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Dr. Andrej Lotrič
Department for Energy Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Life Cycle Assessment
0 circular economy
0 Hydrogen economy
0 Fuel cell and electrolyser energy systems
0 Core components and materials

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Journal article
Published: 21 May 2021 in Energies
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In this paper, we experimentally investigated two high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) stacks for their response to the presence of reformate impurities in an anode gas stream. The investigation was aimed at characterizing the effects of reformate impurities at the stack level, including in humidified conditions and identifying fault features for diagnosis purposes. Two HT-PEMFC stacks of 37 cells each with active areas of 165 cm2 were used with one stack containing a pre-doped membrane with a woven gas diffusion layer (GDL) and the other containing a post-doped membrane with non-woven GDL. Polarization curves and galvanostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used for characterization. We found that both N2 dilution and impurities in the anode feed affected mainly the charge transfer losses, especially on the anode side. We also found that humidification alleviated the poisoning effects of the impurities in the stack with pre-doped membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) and woven GDL but had detrimental effects on the stack with post-doped MEAs and non-woven GDL. We demonstrated that pure and dry hydrogen operation at the end of the tests resulted in significant recovery of the performance losses due to impurities for both stacks even after the humidified reformate operation. This implies that there was only limited acid loss during the test period of around 150 h for each stack.

ACS Style

Samuel Simon Araya; Sobi Thomas; Andrej Lotrič; Simon Lennart Sahlin; Vincenzo Liso; Søren Andreasen. Effects of Impurities on Pre-Doped and Post-Doped Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell Stacks. Energies 2021, 14, 2994 .

AMA Style

Samuel Simon Araya, Sobi Thomas, Andrej Lotrič, Simon Lennart Sahlin, Vincenzo Liso, Søren Andreasen. Effects of Impurities on Pre-Doped and Post-Doped Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell Stacks. Energies. 2021; 14 (11):2994.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Samuel Simon Araya; Sobi Thomas; Andrej Lotrič; Simon Lennart Sahlin; Vincenzo Liso; Søren Andreasen. 2021. "Effects of Impurities on Pre-Doped and Post-Doped Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell Stacks." Energies 14, no. 11: 2994.

Journal article
Published: 23 March 2021 in Sustainability
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The purpose of this paper is to obtain relevant data on materials that are the most commonly used in fuel-cell and hydrogen technologies. The focus is on polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells, solid-oxide fuel cells, polymer-electrolyte-membrane water electrolysers and alkaline water electrolysers. An innovative, methodological approach was developed for a preliminary material assessment of the four technologies. This methodological approach leads to a more rapid identification of the most influential or critical materials that substantially increase the environmental impact of fuel-cell and hydrogen technologies. The approach also assisted in amassing the life-cycle inventories—the emphasis here is on the solid-oxide fuel-cell technology because it is still in its early development stage and thus has a deficient materials’ database—that were used in a life-cycle assessment for an in-depth material-criticality analysis. All the listed materials—that either are or could potentially be used in these technologies—were analysed to give important information for the fuel-cell and hydrogen industries, the recycling industry, the hydrogen economy, as well as policymakers. The main conclusion from the life-cycle assessment is that the polymer-electrolyte-membrane water electrolysers have the highest environmental impacts; lower impacts are seen in polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells and solid-oxide fuel cells, while the lowest impacts are observed in alkaline water electrolysers. The results of the material assessment are presented together for all the considered materials, but also separately for each observed technology.

ACS Style

Mitja Mori; Rok Stropnik; Mihael Sekavčnik; Andrej Lotrič. Criticality and Life-Cycle Assessment of Materials Used in Fuel-Cell and Hydrogen Technologies. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3565 .

AMA Style

Mitja Mori, Rok Stropnik, Mihael Sekavčnik, Andrej Lotrič. Criticality and Life-Cycle Assessment of Materials Used in Fuel-Cell and Hydrogen Technologies. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (6):3565.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mitja Mori; Rok Stropnik; Mihael Sekavčnik; Andrej Lotrič. 2021. "Criticality and Life-Cycle Assessment of Materials Used in Fuel-Cell and Hydrogen Technologies." Sustainability 13, no. 6: 3565.

