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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications

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 ISSN: 2249-863X (Online)
Journal of ISSN: 2321-4244 (Print)

Power Electronics & Power Systems Volume 12, Issue 1, 2022

DOI (Journal): 10.37591/JoPEPS
STM JOURNALS
[Link]

Research JoPEPS

Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications

Ajay Ahuja1,*, D.R. Waghole2, Sushil S. Ramdasi3

Abstract
About 175 years have passed since the invention of the Fuel Cell by Schoenbein und Grove, however,
fuel cell-based automobiles have received increased attention in the last few years due to growing
public concern over urban air pollution and consequent environmental problems. Direct combustion
of fuel for transportation accounts for over half of greenhouse gas emissions and a significant
fraction of air pollutant emissions. Fuel cell power systems for automotive applications have the
potential for high fuel efficiency and lower emissions. The energy demand depends greatly on driving
characteristics, however from the power analysis and the power and energy requirements of a modern
car, it is estimated that normal usage is expected to be 200 Wh/km. Hydrogen can be used in two ways
to run Fuel Cells, firstly the fuel can be converted directly in the fuel cell, or it may be reformed to
hydrogen to store on the vehicle.

Keywords: Fuel Cell, AFC, PEMFC, DMFC, PAFC, MCFC, SOFC, Electric Vehicle, BEV, HEV,
FCEV

INTRODUCTION
A fuel cell produces energy from an electrochemical reaction, remarkably similar to battery. A
battery, however, holds a closed energy stored within it and once this is often depleted the battery
must be discarded or recharged by using an external electricity supply driving the electrochemical
reaction within the reverse direction.

Fuel cell uses an external energy supply and may operate indefinitely as long as it is equipped with
a source of hydrogen and an oxygen (usually air) source. Hydrogen atoms react with oxygen atoms
electrochemically during oxidation to create water; electrons are released within the process and flow
as an electrical current through an external circuit [1].

The chemical energy in hydrogen is directly converted into electricity by fuel cells, the only by-
products being pure water and potentially useful heat. Fuel cell systems can produce up to 60 percent
efficiency of electricity and even higher with
*Author for Correspondence cogeneration [2].
Ajay Ahuja
E-mail: ajay_design@[Link]
PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF FUEL CELLS
1Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, A single fuel cell consists of an anode, a cathode
Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune,
Maharashtra, India
and an electrolyte sandwiched between the two
2Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, electrodes. Bipolar plates are placed on either side
Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune, of the cell and help distribute gases and current to
Maharashtra, India
3Deputy Director, Automotive Research Association of India, the external circuit.
Pune, Maharashtra, India
In a fuel cell, hydrogen gas flows to the anode
Received Date: March 25, 2022
Accepted Date: April 04, 2022 through channels, as depicted in figure 1, where a
Published Date: April 14, 2022 catalyst allows the hydrogen molecules to separate
Citation: Ajay Ahuja, D.R. Waghole, Sushil S. Ramdasi. Fuel
into protons and electrons. The membrane is
Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications. Journal of permeable for protons to pass through it. The
Power Electronics & Power Systems. 2022; 12(1): 1–15p. protons are conducted to the other side of the cell

© STM Journals 2022. All Rights Reserved 1

Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

through the membrane and the negatively charged stream of electrons is conducted through an
external circuit to the cathode. This flow of electrons is electricity, which can be used to power an
electric motor and to do work [2].

The electrochemical reactions in case of a fuel cell with an acid electrolyte are:

Anode reaction:
H2 → 2H+ + 2e-

Cathode reaction:
½O2 + 2H+ + 2e- → H2O

Overall reaction:
H2 + ½O2 → H2O + heat

(Exothermic reaction, H=-286 kJ mol-1)

Air flows to the cathode through channels on the other side of the cell. At the cathode, the electrons
returning after doing work react with oxygen in the air and the protons, which have moved through
the membrane inside the cell to form water. This union is an exothermic reaction, generating heat that
can be used outside the fuel cell.

