Carbon Trust awards £2M to ACAL Energy and ITM Power to support major reduction in cost of automotive fuel cell systems
02 September 2012
The UK’s Carbon Trust recently awarded £1.95 million (US$3.09 million) to two UK fuel cell companies—ACAL Energy and ITM Power—to help deliver a step change reduction in the cost of the technology to about $35/kW. The two investments come from the Carbon Trust’s Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge (PFCC) which was launched in 2009 to support the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s objectives to develop lower cost fuel cells and follows this year’s launch of the Government’s UKH2Mobility project. (Earlier post.)
Production of advanced automotive fuel cell systems currently under development globally are forecast to cost approximately $50/kW at mass manufacture volumes. However, analysis by the Carbon Trust indicates that for future fuel cell vehicles to compete with internal combustion engine cars, the cost of fuel cell systems must be reduced to about $35/kW. Significant additional technological breakthroughs are needed to achieve this target of a 30% cost reduction.
The Carbon Trust cost analysis applies to projected costs for the period 2030-2050, when fuel cell vehicles reach mass production quantities (500,000 units per year). The comparison with internal combustion engine cars is based on a total cost of ownership analysis that assumes a product lifetime of 15 years, no taxes or subsidies on the fuels used and a peak power output of 85 kW.
Analysis by the Carbon Trust has identified that the technologies being developed by ITM Power and ACAL Energy have the potential to reach this automotive cost target if significant technological hurdles can be overcome.
ITM Power. One of the most important factors for bringing down the cost, size and weight of a fuel cell is increasing its power density. Based on data provided by ITM Power, analysis by the Carbon Trust indicates that their membrane technology has the potential, subject to overcoming a number of technological hurdles, to reduce fuel cell costs to about $35/kW. (Earlier post.) As a result, the Carbon Trust is investing £1.1 million (US$1.75 million) which will be earmarked to further develop and scale-up ITM Power's membrane technology for use in automotive applications.
ACAL Energy. Another significant way to bring down the cost of polymer fuel cells is to reduce the amount of platinum used. ACAL Energy has developed a new design of fuel cell (FlowCath) that uses a circulating liquid polymer cathode, creating a virtually platinum free low-cost system with the added potential benefit of increased durability, making it highly attractive to vehicle manufacturers for their next generation fuel cell vehicles. (Earlier post.)
Analysis by the Carbon Trust, based on data provided by ACAL Energy, indicates that this technology also has the potential, subject to overcoming the technological hurdles, to reduce fuel cell system costs to about $35/kW. As a result, Carbon Trust has invested a further £850K (US$1.3 million) has been invested into ACAL Energy for continued development and scale-up of their FlowCath system.
The Carbon Trust has estimated that achieving a cost reduction to $35/kW could unlock a fuel cell vehicle market that alone could be worth $210 billion, and save 750 million tonnes of CO2 by 2050. Carbon Trust ran the nationwide competition to identify the breakthrough technologies that could achieve the $35/kW target and unlock this significant prize.
The ZEBRA battery perfected in the UK is a non carbon fuel cell and is made of low cost materials. Beta R and D who perfected them was bought up in 2007 by GE for the production of similar cells, DURATHON, for all purposes including hybrid locomotives. Very high power or very high energy cells can be made with changes in dimensions. GE would do well to demonstrate a plug in Prius with DURATHON cell packages. Ron Gremban, of Calcars, develped a simple method of leaving the Prius battery in place and charging it from additional cells. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 02 September 2012 at 05:24 PM
Up to this point fuel cells are too expensive for most automobiles. Range extending generators gan be made small and cheap. Bladon jets is an expensive version, but is clean burning. Capstone has bigger units also too expensive for low usage. No electric car should be allowed to be sold without a range extender. The RCV engine is a good bet for a tiny unit. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 02 September 2012 at 05:36 PM
Well dont forget hyundai is comming out with a fuel cell car this year early next year... so it cant be all that spendy at this point.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 03 September 2012 at 04:25 AM
Does a small PHEV really need a large 85 KW FC (or a 120 Kw ICE) as a genset? Wouldn't a much smaller FC (12 Kw to 15 Kw) and a quick charge/discharge battery pack be enough to keep the car going, at a reasonable speed (100 kph or so), as long as FC fuel last?
Posted by: HarveyD | 03 September 2012 at 06:43 AM
We could get by with a 20-40kw HTPEM fuel cell with methanol reformer PHEV/EREV. Keep the costs down by specifying the performance parameters of the vehicle.
Posted by: SJC | 03 September 2012 at 11:50 AM
Begin to commercialize hydrogen fuelcell without platinum NOW.
Posted by: A D | 03 September 2012 at 03:01 PM