Journal article
Published: 07 August 2020 in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
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We present the results of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the manufacturing and end-of-life (EoL) phases of the following fuel-cell and hydrogen (FCH) technologies: alkaline water electrolyser (AWE), polymer-electrolyte-membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE), high-temperature (HT) and low-temperature (LT) polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), together with the balance-of-plant components. New life-cycle inventories (LCIs), i.e., material inputs for the AWE, PEMWE and HT PEMFC are developed, whereas the existing LCI for the LT PEMFC is adopted from a previous EU-funded project. The LCA models for all four FCH technologies are created by modelling the manufacturing phase, followed by defining the EoL strategies and processes used and finally by assessing the effects of the EoL approach using environmental indicators. The effects are analysed with a stepwise approach, where the CML2001 assessment method is used to evaluate the environmental impacts. The results show that the environmental impacts of the manufacturing phase can be substantially reduced by using the proposed EoL strategies (i.e., recycled materials being used in the manufacturing phase and replacing some of the virgin materials). To point out the importance of critical materials (in this case, the platinum-group metals or PGMs) and their recycling strategies, further analyses were made. By comparing the EoL phase with and without the recycling of PGMs, an increase in the environmental impacts is observed, which is much greater in the case of both fuel-cell systems, because they contain a larger quantity of PGMs.

ACS Style

Andrej Lotrič; Mihael Sekavčnik; Igor Kuštrin; Mitja Mori. Life-cycle assessment of hydrogen technologies with the focus on EU critical raw materials and end-of-life strategies. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2020, 46, 10143 -10160.

AMA Style

Andrej Lotrič, Mihael Sekavčnik, Igor Kuštrin, Mitja Mori. Life-cycle assessment of hydrogen technologies with the focus on EU critical raw materials and end-of-life strategies. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 2020; 46 (16):10143-10160.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Andrej Lotrič; Mihael Sekavčnik; Igor Kuštrin; Mitja Mori. 2020. "Life-cycle assessment of hydrogen technologies with the focus on EU critical raw materials and end-of-life strategies." International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 46, no. 16: 10143-10160.

Research article
Published: 04 September 2019 in Energy Science & Engineering
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Commonly used materials constituting the core components of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), including the balance‐of‐plant, were classified according to the EU criticality methodology with an additional assessment of hazardousness and price. A life‐cycle assessment (LCA) of the materials potentially present in PEMFC systems was performed for 1 g of each material. To demonstrate the importance of appropriate actions at the end of life (EoL) for critical materials, a LCA study of the whole life cycle for a 1‐kW PEMFC system and 20,000 operating hours was performed. In addition to the manufacturing phase, four different scenarios of hydrogen production were analyzed. In the EoL phase, recycling was used as a primary strategy, with energy extraction and landfill as the second and third. The environmental impacts for 1 g of material show that platinum group metals and precious metals have by far the largest environmental impact; therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to these materials in the EoL phase. The LCA results for the 1‐kW PEMFC system show that in the manufacturing phase the major environmental impacts come from the fuel cell stack, where the majority of the critical materials are used. Analysis shows that only 0.75 g of platinum in the manufacturing phase contributes, on average, 60% of the total environmental impacts of the manufacturing phase. In the operating phase, environmentally sounder scenarios are the hydrogen production with water electrolysis using hydroelectricity and natural gas reforming. These two scenarios have lower absolute values for the environmental impact indicators, on average, compared with the manufacturing phase of the 1‐kW PEMFC system. With proper recycling strategies in the EoL phase for each material, and by paying a lot of attention to the critical materials, the environmental impacts could be reduced, on average, by 37.3% for the manufacturing phase and 23.7% for the entire life cycle of the 1‐kW PEMFC system.

ACS Style

Rok Stropnik; Andrej Lotrič; Alfonso Bernad Montenegro; Mihael Sekavčnik; Mitja Mori. Critical materials in PEMFC systems and a LCA analysis for the potential reduction of environmental impacts with EoL strategies. Energy Science & Engineering 2019, 7, 2519 -2539.

