Abstract
Electric vehicles are a key technology for achieving a significant reduction of greenhouse gas directly emitted by the fleet of light duty vehicles. In the past, the production impacts of alternative vehicle technologies have been widely assessed within the life cycle assessment framework, with large uncertainties regarding fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). FCEVs allow an almost double driving range with a single charge or refill of the tank and more than ten times the fueling/charging rate compared to batteries. However, FCEVs currently suffer from two major issues, lack of widespread fueling infrastructure coverage and high production costs, compared to the well-established Li-ion batteries. Furthermore, the data used for life cycle assessments of the technology should be constantly updated, as their technological development is rapidly moving forward. In this regard, an early detection of the likely environmental impacts from this fast development is fundamental to guide the progress of the technology.In this study we perform a life cycle assessment of a fuel cell system for FCEV currently on the market. We found that the production of the tanks, the catalyst and the fuel cell auxiliaries are the components with lower environmental performance of the system, across all the investigated impact categories. Currently, the production of a fuel cell system with a net power output of 80 kW, and two storage tanks with a total capacity of 5 kg of H2, generates approximately 5 ton CO2-eq. In addition, in line with the targets set by the US Department of Energy, we performed an assessment of the prospective technological developments to identify its future impact. In the assessed prospective scenarios, we analyzed the effects of the technical improvements, and we subsequently combined them with the use of a higher share of renewable energy sources and secondary platinum. In essence, the technology shows potential reduction of the environmental footprints ranging from 25% to 70%, depending on the impact category. However, to achieve these results, the combination of renewable energy sources and a high learning rate must take place.
Highlights
In 2010, light duty vehicles (LDVs) were the largest contributors to direct emissions from the transport sector, with approximately 10% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted in that year from all sectors (Edenhofer et al, 2014)
Based on the analysis performed by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the catalyst applied to the Toyota Mirai, we modelled the catalyst as a slurry of Pt and cobalt (Co) deposited on a high surface area carbon (HSC) layer (James 2018; Kojima and Fukazawa 2015; Yoshida and Kojima 2015)
We based our calculations on the DOE, that we further reduced since the 0.4 kg/ kWnet target for 2015 was achieved (Wang and Turner 2010)
Summary
In 2010, light duty vehicles (LDVs) were the largest contributors to direct emissions from the transport sector, with approximately 10% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted in that year from all sectors (Edenhofer et al, 2014). As global population and wellbeing increase, LDV sales are expected to grow, with some models forecasting a global stock between 2 and 3 billion vehicles in 2050 (Hao et al 2016; Yeh et al, 2017). Given the challenges imposed by local air pollution and global warming, fully electric vehicles (EVs) rose as a key technology for decarbonizing the transport sector. The future penetration rate of EVs is still uncertain, but with many of the big markets such as China, the EU and India pushing for their market uptake, the total stock is expected to reach a significant share of the total LDVs stock by 2050 (Bunsen et al, 2019).
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