Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells

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Nov 20 3:59 PM EST

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To: glenn snyder who wrote (5291)	11/7/2000 10:25:24 AM
From: glenn snyder	Read Replies (1) of 5827

Fuel Cell Prices Article from techfak.uni-kiel.de Is the fuel cell a forward-looking alternative? Relating to environmental pollution and efficient energy winning the fuel cell can replace heat engines especially in submarines and automobiles. Problems show in transport and protection of the fuel. Several alternative methods may become practicable: storage of hydrogen with help of metal hydrides as pointed out before, storage in carbon-nanofibres and storage of liquid hydrocarbons (e.g. methanol) and generation of the required H2 on board. The first one needs heavy and expensive metal hydride cylinders but seems to be a promising way. Therefore this form of storage is in progress all over the world. Storage methods are constantly improved and will be no problem in the future The cost of fuel cells in the early 1990 averaged $5000 per kilowatt (kW). In the NECAR program conducted by DaimlerChrysler and the activities of other companies costs of fuel cells decrease. DaimlerChrysler estimates that the fuel cell system used in the NECAR 4 was $545 per kW (FC-system in NECAR4: 50kW * $545 = $27250). According to estimations of experts the $100 per kW cost milestone is achievable in the reasonably near future. Replacing heat engines with fuel cells would also lead to high costs of fuelling infrastructure development. The needed capital investment in the United States for providing an infrastructure to fuel vehicles is about $300 billion. That makes Direct Methanol Fuel Cells interesting because it uses a liquid fuel similar to gasoline. Unfortunately research has not come to a breakthrough yet and still has to get over some hurdles. A further problem of fuel cell future is the used platinum. To make a fuel cell work platinum is needed as a catalyst. The question arises if there is enough on earth to deal with large scale projects. Platinum is one of the rarest and most expensive metals in the world. Because of that question the company ZeTek is investigating the use of cobalt in place of platinum in its membrane electrode assemblies. This could remove the resource problem.

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