Leading Fuel Cell Technologies

Applications, Costs, Economic Competitiveness and Future Prospects

Publication Date	May 2009
Publisher	Business Insights
Product Type	Report
Pages	151
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	RBI00306

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Summary

Leading Fuel Cell Technologies

Maximizing returns from new technologies

Report Overview

Fuel cell products, despite considerable development, have yet to be commercially realized. However, developments in recent years have brought a range of new fuel cell technologies to the brink of commercialization. Fuel cells could help to revolutionize power generation and may eventually provide electrical power for an extremely wide range of applications including utility power plants distributed generation, domestic combined heat and power units, and portable and automotive applications.

'Leading Fuel Cell Technologies' is a report published by Business Insights that analyzes the future of fuel cell technologies and their usage in stationary power generation. This report looks at each of the leading fuel cell technologies in terms of their operational characteristics, costs, efficiency and future prospects and provides an analysis of comparative costs with existing power generation technologies. The report also provides an assessment of the comercialization potential of fuel cells, in addition to key installation data and emerging fuel cell trials.

Key Findings

Costs for stationary fuel cell applications still vary widely - from $2,500/kW for some technologies to more than $40,000/kW for direct methanol fuel cells.

Although fuel cell costs are still uncompetitive, the sector is still highly mature - revenues from commercial fuel cell companies were still under $500m 3 years ago although other estimates place the overall market size much higher.

Commercial fuel cell installations have risen sharply - more capacity has been installed in the past 3 years than in the 10 years prior to that.

Based on generation costs, fuel cells are becoming competitive with onshore wind and may be as little as 17% more expensive in some cases per MWh.

Fuel cell installations under 10kW have also grown quickly - at a CAGR of almost 50% between 2001 and 2007.

Use this report to...

Identify the leading fuel cell technologies, their development status and application with this report's in-depth analysis of the 6 leading fuel cell technologies:
Phosphoric acid fuel cells
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells
Molten carbonate fuel cells
Solid oxide fuel cells
Alkaline fuel cells
Direct methanol fuel cells
Compare the economic competitiveness of the different fuel cell technologies with this report's comparative analysis of costs against existing power generation technologies.
Assess the long term potential of fuel cells in the stationary power market based on this report's assessment of the future prospects of fuel cells, their commercialization prospects, key installation data and emerging fuel cell trials.

Explore issues including...

Cost competitiveness. Fuel cells are becoming more cost competitive, although costs for many of the technologies remain estimates and the true challenge for commercialization of fuel cells remains to be fully understood.

Technological immaturity. Fuel cells are still a highly immature technology, with relatively low, but growing levels of installation - and it is clear that a key feature of their uptake will be an ability to achieve scale.

The hydrogen economy. In the uncertain event that a hydrogen economy does develop, then the fuel cell is likely to become one of the primary means of exploiting hydrogen. The availability of hydrogen without the need for reforming would have a significant effect on the economics of several types of fuel cell.

Discover...

What are the leading fuel cell technologies?
Which technology is suited to which application?
What are the operational parameters for each technology?
How do the economics of fuel cell technologies compare against one another and against existing power generation technologies?
What is the growth profile for large and small fuel cell installations?
What are the future prospects for fuel cell commercialization?