Figure 1. Fuel Cell Principle.

The Advantages of Fuel Cells

Compared with traditional fossil fuel-powered electrical generators, the use of fuel cells has many
advantages:
 Higher Efficiency: The higher volumetric and gravimetric efficiency of fuel cells is a result of
the chemical production of electric energy directly from the fuel used, without combustion. On
the other hand, in a Carnot thermic cycle the electric generation efficiency is restricted by its
lower combustion efficiency.

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 Low Chemical, Acoustic, and Thermal Emissions: Due to lower fuel oxidation temperatures,
fuel cells emit less greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides for kilowatt of power
generated. Also, in absence of any moving parts in fuel cells, noise and vibration are negligible.
 Modularity and Flexibility: A single fuel cell produces less than one volt of electrical potential.
Fuel cells are stacked on top of each other and connected in series to produce higher voltages.
Desired power output and individual cell performance dictates the number of cells in a stack,
which ranges from a few hundreds of W to several hundred of kW up to some MW.
 Low Maintenance: It is relatively easy to identify and substitute a damaged or malfunctioning
cell contained inside a stack due to high modularity of Fuel cell systems, which leads to lower
maintenance costs.
 Fuel Flexibility: For fuel cells requiring low temperatures, hydrogen is most widely used as
pure gas for operation. The fuel flexibility depends on the operative temperature range of the
type of fuel cells used. In principle, higher the temperature, less pure the gas that the fuel cell
can use to generate hydrogen.
 No pollutants: Fuel Cells produce only pure water & heat as by-product. No Carbon dioxide/
monoxide gases are produced.

The disadvantages are as follows

 Fuel cells costs are still too high and unsuitable for the substituting the technologies based on
fossil fuels. To compete with current internal combustion engine technology for automotive
applications a cost of US$10 to $50 per kW and an operation life of 4000 hours is required.
 Hydrogen is one of the main fuels for fuel cell technologies. However, it is expensive and is
lacking in a wide network for its production and distribution.
 The life cycle and the degradation time of many technologies of fuel cells is still not totally
known, especially the high temperature technologies which are the best for electric power
generation.
 Hydrogen is a flammable and potentially explosive gas and is difficult to compress a suitable
quantity of hydrogen in small fuel containers. This is the reason, the use of low temperature
fuel cells in the car market is very limited [3].

TYPES OF FUEL CELLS AND APPLICATIONS

AFC (Alkaline)
The Alkaline Fuel Cells were the first type of fuel cells used inside power generators, however, due
to their wide operative temperature ranges, AFCs were developed by the space sector and was used
for the Apollo flights and the Space Shuttle program. The operative temperature of Alkaline fuel cells
ranges between 30°C and 250°C, but for space applications they can start up even at sub-zero
temperatures.

The general structure of an AFC is composed of a porous anode and a porous cathode, usually
made with nickel or silver as a catalyst. Anode and Cathode are separated by a liquid KOH solution
which works as the electrolyte. The materials such as potassium titanate, ceria, zirconium phosphate
gel are used as microporous separators in AFC. However, because of its carcinogenicity, asbestos is
not used today.

In the cell, oxygen is fed to the cathode while the hydrogen is fed to the anode as shown in figure-2.
The electrolyte works by moving ions between the cathode and the anode, thus producing electrical
current via an electrochemical reaction. Each cell generates a voltage of 0.5 V to 0.9 V depending on
the design with an electrical efficiency of up to 65% [3–5].

PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane)

PEM fuel cells use a proton exchange membrane as an electrolyte. They are low-temperature fuel
cells, generally operating between 85-105°C. PEM fuel cells were the first to be used in Space. The
Gemini program employed a 1kW fuel cell stack as an auxiliary power source.

