Mission Objective - In 1999, the Society of Automotive Engineers established a Committee for Fuel Cell Standards. The Committee is organized in subcommittees that address issues such as Safety, Performance, and Recycling. The mission of the Recycling Subcommittee is to develop a recommended practice document that incorporates existing recycling practices and identifies technical and environmental sustainability issues and applies them to proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell (FC) systems.

Recyclability is best considered early in the product engineering design/development process. The design engineer should be concerned with the product after its useful life and adopt a mindset of designing for disassembly and recycling.

The purpose of this SAE Recommended Practice document is to provide a tool that helps the FC system designers and engineers incorporate recyclability into the PEM FC design process. This document was derived by considering existing recycling recommended practices then applying them to assess and evaluate the recyclability of the PEM FC system. This document should be used to continually assess the recyclability of component and assembly designs during the early design phase, in order to reach optimized recyclability, recycled content, and minimized environmental impact associated with those designs. This document defines a PEM FC rating system that assesses the ease of removal of the PEM FC system and/or components from a vehicle; then upon removal from the vehicle, the ease of recycling those components and materials. The derived rating is used as a PEM FC component design tool for continual improvement opportunities and not for purposes of calculating recyclability of the entire vehicle. While other trade-offs such as mass, piece-cost, volume, etc. must also be considered when designing these systems, they are not discussed in this document.

Scope of Recommended Practice - While there are various types of Fuel Cell architectures being developed, the focus of this document is on Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks and ancillary components for automotive propulsion applications. Within the boundaries of this document are the: Fuel Supply and Storage, Fuel Processor, Fuel Cell Stack, and Balance of Plant, as shown in Figure 1.

Limitations of Recommended Practice - There are numerous issues that affect recyclability: economics, infrastructure, market demand, technical feasibility and legislation. These are all closely related to making recycling possible, but are beyond the influence of the design engineer. This document addresses only end-of-life technical recyclability design practices. It does not address material preparation, component fabrication, or in-use environmental impacts. While there are environmental issues associated with these stages of material use, they are outside the scope of this document and are expected to be considered in design for the environment and environmental life cycle studies.

Additionally this document does not provide the methodology for calculating the recyclability of a vehicle or its components per OEM calculation methods. In addition to the use of this recyclability design document for the development of a recyclability rating for FC system and components, calculation methods similar to those mentioned previously may be required by the OEMs for calculating the recyclability of entire vehicles. FC design engineers should reference specific automobile manufacturers' specifications and other industry standards (ISO 22628) for calculation methods and requirements.

Organization of the Recommended Practice - This document is organized to provide easy access for frequent as well as occasional reference. Chapter 3 provides a list of definitions. Chapter 4 provides guidance on handling fuel cell systems within the existing automotive recycling framework, a description and instructions on the use of Disassembly and Recyclability evaluation tables, and recommendations on design considerations for enhancing disassembly and recyclability. These tables allow the user to evaluate the recyclability of a new or existing fuel cell component/system design. A detailed chart describing materials of construction for fuel cell system components is presented and described in Chapter 5. An Appendix provides information on plastics compatibility.

How to Use the Document - This document can be used for new and existing designs. Uses of the document are described in Figure 2.

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