Unternavigation

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.