long-term SOFC degradation impacts, the environmental performance of SOFCs is superior. This is true even though the analysis used a conservative approach in which SOFC system waste heat was not utilized. This means that if waste heat was utilized, the next environmental impact per unit energy produced would be even lower.