Cost, fuel cell

The development of such a reaction proceeding under mild conditions is a technological challenge constituting one of the key points for the finalizing of efficient and low cost fuel cells. The catalytic properties of macrocyclic complexes like porphyrins and phthalocyanines for the reduction of molecular oxygen have been well known for four decades350,351 and numerous papers are devoted to this area. Here only some relevant and recent work in this field is described. 

While first generation fuel cells continued to be of interest, the present goal of the DOE s Fossil Energy fuel cell program is to develop low cost fuel cells. The target cost is 400 per kilowatt or less, which is significantly lower than today s fuel cell products. It is expected that lower cost fuel cells will result in more widespread utilization. 

MOREPOWER to develop a low cost fuel cell for portable direct methanol or direct ethanol fuel cells. 

Gopinath R etal, 2004, Development of a Low Cost Fuel Cell Inverter System with DSP Control. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 19(5), September, 1. 

Lower-cost Fuel Cell Air Blower. SMR, PSA, Direct Hydrogen Fuel Cell... 

Fuel cells have been used since the 1970s for satellites, but lower cost fuel cells are being developed for use in road transport. They require a membrane that is an ionic conductor, but a barrier to the fuel (hydrogen),... 

Continued federal/state incentives. Because of their current cost, fuel cells are not competitive with other power generation technologies. Thus, the continued support of federal and state governments in the form of incentives and R D funding is necessary to ensure the continued development of the technology. If this support dies, the fuel cell industry s progress will be severely reduced. 

Simplicity and promise of low cost - Fuel cells are extremely simple. They are made in layers of repetitive components, and they have no moving parts. Because of this, they have the potential to be mass produced at a cost comparable to that of existing energy conversion technologies or even lower. To date, the fuel cells are still expensive for either automotive or stationary power generation, primarily because of use of expensive materials, such as sulfonated fluoropolymers used as proton exchanged membrane, and noble metals, such as platinum or ruthenium, used as catalysts. 

DOE Future Energy Challenge 2001, Low Cost Fuel Cell Inverter Design competition. 

Analysis and Design of a Low Cost Fuel Cell Inverter for Fuel Cell Systems, Texas A M University, Report to DOE, August 2001. 

R. Gopinath, S.S. Kim, P. Enjeti, et al., Development of a Low Cost Fuel Cell Inverter With DSP Control , IEEE PESC Conference Record, June 2002. 

In Thailand, DMFC fuels cells have been seriously considered to power scooters with minimum cost and complexity. In the transportation segment, there is great interest in the design and development of low-cost fuel cells to provide a clean, reliable, and safe alternate power source of electrical energy. These low-cost, low-power fuel cells can be designed to meet the energy demand ranging from 1 to 10 kWh capacity. 

I have been active in this field since 2005, when I joined the University of Victoria as a Ph.D. student, inspired by the notion of a low-cost fuel cell without manbrane or catalyst. My initial research endeavors culminated in a Ph.D. dissertation entitled Microfluidic fuel cells [1], which was subsequently awarded with the Governor General s Gold Medal and launched my career as a researcher and scholar. Since 2009, I have continued my research on microfluidic fuel cells as a faculty member at Simon Fraser University (SFU), where I established the SFU Fuel Cell Research Laboratory (FCReL) and expanded the scope of this research to include microfluidic redox flow batteries. 

The use of a solid alkaline membrane negates the dangers of using aqueous alkaline electrolytes and reduces the impact of the carbonation effect. Alkaline membranes are not as fully developed as their acid equivalents and more research is required in order to achieve the same performance as that of PEMs. However, they represent a potential route to lower cost fuel cells via deployment of cheaper catalysts. 

Ehrenberg, S.G., Serpico, J.M., Sheikh-Ah, B.M., Tangredi, T.N., Zador, E., and Wnek, G.E. Hydrocarbon PEM/electrode assembhes for low-cost fuel cells Development, performance and market opportunities. Workshop on Fuel Cell. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on New Materials for Fuel-Cell and Modern Battery Systems II, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1997, pp. 828-835. 

In addition to the above requirements, the choice of low cost materials and manufacturing processes are required for realizing a low cost fuel cell. 

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