A comparative life-cycle analysis of proton exchange membrane fuel cells and internal combustion engines

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dc.contributor.authorGerhard, Gillian Michelleen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-13T22:52:23Z
dc.date.available2024-08-13T22:52:23Z
dc.date.copyright1996en_US
dc.date.issued1996
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineering
dc.degree.levelMaster of Applied Science M.A.Sc.en
dc.description.abstractThe 1989 California legislation requiring that 2% of total vehicle sales in 1998 be zero emission vehicles is the single most important environmental factor that accelerated fuel cell research and development for transportation worldwide. More importantly, the California legislation is increasingly becoming the regulatory beacon for combatting local air quality problems in many jurisdictions. The combination of fuel cells and hydrogen have been advanced as an environmentally 'clean' remedy to transport related air pollution because they produce no in-use emissions other than water and heat. Notable among many reports is the assumption that the life-cycle (manufacture to disposal) of fuel cells will also be inherently 'clean.' This thesis critically examines the cleanliness assumption by developing comparative inventories of life-cycle effects associated with the materials in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and internal combustion engines (ICE). If the allocation of resource use to platinum is low, the PEMFC life-cycle will require proportionate material inputs, but produce less pollution outputs than the ICE. PEMFC materials will also demand less energy inputs producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions than will the life-cycle of materials in the ICE. Additionally, the PEMFC vehicle life-cycle will likely emit fewer greenhouse gases than will the ICE vehicle. However, if the allocation of resource use to platinum is high, the balance of life-cycle resource use and emissions could shift to favour the ICE over the PEMFC vehicle.
dc.format.extent124 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/17880
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleA comparative life-cycle analysis of proton exchange membrane fuel cells and internal combustion enginesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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