Carbon Trust aims for UK breakthrough in PEM technology
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 89 KB
- Volume
- 2009
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1464-2859
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✦ Synopsis
I n the UK, The Carbon Trust is launch- ing the Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge, an £8 million (US$12.7 million) initiative to accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough technologies to bring about the cost-effective, mass production of fuel cell cars and buses, as well as providing electricity and heat in homes and businesses.
The initiative aims to deliver the critical reduction in PEM fuel cell system costs that must be achieved to make mass market deployment a reality. New Carbon Trust analysis shows that if substantial cuts can be achieved, the global market could be worth more than $26 billion in 2020, with the UK share of this market worth $1bn. Current fuel cell system costs are still too high by at least an order of magnitude for widespread use. These costs could be brought down in the future through volume production, but projections show that even then, with today's technology, costs would remain too high by 30-40% for most markets. The Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge aims to support those breakthroughs that will allow high-volume costs to come down by 35%, making fuel cell systems attractive for mass markets.
The Polymer Fuel Cell Challenge will be split into two phases. A newly opened call for proposals will lead to the selection of up to three novel ideas, which will be offered up to £1m ($1.6m) per project to further develop and prove. If one of these demonstrates its potential for lower-cost fuel cell systems, The Carbon Trust will then co-invest up to £5m ($8m) in the technology to develop it commercially.
The Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme recently announced by the UK's Technology Strategy Board [see page 9] are complementary initiatives supporting, respectively, research on next generation technologies and demonstration of currently available systems. Polymer Fuel Cell Challenge: www.carbontrust.co.uk/ fuelcells Technology Strategy Board: www.innovateuk.org/deliveringinnovation/forthcomingcompetitions/fuelcellsandhydrogendemonstrationprogramme.ashx