TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparative fuel cell sustainability assessment with a novel approach
AU - Acar, Canan
AU - Beskese, Ahmet
AU - Temur, Gul Tekin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Fuel cells have been attracting many researchers and industry partners' attention due to their clean, quiet, modular, and flexible operation characteristics. As Power-to-Gas technologies evolve and get more sustainable, well-developed fuel cells will be needed to convert the chemical energy stored in the gas form to useful products such as power and heat. For that reason, a comprehensive sustainability investigation of fuel cells is conducted by taking their economic, environmental, social, and technical performance into account. The selected fuel cells are polymer electrolyte membrane, alkaline, phosphoric acid, molten carbonate, and solid oxide. These fuel cells’ performance is comparatively investigated based on four primary and 15 sub-criteria. The selected performance criteria are economic (initial and running costs), environmental (GHG emissions, land use, solid waste generation, and water discharge quality), social (employment and training opportunities, impact on public health, and public acceptance), and technical (energy and exergy efficiencies, process control, start-up time, and scalability). This study is the first in the literature to conduct an in-detail and very inclusive sustainability evaluation of fuel cells. It is expected to guide many professionals from academia and industry towards developing cleaner, safer, more affordable, and efficient fuel cells.
AB - Fuel cells have been attracting many researchers and industry partners' attention due to their clean, quiet, modular, and flexible operation characteristics. As Power-to-Gas technologies evolve and get more sustainable, well-developed fuel cells will be needed to convert the chemical energy stored in the gas form to useful products such as power and heat. For that reason, a comprehensive sustainability investigation of fuel cells is conducted by taking their economic, environmental, social, and technical performance into account. The selected fuel cells are polymer electrolyte membrane, alkaline, phosphoric acid, molten carbonate, and solid oxide. These fuel cells’ performance is comparatively investigated based on four primary and 15 sub-criteria. The selected performance criteria are economic (initial and running costs), environmental (GHG emissions, land use, solid waste generation, and water discharge quality), social (employment and training opportunities, impact on public health, and public acceptance), and technical (energy and exergy efficiencies, process control, start-up time, and scalability). This study is the first in the literature to conduct an in-detail and very inclusive sustainability evaluation of fuel cells. It is expected to guide many professionals from academia and industry towards developing cleaner, safer, more affordable, and efficient fuel cells.
KW - Clean energy
KW - Fuel cells
KW - Hydrogen
KW - Multi-criteria decision making
KW - Spherical fuzzy AHP
KW - Sustainability
KW - 2023 OA procedure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118570816&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.10.034
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.10.034
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118570816
SN - 0360-3199
VL - 47
SP - 575
EP - 594
JO - International journal of hydrogen energy
JF - International journal of hydrogen energy
IS - 1
ER -