Fuel cells are recognized by all the scientific community to be ultra low emission energy conversion systems, because the pollutants associated with their operation are very low in concentration, compared to traditional energy systems. On the other hand, fuel cells are mainly fed with hydrogen, a chemical component that is not available as a pure component, but it must be extracted from other compounds. This practice involves energy consumption and emissions related to extraction of fuel, hydrogen conversion, transportation and clean up. In order to evaluate the environmental impact related to the energy production by the use of a fuel cell it is imperative to consider all the processes related to the fuel cell operation, and not only the FC operation itself. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a unique approach for evaluating the environmental impact related to the whole life of the system, i.e. considering all the processes associated to the system itself, including construction and decommissioning. In the present study a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) system for electric energy production is considered and the related life-cycle environmental impact is considered. Finally a comparison between traditional energy conversion systems and the MCFC systems is conducted, in order to evaluate which are the advantages and the disadvantages that each supposed scenario can lead to. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.