Economic and social assessment of ecodesign measures for proton-exchange membrane fuel cell stacks

Gramc, Jure (author), Mizuno, Yuji (author), Iribarren, Diego (author), Dufour, Javier (author), Mori, Mitja (author)

A holistic sustainability assessment is needed for any new product, even more so for fuel cell and hydrogen technologies, which EU is relying on for energy transition. Moreover, the ecodesign methodology provides a framework to minimise environmental impacts, which is extended to economic and social impacts to support the development of sustainable-by-design solutions. Within the EU-funded eGHOST project, four future product concepts of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack were defined based on the implementation of ecodesign measures. Each concept was evaluated through a combined environmental, economic and social life cycle assessment methodology. In particular, the evaluation of the economic and social dimensions is presented in this study, thus extending previous work limited to the environmental dimension. The results were compared with a PEMFC reference stack representing the current status. The scope of the study includes the manufacturing and end-of-life phases. The results of the economic evaluation show the importance of the manufacturing processes due to the relatively low production rate (1000 stacks per year). Platinum was identified as the most expensive material in the PEMFC stack. Platinum also arose as a key hotspot in the social assessment, due to the high impact of mining in South Africa across different social indicators, although it was not found to be the main contributor in every social indicator as different sectors from different countries are involved in the value chain. The implementation of ecodesign measures led to an enhanced economic and social performance of the PEMFC technology under study.

• Language: English
• Keywords: proton-exchange membrane fuel cell, social life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, ecodesign, platinum
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 14 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 22, art. 100476
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185115
• UDC: 621.352.6:621.354.34
• ISSN on article: 2666-7894
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cesys.2026.100476
• COBISS.SI-ID: 285811459
• Publication date in RUL: 23.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Cleaner environmental systems
• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd.
• ISSN: 2666-7894
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68337411

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: gorivne celice, protonska izmenjevalna membrana, družbena analiza življenjskih ciklov, stroškovna analiza, ekodizajn, platina