The Carbon Trust is today launching a UK bid for a breakthrough in fuel cell technology, which could open up a global fuel cell market worth over $180 billion by 2050, according to new analysis.
The “Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge” aims to accelerate the commercialisation of breakthrough UK technology that could see the mainstream cost effective (mass) production of fuel cell powered cars and buses, as well as providing electricity and heat in homes and business. These kinds of mass market applications could be saving the UK up to 7 million tonnes of CO2 a year in 2050, equivalent to taking two million of today’s cars off the road.
Launching the initiative, Dr Robert Trezona, Head of Research and Development at the Carbon Trust, said: “Fuel cells have been ten years away from a real breakthrough for the past 20 years. This is a critical moment for UK fuel cell technology as emerging markets combine with technology cost breakthroughs to create a golden opportunity to launch world-beating products onto a massive global market. Our initiative aims to drive forward the commercialisation of the UK’s unique fuel cell expertise which will play a crucial role in the UK’s Clean Tech Revolution both cutting carbon and creating jobs and economic value."
The initiative aims to deliver the critical reduction in 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 over $26bn in 2020 and over $180bn in 2050. The UK share of this market could be $1bn in 2020 rising to $19bn in 2050.
David Hart, Head of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research, Centre for Energy Policy and Technology, Imperial College, said: “For many years fuel cell and hydrogen technologies have been expected to become a cornerstone of a low-carbon, more efficient energy system, but the cost, durability and performance of current fuel cell systems remain unattractive in most applications. The Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge is an exciting opportunity to address these issues with a fresh perspective and co-ordinated approach to make polymer fuel cells an everyday commercial reality.”
Celia Greaves, Fuel Cells UK, said: "We warmly welcome the Carbon Trust's new Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge. The UK is home to a number of world class fuel cell companies and research centres, and substantive IP has already been created in this area. Initiatives such as this from the Carbon Trust are vital to strengthening the UK's position and ensuring that the UK is innovative and remains competitive in this growing global industry."
Current fuel cell system costs are still too high by a factor of at least ten for widespread uses. 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 will aim to support those breakthroughs that will allow high-volume costs to come down by 35%, making fuel cell systems attractive for mass markets.
Fuel cells efficiently convert the chemical energy contained in a fuel directly into electricity – they produce electricity like a battery but are fuelled like an engine or a boiler. Fuel cells are already marketed around the world, with sales growing at over 60% a year – they are used to power forklift trucks, mobile phone masts or provide power in camper vans. However, they currently remain too expensive to be more widespread.
By 2030, polymer fuel cells worldwide could be saving every year more CO2 than the UK will emit.
The £8 million Polymer Fuel Cell Challenge will be split into two phases. A call for proposals opening today (carbontrust.co.uk/fuelcells) will lead to the selection of up to three novel ideas, offering up to £1m per project to further develop and prove them. If one of these demonstrates its potential for lower-cost fuel cell systems, the Carbon Trust will then co-invest up to £5m in the technology to develop it commercially.
Footnotes
Fuel cells in the UK
The UK is one of the leading fuel cell research hubs in the world, drawing on the country’s strong materials science and chemistry research base as well as recent novel ideas from outside the fuel cell community. Examples of this technology transfer are the adaptation of a water filtration membrane to make fuel cells, or the use of plastic materials originally developed for contact lenses.
Polymer fuel cells
Of the several different types of fuel cell, polymer fuel cells (also known as PEM fuel cells) are the most commonly-used. They are based around a plastic, or polymer, membrane which carries the ions that move electrical charge inside the fuel cell. Polymer fuel cells are light weight, powerful and increasingly durable, but are currently expensive. The Carbon Trust is focussing on polymer fuel cells for three reasons: (i) they can be used in many different products, including all the applications with a strong prospect for carbon savings (cars, buses, combined heat and power); (ii) the horizontal structure of the polymer fuel cell supply chain allows the development of new businesses to market component technologies rather than requiring the development of completely new systems; and (iii) there is capacity and appetite from the UK research and industry community to deliver breakthrough polymer fuel cell technologies, which the Carbon Trust has confirmed with extensive recent engagement.
The Carbon Trust
- The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up in 2001 by Government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.
- We cut carbon emissions now by giving business and the public sector expert advice, finance and certification to help them reduce their carbon footprint and to stimulate demand for low carbon products and services.
- Through our work, we’ve already helped save over 23 million tonnes of carbon, delivering costs savings of around £1.4 billion. We aim to help our customers cut a further 17MtCO2 and save another £1 billion in the next three years.
- In the past year, the Carbon Trust has supported 30,000 customers, saving companies up to £227 million in direct costs and cutting up to 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from their annual emissions.
- We cut future carbon emissions by developing new low carbon technologies. We are helping the UK become a global hub for low carbon innovation. We do this through funding and managing projects, investing and collaborating on low carbon technologies and by identifying market barriers and practical ways to overcome them. Our work on commercialising new technologies will deliver savings of up to 23 million tonnes of carbon a year by 2050.
- The Carbon Trust is also undertaking world leading projects on offshore wind, algae and advanced solar power.
Through the Low Carbon Innovation Group, the Carbon Trust and the Technology Strategy Board have been working together to coordinate support for fuel cell and hydrogen technology in the UK since 2007. The Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme announced by the Technology Strategy Board earlier this month are complementary initiatives supporting, respectively, research on next generation technologies and demonstration of currently-available systems. The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme is a £7.2m joint initiative between DECC and the Technology Strategy Board and will cover transport and stationary market applications and enable fully scaled up demonstration projects for technologies that have already successfully undertaken research, development and prototyping projects. Details of the Programme are available at the Technology Strategy Board website .