A Life Cycle Assessment of the PureCell Stationary Fuel Cell System ...

• Zinc-oxide is not included in the SimaPro databases, and no data on zinc-oxide
production were found elsewhere. Although zinc-oxide appears as such in the
inventory table, this process only includes zinc input and no emissions. The
amount of zinc in zinc-oxide is determined by stoichiometric calculations: zincoxide
( ZnO ) has a total molecular mass of 81 u, since the atomic mass of zinc is
65 u and oxygen is 16 u. The mass ratio of zinc in zinc-oxide is therefore 65/81,
which is 80%. In the zinc-oxide process the zinc input is therefore modeled as 0.8
lb zinc per 1 lb zinc-oxide, which leads to 139.2 lb and 859.2 lb zinc for the ILS
catalyst beds. It should be noted that the use of this zinc-oxide process leads to a
significant underestimation of the contribution of zinc-oxide to the environmental
footprint of the PureCell system.
• The ILS is manufactured 400 miles from UTC Power, transporting 6515 lb, which
is equal to 1303 tmi.
Misc. small parts
This inventory table represents the miscellaneous small parts that are used in the
PureCell system.
Materials/Assemblies Amount Unit
Steel cold rolled coil IISI 35 lb
Stainless Steel 304 2B IISI 15 lb
Stainless Steel 316 2B IISI 15 lb
PP granulate average B250 PureCell system 35 lb
Total 100 lb
Processes Amount Unit
Cold transforming steel PureCell system 65 lb
Injection molding PureCell system 35 lb
Table 4-13: Misc. small parts inventory table
• ‘PP granulate average B250 PureCell system’ represents the polypropylene
parts, which are processed by injection molding.
• Transport unknown.
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