Life cycle assessment of the solid oxide fuel cell vehicles using ammonia fuel

Abstract

New energy vehicles are developing rapidly to address energy shortages and global warming. However, the on-board hydrogen storage poses certain limitations. To solve the limitations, this paper introduced a novel vehicle powered by the ammonia-fueled solid oxide fuel cell (NH3-SOFC), which had the advantages of directly generating electricity and minimizing energy loss. The environmental impacts and energy consumption of the NH3-SOFC vehicle (NH3-SOFCV) were evaluated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, and the prospects of NH3-SOFCV with the development of sustainable transportation systems were examined. The results indicated that the largest impact during the entire life cycle was attributed to the creation of photochemical ozone potential (POCP), which accounted for 62.65% of all calculated impacts. The manufacturing phase of NH3-SOFCV utilized the most energy and emitted the most CO2 emissions, followed by the use phase. The global warming potential (GWP) of NH3-SOFCV was 0.124 kg CO2-eq/km, while the ammonia fuel utilization in the use phase had an impact on the acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP). The sensitivity analysis showed that the total environmental impacts of NH3-SOFCV could be reduced by 29% with the life cycle mileage of 200,000 km, 4 tire changes and 2 battery changes. When ammonia fuel was produced from renewable energy sources, the GWP of NH3-SOFCV was less than that of other types of vehicles. Overall, NH3-SOFCV had tremendous development potential with the increase of new energy vehicles in the future.