Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Do you know if the fuel cells cost so much because of supply/demand economics or is it a technology/costly materials issue? Or both?

The high cost of fuel cells is mostly, I think, one of material and fabrication cost.

The highest power/mass ratios are for fuel cells based on the PEM design. A preferred material for catalyzing the critical first and last reaction in this design process, splitting the H2 molecule into an H atom, and the O2 into O, is platinum, which is about the most costly metal on earth. Expensive catalysts are also needed to assure that the hydrogen supply is very pure. The membrane “backbone” material (eg: Nafion) also tends to be something costly and difficult to manufacture. And everything must be assembled with great precision – as we’ve previously noted, hydrogen is essentially the most difficult gas in the universe to contain.

Low power/mass ratio fuel cells can be made with less costly materials and fabricating (may designs look much like ordinary batteries), but such power/mass ratios make them poorly suited to vehicle applications. Many lower-cost designs also have difficult startup requirements, again unsuitable for power-on-demand applications.

For the last couple of decades, I’ve kept an eye out for advances in fuel cell technology. It’s worth noting that already, economies of scale and market interest (if not outright demand) has brought the cost of 1+ KW fuel cells down from tens of millions of dollars to thousands. From time to time, folk who can fairly be termed “scientific geniuses” attempt to use advanced physics (quantum dots, etc) to find breakthrough techniques to make fuel cell components as cheap as microelectronics, often with similar fabrication techniques (eg: photolithography, epitaxy). So far, despite a lot of brainpower and venture financing, these efforts haven’t much succeeded – though they have produced some valuable micro-fabrication spin-off technologies.

A concern I have with fuel cell technology is that I suspect it has been used disingenuously by people with financial interests in current fuel technologies – oil companies and auto manufacturers – to offer well-intentioned activists, enthusiasts, and policy a “competing alternative” to technologies that can be realized now, such as chemical battery-powered cars. This “alternative”, however, is one that no one can accurately predict when or if will be practical to bring to a large market.

I highly recommend the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car” (discussion in this thread) for some background into the reasons for my concern. In particular, note that Alan Lloyd, who was instrumental in repealing the CA state regulations promoting zero-emission vehicles in that state, appears to be a good-faith proponent of vehicle fuel cell technology.