AMA Style

Rok Stropnik, Andrej Lotrič, Alfonso Bernad Montenegro, Mihael Sekavčnik, Mitja Mori. Critical materials in PEMFC systems and a LCA analysis for the potential reduction of environmental impacts with EoL strategies. Energy Science & Engineering. 2019; 7 (6):2519-2539.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Rok Stropnik; Andrej Lotrič; Alfonso Bernad Montenegro; Mihael Sekavčnik; Mitja Mori. 2019. "Critical materials in PEMFC systems and a LCA analysis for the potential reduction of environmental impacts with EoL strategies." Energy Science & Engineering 7, no. 6: 2519-2539.

Journal article
Published: 15 December 2011 in Strojniški vestnik – Journal of Mechanical Engineering
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The effectiveness of energy conversion and carbon dioxide sequestration in Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is highly dependent on the syngas composition and its further processing. Water gas shift membrane reactor (WGSMR) enables a promising way of syngas-to-hydrogen conversion with favourable carbon dioxide sequestration capabilities. This paper deals with a numerical approach to the modelling of a water gas shift reaction (WGSR) in a membrane reactor which promotes a reaction process by selectively removing hydrogen from the reaction zone through the membrane, making the reaction equilibrium shifting to the product side. Modelling of the WGSR kinetics was based on Bradford mechanism which was used to develop a code within Mathematica programming language to simulate the chemical reactions. The results were implemented as initial and boundary conditions for the tubular WGSMR model designed with Aspen Plus software to analyze the broader system behaviour. On the basis of selected boundary conditions the designed base casemodel predicts that 89.1% CO conversion can be achieved. Calculations show that more than 70% of carbon monoxide conversion into hydrogen appears along the first 40% of reactor length scale. For isothermal conditions more than two thirds of the heat released by WGSR should be extracted from the first 20% of the reactor length. Sensitivity analysis of the WGSMR was also performed by changing the membranes permeance and surface area.Obravnavan je model membranskega reaktorja za konverzijo CO z vodno paro (WGSMR - Water- Gas Shift Membrane Reactor) v kombinirani plinsko-parni elektrarni z uplinjevalnikom (IGCC - Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) in zajemom CO2. Z uporabo uplinjanja premoga je prikazana tehnologija pridobivanja sinteznega plina za pogon plinsko-parnih postrojenj. Namen integracije membranskega reaktorja v IGCC postrojenje je pridobivanje H2 iz sinteznega plina z uporabo WGS reakcije. Sintezni plin v večini sestavljajo CO, H2, H2O in CO2, z WGS reakcijo pa lahko CO pretvorimo v H2 in CO2. Proces konverzije CO poteka tako, da sintezni plin vstopa v reaktor na zaporno stran membrane, ki prepušča samo H2. V sinteznem plinu vsebovan H2 in H2, ki nastaja pri konverziji, prehaja na prepustno stran membrane, kjer ga iz reaktorja potiska odnašalni plin (navadno N2)..

ACS Style

Andrej Lotrič; Mihael Sekavčnik; Christian Kunze; Hartmut Spliethoff. Simulation of Water-Gas Shift Membrane Reactor for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Plant with CO2 Capture. Strojniški vestnik – Journal of Mechanical Engineering 2011, 57, 911 -926.

AMA Style

Andrej Lotrič, Mihael Sekavčnik, Christian Kunze, Hartmut Spliethoff. Simulation of Water-Gas Shift Membrane Reactor for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Plant with CO2 Capture. Strojniški vestnik – Journal of Mechanical Engineering. 2011; 57 (12):911-926.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Andrej Lotrič; Mihael Sekavčnik; Christian Kunze; Hartmut Spliethoff. 2011. "Simulation of Water-Gas Shift Membrane Reactor for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Plant with CO2 Capture." Strojniški vestnik – Journal of Mechanical Engineering 57, no. 12: 911-926.