A patented liquid catalyst developed by ACAL Energy has enabled a PEM hydrogen fuel cell to reach 10,000 hours runtime on an automotive industry durability test without significant signs of degradation.
10,000 hours, the equivalent of 300,000 driven miles, is the point at which hydrogen fuel cell endurance is comparable to the best light-weight diesel engines under such test conditions.
This endurance exceeds the current 2017 US Department of Energy industry target for fuel cell powered vehicles to last 5,000 hours, equivalent to 150,000 road miles, with an expected degradation threshold of approximately 10 per cent.
ACAL Energy said that over the last 16 months it has put its proprietary design fuel cell through an industry standard automotive stress test protocol that simulates a 40-minute car journey with a start-stop at the end of each cycle.
The cycle, which was repeated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, mimics a vehicle journey with frequent stops, starts and a highway cruise. This particular test is employed to accelerate ageing and to test wear on car engines and fuel cell systems over time.
Unlike a conventional PEM (proton exchange membrane) hydrogen fuel cell design, ACAL Energy’s technology does not rely on platinum as the catalyst for the reaction between oxygen and hydrogen. The platinum and gas have been replaced with a patented liquid catalyst dubbed FlowCath.
According to ACAL, this approach improves a PEM fuel cell’s durability and simultaneously reduces the cost of a system. The liquid acts as a coolant and catalyst for the cells, ensuring that they last longer by removing most of the known decay mechanisms.
Importantly, ACAL Energy’s technology reduces the total cost and weight of a fuel cell and enables a competitive fuel cell drive-train with a power output of 100kW, which is equivalent to that of a 2-litre diesel engine. Many of the world’s largest automakers including Hyundai, Honda and Toyota have announced plans to launch fuel cell vehicles by 2015.
In a statement ACAL Energy’s CEO Greg McCray said, ‘Degradation has long held back the potential for the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells in the automotive sector. Breaking the 10,000 hour threshold during rigorous automotive testing is a key reason our hydrogen fuel cell design and chemistry has been selected for trial by a number of the six top automotive OEMs.
‘With our technology, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can drive over 500 miles per tank of fuel, and can be refuelled in less than five minutes, emitting only water. For a driver, the only difference from driving an internal combustion engine car is what’s going in the tank, but for the environment the significance of zero carbon emissions is enormous.’
‘With our technology, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can drive over 500 miles per tank of fuel, and can be refuelled in less than five minutes, emitting only water. For a driver, the only difference from driving an internal combustion engine car is what’s going in the tank, but for the environment the significance of zero carbon emissions is enormous.’
FAIL!
Where is your supposedly ‘carbon free’ energy coming from??
Hydrogen is an energy transportation system, not a fuel and a pretty inefficient one at that.
Isn’t hydrogen still a difficult gas to extract?
How much energy is used in generating hydrogen?
Hydrogen can make for an excellent transportable fuel. It, provided enough energy, is easy to make and avoids most of the environmental/practical concerns of lithium batteries & conventional biofuels.
The big issue will be building reliable & large scale carbon free electricity sources. But then we have problem anyway
Hydrogen is an energy carrier, just like hydrocarbons. Oil/coal is a transporter of chemical energy in the form of C-C & C-H bonds. Hydrogen is a transporter of chemical energy in the form of H-H bonds.
Yes, hydrogen is currently generated primarily from gas via “Steam Reforming” which converts natural gas (aka methane, CH4) into Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen (H2). However, water can be used as the feedstock to create Hydrogen by applying electric energy, aka electrolysis, the splitting of the H-O bond and creation of H-H bond.
The electricity used in electrolysis can be provided via coal, gas, oil, wind, nuclear, solar, hydro, etc.
Do you get where this is all going? Imagine humanity scales up electrolysis, solar/wind farms, and fuel cells. The inputs into this system is water/sun/wind and the outputs are water/electricity.
Would we still need hydrocarbons in this system?
If we are looking for an electrical solution, this fuel cell may be the wave of the future.
It can keep the oil companies out of our business. It is portable. It appears that the fuel cell can absorb energy & also produce it. So Let’s see how well it works. If you close your eyes, you will see & learn nothing.
Andy H – thanks for your comments. Hydrogen is a very high energy fuel (hence its use as a rocket propellant) and is the most abundant energy source on the planet. Fuel cells are also the most efficient method of converting a fuel into electrical energy as they do this in one step. Hydrogen fuel cells have a theoretical maximum energy conversion efficiency of >75% nearly twice as efficient as a gas turbine when it comes to generator technologies. Hydrogen can be acquired from a variety of sources with most of today s hydrogen coming from steam reforming of natural gas. hydrogen is also a waste product from a variety of industrial processes the largest being the Chlor-Alkali industry which produces >100 000 T of waste hydrogen p.a. (>100 million gallons equivalent of petrol). The third most prominent supply of hydrogen is via electrolysers and when linked with renewable energy provides a carbon free source of hydrogen. At the point of use the only emissions from a hydrogen fuel cell is water, there are no NOx, SOx or particulate emissions.
The fuel cell chemistry developed by our company requires hydrogen to make electricity. There are many sources of hydrogen and all types can be used in the fuel cell.