Fuel Cells

Fuel cells directly change chemical energy into electricity and heat – very efficiently too and with very low pollution emissions. There is a broad scope of application for fuel cells, and they are currently used in a wide variety of areas. For example, large stationary fuel cell parks in the megawatt range have recently been realised, worldwide more then 200,000 micro co-generation plants based on fuel cells are in operation, and various vehicle manufacturers have already begun series production of fuel-cell powered vehicles. Double digit percentage growth is anticipated in the global market for fuel cells.

Current research priorities

Priorities of the research promoted by the SFOE:

  • Basic research in the materials sector, system development, and demonstration and testing of pilot projects.
  • PEFC for mobile applications using hydrogen as the energy source
  • Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) for use in co-generation plants and operation with natural gas/biogas.
  • Increasing the life time and reliability of fuel cell systems, modelling and experimental validation of electrochemical processes, development of newer, cheaper and more reliable materials (membranes, inter-connectors, catalyser materials), and integration of fuel cells in overall systems (balance of system).
  • Demonstration of the feasibility of the technology by means of pilot projects and demonstration projects.
     

Documents

Policy document

Specialist staff
Last modification 13.03.2018

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