Life cycle assessment of a fuel cell electric vehicle with an MS-100 system A comparison between a fuel cell electric vehicle and a battery electric vehicle
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Liljenroth, Anna
Franz, Sandra
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The aim was to cover knowledge gaps and extend the knowledge base for the environmental
impact of two electric vehicles by conducting an attributional Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) where two vehicle options, a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) and
a Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV), were compared. The thesis was conducted in
collaboration with the company PowerCell Sweden AB. The research question was:
What are the environmental impacts of an FCEV powered by PowerCell’s MS-100
system and how does this vehicle compare with a BEV powered by a Li-ion battery
with the same: powertrain performance, payload, driving range and total lifetime?
To answer the research question an LCA case study was conducted. The study
investigated four technology options, where the vehicle options were analysed with
two production pathways each for the energy carrier for propulsion. The BEV was
powered by either European- (RER Mix) or Swedish electricity mix (SE Mix). The
FCEV was powered by hydrogen from either steam methane reforming (SMR) or
wind powered electrolysis (WP-Electrolysis). The data for driving range and electricity/
hydrogen consumption were obtained from simulations in the simulation tool
FASTSim and were used as Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data. The data for the LCA
case study was moreover obtained from literature studies and data collection at the
company PowerCell. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to check the
robustness of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results. Two parameters
were investigated, the platinum content in the MS-100 system and the driving range.
The environmental impacts were evaluated for seven impact categories. The LCIA
results indicated that the technology options with a high share of renewable energy
sources, BEV-SE Mix and FCEV-WP Electrolysis, were the preferred choices. However,
for the chosen driving range the BEV-SE Mix was the most environmentally
benign technology option.
The thesis was concluded with recommendations for the FCEV and MS-100 system.
To be an environmentally friendly option, the FCEV should be used for extended
driving ranges and should be fuelled with renewable hydrogen. For the MS-100
system, it was shown that platinum was a large contributor to the environmental
impact for several of the considered environmental problems. Important environmental
improvements would be to either recycle or reduce the amount of platinum.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
LCA , electric vehicle , fuel cell , battery , hydrogen