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A small technology firm has developed a fuel cell system that could radically reduce costs by using a different form of catalyst in the hope that one day fuel cells could be employed en masse in the automotive market.
The Runcorn firm, Acal Energy, is benefiting from an investment of £1 million by the Carbon Trust as part of its polymer fuel cell challenge. The challenge was set up to identify emerging British polymer fuel cell technologies that could reduce costs by at least one third. It is thought Acal Energy’s fuel cell could reduce costs by up to 40% while increasing durability.
The key to Acal’s technology is that it replaces expensive platinum catalysts – platinum currently trades at around $1,830 an ounce – with a liquid catalyst based on low-cost commodity chemicals. The system was developed by Acal Energy co-founder Andy Creeth and uses a proprietary liquid “catholyte” to create reactions inside the fuel cell.
An analogy might be the way in which haemoglobin absorbs oxygen in the human body and carries it to the muscles, with the liquid catalysts carrying oxygen to react with hydrogen in the fuel cell. Creeth discovered the concept in a previous role developing chemical solutions for everyday use in detergents and personal care products.
It is thought that breakthroughs such as Acal’s could be the key to reducing the cost of fuel cells and making them suitable for mass production for the automotive market, where they could offer a range comparable to internal combustion-engine powered products.
Pierre Gaudillat, head of the Carbon Trust fuel cell challenge, said the Acal discovery was just one of several interesting polymer fuel cell technologies the trust was helping to back, but had the most mature offering. “This is a very exciting technology and could make a big difference to the ultimate cost of fuel cells,” he said.
“We recognised that in the UK there are some very good research groups and companies developing innovative technologies in fuel cells that could address cost. What we’re interested in seeing is technologies that can radically reduce the cost of fuel cell systems.”
Gaudillat added that Ford had experimented with using chemicals as catalysts for fuel cells in the 1960s but had not been able to come up with an efficient system. “What Acal has come up with is a new family of chemicals which have completely different uses in industry and it has recognised the potential they have when applied to electro-chemistry.”
Acal is currently looking at stationary power applications, such as the replacement of diesel generators with its fuel cell technology.
Gaudillat said: “The big prize is the automotive market but that is also the most challenging. But we are supporting the development of fuel cells through our work with high-risk projects such as this. If we can prove that this technology can work in cars, that is the most exciting prospect.”