New-Tech Europe | Sep 2017 | Digital Edition

What are the barriers to success in fuel cell adoption in the short term? To our minds, simple education. There’s a lot of misinformation out there surrounding modern fuel cell technology, and when talking to prospects, our first job is often to correct what they think they know. We do that by explaining what we and others have done to overcome previous technology limitations to make modern fuel cells one of the cleanest, most reliable, robust, and highly efficient power sources available. We then show them how it’s being adopted by many international market leading businesses, who all go through their own comprehensive due diligence processes to approve the use of fuel cells within their businesses. Our second job is to talk to them about hydrogen in general, as many businesses are not familiar with it. We explain that it’s the lightest and most abundant element in the universe, considered the most environmentally friendly fuel and is as safe or even safer than gasoline or natural gas (methane). In addition, we also educate them about sourcing hydrogen and compare its costs to other energy alternatives such as solar, wind, batteries and diesel. No doubt this is common to all low temperature fuel cell manufacturers out there. The good news is, that the fuel cell business case is so compelling that after a little time invested to understand it, especially in leading businesses where the costs of downtime run into the millions, the cost of a fuel cell to minimize their impact becomes a very obvious and sensible decision.

type of fuel cell. Alkaline fuel cells are extremely reliable and highly efficient, in fact the most energy efficient of all fuel cell technologies. In addition, they are highly resilient to extreme temperatures, humidity and air salinity. This makes them an ideal fuel cell technology for providing green backup energy in the event of a power failure. However, in the future, the technology has even greater potential for additional usages beyond back-up applications. In what scenario might fuel cells be used outside of a back-up application? In short, continuous power. When the grid isn’t available, options for providing continuous power is currently limited to diesel generators and batteries. Historically, fuel cells have mainly been used for back-up applications, as there hasn’t been a solution available to match the reliability and running costs of these alternative power sources. But, fuel cell technology is catching up. And should it be possible to provide this in the future, there is a clear appetite for fuel cell technology use for continuous power. Why? To realize the same benefits as provided in back-up applications: fuel cells emit no greenhouse gases, they require very little maintenance and don’t require regular recharging, they are near silent, vibration and odor free, can be operated in extreme temperatures and have water and heat as their only by-product. Not only does this technology represent an opportunity to hugely reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but it could also be used to achieve an enormous amount of social good too. In what way could fuel cells for continuous power support social benefits?

For example, imagine a situation where fuel cells are sent out with first responder units to natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis. They could instantly provide lifesaving power for the emergency services, critical power for local or pop-up medical facilities, schools or even light and heat for refugee camps. What’s more, this same highly reliable, low maintenance based fuel cell technology could be installed in any off grid remote location around the world. For some, it would provide life changing electricity to communities for the first time, or for others, simply make continuous power more reliable, accessible and easier to maintain. It also has the potential to significantly boost communications in these regions too. In remote areas with extreme weather, such as in Brazil with its high humidity or Canada with its extreme cold, telecom providers often struggle to provide communities with a reliable and continuous telecom network. In the future, fuel cells could bridge this gap and revolutionize telecom tower reliability. In short, we see alkaline fuel cells as becoming a mainstream fuel cell technology. It’s difficult to say, but I estimate that we’re likely to see this kind of technology enter the market within the next 12-24 months – initially offering all the benefits of fuel cells and later delivering economies of scale that will give it a price point to replace diesel generators for mainstream energy. However, we should not let this detract from what’s available today, as there are substantial opportunities to be enjoyed from the maturing fuel cell markets. How far away is this ‘mainstream’ fuel cell technology?

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