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Fuel cells have attracted a great deal of attention in the last few years as potential replacements for conventional gasoline- or diesel-powered internal combustion engines. This study evaluated the potential life-cycle environmental impacts of a fuel cell vehicle (FCV) using a 50 kW proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system (both with and without a fuel reformer), and compared them with those of a gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). The fuels considered for the fuel cell systems were direct hydrogen (without reformer), and methanol and gasoline (with reformer). Exclusive of the propulsion systems, the rest of the vehicle was assumed to be the same across all the profiles.

The goal of this work is to calculate the lifetime emissions for a 1996 Saturn automobile over its 193,000-km useful life. To do this, the authors developed a vehicle-specific method for calculating nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions. Vehicle-specific emissions data were not available for methane (CH4) sulfur oxides (SOx), dinitrogen oxide (N2O), and particulate matter (PM). The authors selected most applicable emission factors for these compounds. The authors then compared the results of these emission calculations to several other published methods. All methods produced similar results for CO2 emissions. However, the various calculation methods produced significantly different results for NMHC, CO, NOx, CH4, SOx, N2O, and PM emissions. The vehicle-specific emissions tended to be lower than many of the other methods.