Estimating Future Costs and Environmental Impacts of PEMEC and SOEC Manufacturing

• Resaerch project participated at IPESE, EPFL
• March. 2023 - Sept. 2023
• Supervisor: Prof. Francois Marechal
• Keywords: Learning effect, Life cycle assessment, clean hydrogen, cost evolution, carbon reduction

Introduction

Is the carbon footprint and cost of the renewable technologies today able to represent those ones in the future? The answer is obviously “NO”! From the experience of PV panels, it is summarized that the price of a technology will decrease with its global shipment. This phenomenon is named as “learning effect”. There are a number of reasons behind the learning effect, such as scaling effect, learning by doing and research & development efforts. However, there is lacking a button-up model which can reveal the mechanisms behind the price reduction. In addition, the carbon footprint evolution is less addressed by researchers but with great importance.

This study bridges the gap by integrating life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost estimation methodologies, resulting in a comprehensive bottom-up model that simultaneously evaluates the cost and carbon footprint, with particular attention to the scaling effect. This model is then applied to scrutinize the manufacturing processes of Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis Cells (PEMEC) and Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOEC). The assessment incorporates a detailed manufacturing process description and equipment inventory. It is found as manufacturing capacity increases, both the cost and carbon footprint decrease.

Main achievements

• Did the cost analysis and LCA for SOEC and PEMEC
• Concluded production line of SOEC and PEMEC from industrial reports and other literatures;
• Proposed new LCA methodology with the consideration of scale-up effect
• Created databases for costs and environmental impacts by directly contacting manufactuers
• Predicted the future costs as well as environmental impacts for water electrolysis industry

Part of results

Publication

Publications is still ongoing. We have plans to publish it to environment science and technology. It is estimated to submit for review by the end of this year. The internship report has been published in EPFL Infoscience as master thesis or you can also download by clicking here.