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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

In a PEM fuel cell (figure-3), hydrogen is fed at Anode, which gets oxidized to release protons and
electrons. At the same time, oxygen that is fed at the cathode gets reduced. The protons released at
Anode travel through the proton exchange membrane to the cathode. The electrons released from the
hydrogen travel along the external electrical circuit and don’t pass through the electronically non-
conductive membrane. This generates an electrical current. Typical fuel cell voltage is between 0.6
and 0.7 V @ 0.5 A/cm2 [3].

PEM fuel cells have a low warm-up time, which allows the fuel cell to start quickly and results in
less wear on the system components, thus increasing cell longevity. However, to start the
electrochemical process at low temperatures, a noble metal catalyst (usually platinum) is required.

Figure 2. Alkaline Fuel Cell (AFC).

Figure 3. Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC).

At present, liquid hydrogen seems to be the best option for PEMFC, however the costly platinum,
risk of poisoning and lack of hydrogen infrastructure limits its usage on Automobiles [6].

DMFC (Direct Methanol)

DMFCs are another fuel cell technology, based on a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) that
operates at temperatures between 70 and 100°C. In the DMFC, diluted methanol in a water mixture
(usually 1-2 molar), is directly fed into the fuel cell without the intermediate step of transforming the

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alcohol into hydrogen as illustrated in figure 4. Methanol is an appealing fuel choice because it can be
made from natural gas or renewable biomass. Like PEMFCs, DMFCs are considered environmentally
friendly since there is no production of Sulphur or nitrogen oxides (only carbon dioxide) [3, 5, 7].

Figure 4. Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC).

PAFC (Phosphoric Acid)

Although AFC was the first type of cell to be used in power applications, Phosphoric Acid Fuel
Cells (PAFCs) as shown in figure 5 were the first type of cell to be commercialized after first
developing in the mid-1960s. It is used primarily in stationary power plants, ranging from distributed
power to on-site generation plants ranging from 5 to 20 MW providing electricity, heat and hot water
to towns, cities and shopping malls or hospitals.

The electrolyte used within PAFCs is phosphoric acid (H 3PO4) which, due to its bad ion
conductivity, needs operating temperatures between 150°C and 220°C to function properly. As a
result, the PAFC cell is no longer a fast start, low-temperature fuel cell. The fuel needed for the cell is
always hydrogen, but due to the high temperature range, the cells can be fueled with relatively impure
hydrogen, which can easily be extracted from the fuel reforming process [3].

The basic cell structure is made of a ceramic matrix impregnated with a phosphoric acid solution,
which is surrounded by a few porous electrodes used to capture ions and diffuse gases. The cell works
by splitting the hydrogen fueled to the anode into protons and electrons. The electrons are captured by
an anode which generates electrical current. In the meantime, the protons diffuse through the matrix
layer in the phosphoric acid until they enter the cathode where they recombine with the oxygen to
generate heated water. PAFC technology, among all other fuel cell technologies, is the one with the
most reliable fuel technology on the market [3].

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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

Figure 5. Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC).

MCFC (Molten Carbonate)
Molten carbonate fuel cell development began in the middle of the 20th century. MCFC uses liquid
alkaline carbonate salts as an electrolyte to work at temperatures up to 650°C. The applications range
from 125 kW to 1 MW of power produced.

A combination of lithium carbonate with potassium or lithium carbonate and sodium carbonate can
be used as electrolytes. These electrolytes are distributed in a porous ceramic matrix made of lithium
aluminate (LiAlO2) that is chemically inert. The anode is a porous electrode composed of a nickel
alloy, Ni-5Cr or Ni-xAl as catalyst as mentioned in figure 6. This alloy contains a small percent of
aluminum or chromium to suppress the hot creep inside the electrode structure. A porous nickel
catalyst is used for cathode. During the cell start-up, the nickel is converted to high conductive lithium
doped nickel oxide (LixNi1-xO2) when in contact with the electrolyte (eutectic mixture of Li 2CO3 and
K2CO3) [3, 8].

The high operating temperatures of MCFC allow for internal reforming and the use of waste
heating in combined heat cycle. The high temperatures greatly increase the kinetics of oxygen
reduction and thereby eliminate the need for high loads of precious metal catalysts [3, 9–17].

