LCA of electrolyzer and fuel cell technologies

Master project

Description

The master project is part of the SUSTAINCELL European research project. The goal of SUSTAINCELL is to support European industry with the development of the next generation of electrolyser and fuel cell technologies (both low and high temperature) that rely on a sustainable European supply chain of materials, components and cells, significantly less reliant on critical raw materials (CRM), with lower environmental footprint and costs, and higher performance and durability than existing technologies. The aim of the master project is to elaborate the environmental profile of a selection of current technologies from the information gathered via a literature review (so-called baseline), among those : Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), Anion exchange Membrane (AEM), Solid oxide (SOEC), Alkaline (AEL) and Proton Ceramic (PC). The objective is to shed light on the environmental hotspots across the life cycle stages of a selection of baselines technologies and identify the key parameters influencing their own environmental performances and their comparison to each other performance.

Project tasks

  1. Perform a literature review of state-of-the-art a selected number of electrolyser and fuel cell technologies in order to scope the models for the respective life cycle assessment
  2. Perform a life cycle assessment of the selected baseline technologies
    1. Define the scope of the study, collect inventory data and generate the model of the respective product systems to be modeled on OpenLCA.
    2. Compute the impact profile and identify the main contributors in term of life stages, processes, and flows of each technology
    3. Compare the environmental performance of the selected technologies
  3. Perform a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis to assess the robustness of the results
  4. Generate recommendations to inform the ecodesign process of the novel technology

Supervision and conditions

  • Prof EPFL: F. Maréchal IPESE Energypolis, Sion
  • Supervision: Manuele Margni Professor HES-SO Valais Wallis, invited fellow at EPFL and his scientific collaborators
  • Location: Energypolis, Sion
  • Application to: manuele.margni@hevs.ch