The Path to Fuel Cell Commercialization

Compressed gas is being used in most current demonstration vehicles. But, the path to commercialization of any major new technology is a long one. In 2003 Toyota recalled some of its hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles when a leak was found in the fuel tank of one of the cars leased to Japan s Ministry of the Environment. The leak was found when a driver at the ministry heard a strange noise in the car when he was filling up the hydrogen tank. The problem was quickly identified and fixed a few weeks later. 

And yet, for more them four years after its very successful First National Bank of Omaha project, SurePower was not able to sell a second high-reliability system. The interrelated reasons for this go to the heart of the reason why fuel cells will have difficulty using reliability problems as a path to commercialization. 

In this chapter, I have focused on the commercialization of stationary fuel cells because it may be relatively close at hand. Equally important, this is a market for which there is a great deal of real-world experience and data. In contrast, the path to commercialization for transportation fuel cells—and the ultimate realization of a hydrogen economy—will take much longer and is far more speculative. The chapters that follow will examine the technical and logistical challenges involved in bringing about a hydrogen economy. 

Levin, J., Miller, M., and Eudy, L. Fuel Cells for the Transportation Industry Developing a Credible Demonstration Program on the Path to Commercialization, Presented to the 14 World Hydrogen Energy Conference held June 9-13, 2002 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

Explore the path to commercialization for fuel cell-powered vehicles. 

Chiem, B., P. Beattie, and K. Colbow. 2007. The development and demonstration of technology on the path to commercially viable PEM fuel cell stacks, http / / www.electrochem.org/meetings/scheduler/abstracts/214/1090.pdf (accessed May 30,2009)... 

Once these niche markets were exploited to start fuel cells on their development path, it became apparent that, as stated above, it was necessary to target widespread potential applications while keeping technology development as simple as possible. General application areas of present interest to the fuel cell community are multi-kWe residential, commercial, and light industrial stationary power, transportation prime and auxiliary power, and military uses. 

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