Figure 6. Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC).

SOFC (Solid Oxide)

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The first solid oxide fuel cell was created in 1937 by Baur and Preis using coke as fuel and
magnetite as oxidant. The SOFCs are another high temperature fuel cell technology, the working
temperature of which varies from 800°C to 1000°C.

The electrolyte layer consists of a thin solid ceramic material which, because of its good ionic
conductance, chemical stability and mechanical strength, is typically a Yttrium zirconium oxide [18].
The cathode requires a porous structure in relation to electrodes to disperse the gaseous oxygen inside
the cathode-electrolyte interface. The materials used in the construction are strontium doped LaMnO 3.
The anode also needs to have a porous structure and is typically generated with a composite
zirconium oxide (Nickel-YSZ) doped cermet.

It works on methane gas or Syngas as fuel and generates energy from direct fuel oxidation and from
reforming of fuel to H2 and CO2 with reference to figure 7. The H2 can then be used in solid oxide fuel
cell [18–26]. When air is supplied to the cathode, the oxygen molecules are split into oxygen ions (O2-
) and four electrons. When they reach the anode, the ions are re-combined with the hydrogen supplied
and the extra electrons released, and heated water is produced. The electrons are then collected by the
anode which generates the electrical current [3].
Because of high temperatures, the fuel reforms take place right inside the cell and a wide variety of
different hydrogen-containing fuels (coal gas, biogas, propane, natural gas, hydraulic) can also be
used.

Figure 7. Sold Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC).

Each of these Fuel Cells have certain advantages and drawbacks for utilizing in Automotive
application. However, PEMFC and SOFC have been used in Automotive drivetrains very effectively.
PEMFC works at a relatively low temperatures but can use only pure hydrogen. However, SOFC may
use any hydrogen-containing fuel but it works at relatively high temperatures.

PEMFC uses expensive catalyst, while in SOFC, the fuel gets disintegrated to hydrogen within the
Fuel cell at high temperature. This allows SOFC to work with impurities in the fuel, unlike PEMFC,
which is sensitive to fuel impurities. SOFC has relatively higher efficiency due to ability to use heat
generated in the process.

FUEL CELLS FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

FC-based vehicle propulsion has zero emissions, much higher performance than ICE or battery
vehicles and a higher degree of well-to-wheel efficiency than ICE or BEVs. The FCEVs have a higher
range and shorter refueling time compared to battery-EVs [27–34].

A series of PEMFC powered cars have been designed by Daimler-Benz since 1994 in collaboration
with Ballard. In 1997 Daimler-Benz launched a 640 km range methanol-fueled car for the first of
these vehicles.

Toyota and Honda launched their FCEVs in 2015. The Toyota MIRAI FCEV has a 100 kW PEFC
stack with a power density of 3 kW/liter (2 kW/kg), and is fueled by two 700 bar H 2, tanks allowing a
range of 650 km. The hybrid system is assembled with a 1.6 kWh Ni-MH battery that is also used for
regenerative braking [8, 9, 35].

