The environmental impact of manufacturing planar and tubular solid oxide fuel cells V. Karakoussis, N.P. Brandon * , M. Leach, R. van der Vorst T.H. Huxley School of Environment, Earth Sciences and Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BP, UK Received 22 July 2000; received in revised form 22 November 2000; accepted 30 December 2000 Abstract This paper examines the environmental impact of manufacturing two types of solid oxide fuel cell SOFC) system. The tubular SOFC based on a 100 kW Siemens±Westinghouse design), and the planar SOFC based on a 1 kW Sulzer design). Using different levels of detail, the environmental impact of the manufacture of the PEN and interconnect, the balance of plant and the production of precursor materials has been assessed for both systems. The results demonstrate that the production and supply of materials for the manufacture of both the balance of plant and the fuel cell are responsible for a signi®cant share of the overall environmental burden associated with each of the fuel cell systems studied. Nonetheless, the total emissions associated with the manufacturing stage still only contribute an additional 1% to lifetime CO 2 emissions for both fuel cell types. The relative contribution arising from the manufacturing phase to several other regulated pollutants is high, but this re¯ects the low levels associated with the SOFC in use phase, rather than indicating a signi®cant burden arising from manufacture. It is proposed that end-of-life reuse or recycling could play a key role in further reducing environmental burdens. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Solid oxide fuel cell; Life cycle analysis; Manufacturing; Environmental impact; Energy assessment; Recycling 1. Introduction Solid oxide fuel cells SOFCs) are an emerging technol- ogy which offer many advantages over conventional meth- ods of power generation, including higher ef®ciencies and reducedemissions.Researcheffortsinthisareaarepresently focused on issues such as SOFC stack performance, dur- ability and cost. Information on the present status of SOFC development can be found in [1±4]. The increasing emphasis on fuel cells as a candidate powergenerationsystemofthefuture[5,6]meansthatthere isagrowingneedtolookattheenvironmentalimpactofthe whole life cycle of the system. This includes the manufac- turing, in-use, and end-of-life stages. While the potential environmentalimpactsofSOFCin-usearewelldocumented [7±9] there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning the environmental impact of the manufacturing and end-of-life stages. A ®rst step towards exploring the potential environ- mentalimpactsofthemanufacturingstagehasbeenreported by Hart et al. [10,11] who compared energy related emis- sions from six different methods for the fabrication of the thick ®lm components PEN) for an SOFC system using a life cycle analysis approach. This paper is based on a study carried out by the authors for the UK Department of Trade and Industry DTI) advanced fuel cells programme [12]. The aim of the study wastobuildanunderstandingofthewastesandemissionsto theenvironmentgeneratedbythemanufacturingoftwofuel cell systems; the SOFC and the solid polymer fuel cell SPFC). This paper presents the main results related to the manufacturing of the SOFC system, together with a discus- sion of their implications on commercial development. 2. Methodology 2.1. Scope of the analysis The study uses a life cycle assessment LCA) cradle- to-grave assessment approach. LCA is an analytical envir- onmental management tool see for example [13]) used to inform decision making within environmental product, Journal of Power Sources 101 2001) 10±26 * Corresponding author. Tel.: 44-20-7594-7326; fax: 44-20-7594-7444. E-mail address: n.brandon@ic.ac.uk N.P. Brandon). 0378-7753/01/$ ± see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0378-775301)00482-7