Status of fuel-cell development and application

As mentioned above, fuel cells may be used for mobile, stationary and portable applications. Table 13.4 shows the currents status of fuel cells for the three respective fields of application in terms of specific investment, lifetime and system efficiency as well as target values for the future. 

Several thousand FC systems are produced per year worldwide, about 80% for stationary and portable uses, the rest for FCV demonstration projects (IEA, 2007). Total installed FC power capacity is some 50 MW. Stationary systems in 

SOFC are produced with either tubular or planar stack configurations investments for planar design are a rough estimate, as no prototypes exist. Specific investments for PAFC are in the range 4000- 4500/kW (IEA, 2007). For further fuel-cell R D needs see IEA (2005). 

The biggest attraction of fuel-cell-powered vehicles for car manufacturers is the fact that they no longer emit nitrogen oxides or hydrocarbons (or carbon dioxide if they are fuelled with pure hydrogen). (Burning hydrogen in internal combustion engines results in NOx emissions fuel-cell vehicles emit only water.) This effectively does away with one of the main environmental discussion points about traffic. In California, these zero-emission cars have been demanded since the foundation of the California Fuel Cell Partnership in 1999. 

The costs of a PEMFC stack are composed of the costs of the membrane, electrode, bipolar plates, platinum catalysts, peripheral materials and the costs of assembly. For the fuel-cell vehicle, the costs of the electric drive (converter, electric motor, inverter, hydrogen and air pressurisation, control electronics, cooling systems, etc.) and the hydrogen storage system have to be added. Current costs of PEM fuel-cell stacks are around 2000/kW, largely dominated by the costs of the bipolar plates and 

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