A new report from the Carbon Trust energy advisory body outlines how UK companies are achieving breakthroughs in polymer fuel cells which it says could address cost, the main barrier to their wide scale deployment. The report states that a continued focus on technology innovation could make fuel cell cars cost competitive with internal combustion engine cars and lead to them representing a third of all vehicles on the road by 2050.
Polymer fuel cells operate at lower temperatures and are smaller and lighter than other fuel cells, making them more suitable for use in cars and vans. Current state-of-the-art polymer fuel cells are predicted to cost US$49/kW in automotive applications when manufactured at scale. To be competitive with internal combustion engine vehicles, automotive fuel cells must reach a cost of approximately US$36/kW. Cost savings can be achieved by reducing material costs (notably platinum use), while increasing power density, reducing system complexity and improving durability.
The Carbon Trust is supporting five UK organisations (ITM Power, Acal Energy, Ilika, Imperial College and University College London) through its US$10m Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge to reduce the costs of polymer fuel cells.
The new report argues that reducing the cost to better than US$36/kW would lead to a dramatic market expansion with 200 million more fuel cell vehicles being deployed by 2050, taking the total to some 690 million. This would increase the value of the global fuel cell vehicle market by US$30bn to US$261bn a year by 2050 with the market in the UK being worth some US$4bn a year. It would also reduce global carbon emissions from vehicles by an additional 260 million tonnes
The Carbon Trust’s Polymer Fuel Cell Challenge is now in its second phase where organisations with potential breakthrough technologies that could achieve this step-change in cost are moving from feasibility testing towards commercial development with industry partners. Of the companies and organisations the Carbon Trust is currently supporting the following developments have taken place:
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ITM Power has developed a membrane with the potential to roughly double the power density of a cell, producing more ‘bang’ for the platinum ‘buck’;
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ACAL Energy has developed a liquid cathode with the potential to directly reduce platinum use by at least two-thirds and eliminate the need for some standard components of a fuel cell;
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Imperial College and University College London have developed a novel stackable cell architecture that uses low cost materials and manufacturing techniques with breakthrough potential in terms of cost reduction; and
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Ilika, a company that specialises in developing new materials, has developed a platinum-free catalyst which, on a cost/performance basis, has the potential to be 70% cheaper than the current industry standard.
