Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge See all Client services

Carbon Trust launched the Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge (PFCC) in 2009 to help bridge the gap between UK polymer fuel cell technology developers and mass market applications.

Polymer fuel cells

Background

Carbon Trust analysis indicates that by 2050, fuel cells could be powering up to 560 million cars - a third of all the cars on the road.  Of various fuel cell types, polymer fuel cells offer the greatest potential carbon prize due to their flexibility to be used in a wide range of mass market applications. The main barrier to the wide scale deployment of polymer fuel cells is cost. Carbon Trust analysis conducted in 2009 indicated that a reduction of polymer fuel cell system cost to ~$37/KW could unlock carbon savings of 130-450Mt CO2 per year globally by 2030. The UK is home to leading polymer fuel cell technology developers, and is a significant supplier for conventional vehicles.

Approach

The PFCC is an innovation programme funded by the Department for Energy and Climate Change that aims to accelerate the commercialisation of breakthrough polymer fuel cell technologies. Its headline objectives are to:

  1. Reduce system cost to <$37/kW (for 500,000 units p.a.)
  2. Demonstrate a system (and fuel sub-system) at 5-10kW scale
  3. Secure a development and supply agreement with one major customer (e.g. vehicle manufacturer)
  4. Protect intellectual property and rights to exploitation

To achieve this, the following approach has been taken by the Carbon Trust:

  • Identification of innovations needed to bring down costs
  • Selection of best UK technologies with the help of experts
  • Commercial structuring of investments to accelerate commercialisation, recoup capital and minimise costs
  • Provision of business support and network to engage automotive companies

Current status

The first phase of the PFCC is intended to support teams to demonstrate proof of concept of component technologies, whilst the second phase is intended to demonstrate a system at 5-10 KW scale to meet the customer requirements needed to secure a development and supply agreement.

Today, there are four organisations/collaborations involved in Phase 1, either as full submission winners or research grant winners:

  • Ilika Technologies
  • ACAL Energy
  • ITM Power
  • Imperial College and University College London

The technologies that have been funded to date are:

  • ACAL Energy's FlowCath system
  • ITM Power's advanced membrane technology
  • IC/UCL's Flexiplanar Stack technology
  • An ACAL Energy/ITM Power joint demonstrator
  • Ilika Technology's catalyst and core shell technologies


For an example of one of the projects involved in the PFCC see the ITM Power case study.