The PEM fuel cell was an obvious choice in the late 90s due to its rapid start-up time. However,
one of the main problems associated with hydrogens is its on-board storage in passenger vehicles.
Hydrogen can be contained in metal hydrides or as compressed gases as cryogenic fluid. The
compressed gas hydrogen tanks are bulky, even though hydrogen is compressed to 450 bar. It takes
around 40–50 liters of volume for storing 1 kg of pure hydrogen. The fuel quantity that is stored
onboard is dependent upon the fuel efficiency and the range needed [36–40].
Table 1. Fuel Cell Comparison [2, 4, 7].
AFC Alkaline PEMFC DMFC PAFC MCFC molten SOFC solid
polymer direct phosphoric acid carbonate oxide
electrolyte methanol
membrane
Operating <100°C 60-120°C 60-120°C 160-220°C 600-800°C 800-1000°C low
temperature temp. (500-
600°C) possible
Electrolyte KOH Perfluoro Perfluoro H3PO4 Li2CO3-K2CO3 YSZ (Yttria
sulfonic acid sulfonic acid immobilized in eutectic mixture stabilized
(nafion (nafion SiC matrix immobilized in zirconia)
membrane) membrane) ϒ-LiAlO2
Charge OH- H+ H+ H+ 𝐶𝑂32− O2-
carrier in the
electrolyte
Anode 𝐻2 + 2𝑂𝐻 − 𝐻2 → 2𝐻+ + 2𝑒 − 𝐶𝐻3𝑂𝐻 + 𝐻2 𝑂 𝐻2 𝐻2 + 𝐶𝑂32− 𝐻2 + 𝑂 2−
reaction → 2𝐻2 𝑂 + 2𝑒 − → 𝐶𝑂2 + 6𝐻 + → 2𝐻 +
+ 2𝑒 − → 𝐻2 𝑂 → 𝐻2 𝑂 + 2𝑒 −
+ 6𝑒 − + 𝐶𝑂2 +2𝑒 −
Cathode 1 1 3 1 1 1
𝑂 + 𝐻2 𝑂 𝑂 + 2𝐻 + 𝑂 + 6𝐻 + 𝑂 + 2𝐻 + + 2𝑒 − 𝑂 + 𝐶𝑂2 + 2𝑒 − 𝑂2 + 2𝑒 − → 𝑂2−
reaction 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
+ 2𝑒 − → 2𝑂𝐻− + 2𝑒 − → 𝐻2 𝑂 + 6𝑒 − → 3𝐻2 𝑂 → 𝐻2 𝑂 → 𝐶𝑂2−
3

Electrode Anode: Ni Anode: Pt, PtRu Anode: Pt, Anode: Pt, PtRu Anode: Ni-5Cr Anode: Ni-YSZ
materials Cathode: Ag Cathode: Pt PtRu Cathode: Pt Cathode: Cathode:
Cathode: Pt NiO(Li) Lanthanum
strontium
Manganite
(LSM)
Application Transportation space, military energy storage Combined heat Combined heat and power for
systems and power for stationary decentralized systems
decentralized and for transportation (trains,
stationary power boats,…)
systems
Realized Small plants 5- Small plants 5- Small plants Small medium Small power Small power
power 150 kW 250 kW modular <5 kW sized plants plants 100 kW- plants 100-
modular 50 kW-11 MW 2 MW 250 kW
Electrical 60% 60% direct H2 35% 40% 50% 60%
efficiency 40% reformed
(LHV) fuel

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Life time Not available 2,000-3,000 h 1,00 h > 50,000 h 7,000-8,000 h 1,000 h
Main AFC energy Ballard (Canada) SFC energy UTC power Fuel cell energy Ceramic fuel
producers (UK) Heliocentris (Germany) (USA) cells limited
UTC power (Germany) Fuji Electric (Australia)
(USA) (Japan) Hexis & Vaillant
Acta power (Germany)
(Italy) SOFC Power
(Italy)
Bloom energy
(USA)
Advantages  Wider range  Solid  Low  Suitable for  High  High
of stable electrolyte temperature CHP efficiency efficiency
materials reduces  Quick start-  Increased  Fuel flexibility  Fuel flexibility
allows lower corrosion and up and load tolerance to  Suitable for  Solid
cost electrolyte following fuel impurities CHP electrolyte
components management  Hybrid/gas  Suitable for
 Low problems turbine cycle CHP
temperature  Low  Hybrid/gas
 Quick start-up temperature turbine cycle
 Quick start-up
and load
following
Challenges  Sensitive to  Expensive  Low  Expensive  High  High
CO2 in fuel catalysts efficiency catalysts temperature temperature
and air  Sensitive to  Long start-up corrosion and corrosion and
 Electrolyte fuel impurities time breakdown of breakdown of
management  Sulfur cell cell
(aqueous) sensitivity components components
 Electrolyte  Long start-up  Long start-up
conductivity time time
(polymer)  Low power  Limited
density number of
shutdowns

Electricity e-
?

