nearly Β£9 million (US$15m) in nine industry-driven projects in its Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme. The total value of the research, taking into account contributions from the participating companies, is in the region of Β£17 million ($28m), including Β£0.5m from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The projects will develop innovative solutions for fuel cell applications in the stationary, transport, and portable power markets. The technologies to be developed will aim to lower costs while significantly improving reliability, durability, and performance levels of low-, intermediate-and high-temperature fuel cell systems.
One of the projects, led by ACAL Energy, will research, build, and test the first integrated 1 kW remote environmental monitoring system, using ACAL Energy's novel low-cost, platinum-free cathode technology. The three-year, Β£1.9m project will deliver a practical system with an optimized design, located and fieldtested at Solvay Interox in Cheshire.
The other partners in this project are Solvay Interox, Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, UPS Systems, the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), the University of Cardiff 's Manufacturing Engineering Centre, and the University of Southampton.
Another project, led by Intelligent Energy, will develop enhanced fuel cell systems for commercial and passenger vehicle applications. This program is targeted at enhanced reliability, durability, and performance of Intelligent Energy's fuel cell engines -already in use in Peugeot-CitroΓ«n and Fuel Cell Taxi vehicles [see the feature in FCB, August 2009] -while also reducing costs.
Intelligent Energy plans to repurpose the PEM stack it developed for the first manned fuel cell aircraft [FCB, April 2008], for use in cars and light commercial vehicles. The company hopes to move to a 30 kW platform, and extend its performance lifetime from 1000 to 5000 h, while extending both cold-start (to -25Β°C) and high ambient temperature operation (to 45Β°C).
Partners in this three-year, Β£2.8m development project, in which the Technology Strategy Board will invest Β£1.4m, include Ricardo UK, TRW Conekt, and Dyson Technology. In addition, Royal Mail Group, DHL, and Tata European Technical Centre will form a technology and user advisory panel, which will provide operational and related data for future fleet vehicle requirements.