Content

Executive summary
- Introduction
- Fuel cell basics
- Phosphoric acid fuel cells
- Proton exchange membrane fuel cells
- Molten carbonate fuel cells
- Solid oxide fuel cells
- Alkaline fuel cells
- The direct methanol fuel cell
- The cost of fuel cells
- The future of fuel cells
Chapter 1 Introduction
- Introduction
- The history of fuel cells
- The structure of this report
Chapter 2 Fuel cell technology
- Introduction
- How a fuel cell works
- Catalysts
- Efficiency
- Types of fuel cell
- The alkaline fuel cell
- The phosphoric acid fuel cell
- The proton exchange membrane fuel cell
- The molten carbonate fuel cell
- The solid oxide fuel cell
- The direct methanol fuel cell
- Fuel and fuel processing
- The hydrogen economy
- Distributed generation
- Environmental benefits
Chapter 3 Phosphoric acid fuel cells
- Introduction
- PAFC cell technology
- Fuel processing
- Commercial PAFC units
- Applications for PAFC fuel cells
- Costs of PAFC fuel cells
- PAFC prospects
Chapter 4 Proton exchange membrane fuel cells
- Introduction
- PEM cell technology
- Fuel processing
- Commercial PEM fuel cells
- Applications
- Cost of PEM fuel cells
- Future prospects
Chapter 5 Molten carbonate fuel cells
- Introduction
- MCFC technology
- Fuel processing
- Commercial molten carbonate fuel cells
- Applications
- Cost of MCFC fuel cells
- Future prospects
Chapter 6 Solid oxide acid fuel cells
- Introduction
- SOFC technology
- Fuel processing
- Fuel cell-turbine hybrids
- Commercial SOFC developments
- Applications
- The cost of SOFC fuel cells
- Future prospects
Chapter 7 Alkaline fuel cells
- Introduction
- Alkaline fuel cell technology
- Fuel processing
- Commercial AFC units
- Applications
- Costs
- Future prospects
Chapter 8 The direct methanol fuel cell
- Introduction
- DMFC technology
- Commercial DMFC fuel cells
- Applications
- Costs
- Future prospects
Chapter 9 The cost of fuel cells
- Introduction
- Costs for stationary applications
- Cost comparisons and other data
- Fuel cell cost targets
Chapter 10 The future of fuel cells
- Introduction
- Stationary fuel cell market
- Other fuel cell markets
- Fuel cell prospects
List of Figures
- Figure 5.1: MCFC fuel cell costs and cost reductions ($/kW), 1996-2006
- Figure 9.2: The cost of fuel cells for stationary applications ($/kW)
- Figure 9.3: Cost comparison with other generation technologies, ($/kW)
- Figure 9.4: Comparison of generation costs for different technologies ($/MWh)
- Figure 10.5: Annual large stationary fuel cell installations (over 10kW)
- Figure 10.6: Forecast large stationary fuel cell sales (number of units, cumulative capacity in MW), 2008-2009
- Figure 10.7: Annual small stationary fuel cell shipments (under 10kW), (Number of units shipped), 2001-2007
List of Tables
- Table 2.1: Fuel cell characteristics
- Table 2.2: Typical Fuel Cell Power Plant Emissions (ppm)
- Table 3.3: Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell Characteristics
- Table 3.4: Operating parameters for PC25C fuel cell
- Table 3.5: PC25C emissions
- Table 4.6: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell characteristics
- Table 4.7: Ballard Power Systems 250kW fuel cell prototype specification
- Table 4.8: Plug Power residential fuel cell specification
- Table 5.9: Molten carbonate fuel cell characteristics
- Table 5.10: FuelCell Energy prototype MCFC stack
- Table 5.11: MCFC fuel cell costs and cost reductions ($/kW), 1996-2006
- Table 6.12: Solid oxide fuel cell characteristics
- Table 6.13: Westervoort 100kW pilot plant
- Table 7.14: Alkaline fuel cell characteristics
- Table 8.15: Direct methanol fuel cell characteristics
- Table 9.16: The cost of fuel cells for stationary applications ($/kW)
- Table 9.17: California Energy Commission generation cost estimates for fuel cells ($/kW, $/MWh)
- Table 9.18: Cost comparison with other generation technologies, ($/kW)
- Table 9.19: Comparison of generation costs for different technologies ($/MWh)
- Table 10.20: Annual large stationary fuel cell installations (over 10kW)
- Table 10.21: Forecast large stationary fuel cell sales (number of units, cumulative capacity in MW), 2008-2009
- Table 10.22: Annual small stationary fuel cell shipments (under 10kW), (Number of units shipped), 2001-2007