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

• The TMS is manufactured 250 miles from UTC Power, transporting 2250 lb,
which is equal to 281 tmi.
Water Treatment System (WTS)
The WTS provides high purity water to the cell stack assembly (CSA) cooling loop. It
also collects condensate from the condenser, strips CO
2
from the entering condensate,
removes organic particles and minerals and filters out particulates.
Materials/Assemblies Amount Unit
Steel cold rolled coil IISI 200 lb
Glass fiber I PureCell system 135 lb
Total 335 lb
Processes Amount Unit
Cold transforming steel PureCell system 200 lb
Electric welding steel 3 PureCell system 5 m
Table 4-20: Water Treatment System (WTS) inventory data
• Glass fiber is used as insulation material.
• Transport unknown.
Scrap Rates
Most of the materials that appear in the inventory tables are not raw materials, but
materials that already went through a manufacturing process (e.g., steel and aluminum).
These material manufacturing processes, including, for example, emissions and energy
input, are generally included in the way these materials are modeled in SimaPro.
However, the weights that appear in the inventory tables described in this chapter are
based on a weight breakdown of the PureCell system. Thus, so far only the materials
that actually end up in the final product have been taken into account. But in the
manufacturing processes of the PureCell subsystems and components a certain amount
of scrap is produced which does not end up in the final product. Scrap rates for the
majority of the materials were not included in the PureCell system LCA model at all.
Many of the PureCell subsystem and component manufacturing processes are very
specific, and due to the fact that the PureCell subsystems and components come from
external suppliers these data are simply not available. The scrap rates that are included in
this LCA are for steel and copper. The criterion to include the steel scrap rate is its high
weight percentage relative to the total PureCell system; the copper scrap rate is
included because it has a significant weight contribution and a relatively high
environmental impact.
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