H2O
Excess H2
Excess O2

O2
H2
Anode Cathode
Electrolyte

Figure 8. Fuel Cell System for Electric Vehicle (FCEV).

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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

SOFC's traditional advantages are high fuel efficiency and a high fuel impurity tolerance for
refurbished fuels. By contrast, diesel engines for road vehicles achieve an efficiency of 48 percent
(best engines, one stage with the most powerful loads) and the world record is 54.4%. SOFC is the
natural alternative in many heavy vehicle applications because of its ability to run on biogas, bio-
ethanol, bio-methanol and syngas reformed hydrogen. CO as a fuel can be used on SOFCs, while CO
is a poison to the PEMFC, which makes SOFC suitable for syngas and biofuels (figure- 8) [3, 41–52].

ENVIRONMENT
There are no CO2 emissions from a fuel cell operating on hydrogen except for water. The overall
system's GHG emissions depend however on the hydrogen production's GHG emissions intensity. In
the applications of fuel cells, strong environmental benefits are therefore expected.

For producing solar hydrogen, energy is generated from Sunlight by the photovoltaic cells. It is
then used for dividing water into hydrogen and oxygen (electrolysis) and for storing the sun's
hydrogen energy. In this case, greenhouse or acid gas or any other contaminants are not directly
produced by fuel cell vehicles. If biomass methanol is used as fuel, fuel cells have no net carbon
dioxide emissions (CO2 a greenhouse gas), since photosynthetic plants are able to take any carbon
emitted from the atmosphere recently. Any combustion of methanol at high temperatures creates acid
rain gases, nitrous oxides (NOx). Because of lower temperatures of their chemical reactions, fuel cells
virtually remove NOx emissions [53, 54].
Fuel Cells reduce noise emissions in vehicle applications, especially at low speed. Other benefits
include the reduction of gear changes, improved possible reliability, compatibility with other
electrical and electronic devices, and different safety design choices for cars as shown in figure 9.

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H2-Nuclear IFgh-T electrolysis or ultra-low carbon

26
renewable
H2-Biomass gasification 23 Fuel cell electric vehicles

H2-Coal Gasification w/ Sequestration 59

H2-distributed natural gas 124

Battery electric vehicles
Ultra-low carbon renewable 0

Grid Mix 144

Plug-in Hybrid electric
Gasoline and ultra-low renewable 96 vehicles

Gasoline and grid mix 168

Diesel 137
Hybrid electric vehicles
Natural gas 115

Gasoline 145

Natural gas 168 Conventional Internal

combustion
Gasoline 200

Gasoline (Toady's vehicle) 280

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Grams of CO2 equivalent per km

Figure 9. Well-to-Wheel Greenhouse Gases Emissions [55].

Source: Nancy L. Garland, Dimitrios C. Papageorgopoulos, Joseph M. Stanford, “Hydrogen and fuel cell technology:
Progress, challenges, and future directions”.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is the best method for the assessment of the entire life cycle of
vehicles. Well-to-wheel analysis (Graph 1) shows the greenhouse gases emitted in grams per mile for
a variety of vehicles and fuels. The vehicles include conventional internal combustion engine (ICE)
vehicles with today’s technology, and also hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in HEVs, battery
electric vehicles (BEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) with propulsion technology assumed
to be available in 2035 [55].

ECONOMICS AND COST EFFECTIVENESS

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) findings suggest that FCEVs are generally better than BEVs in use
cases that require long tank range. The main advantage is :
 Smaller battery size leads to lower vehicle cost
 Hydrogen refueling time is short compared to battery charging time

Heavy-duty trucks and coaches will likely achieve cost parity prior closer to 2025. This is due to
the high cost and weight of batteries and relatively long recharging times and, in the absence of
breakthroughs in battery technology, the full battery alternative fails to meet commercial vehicle
requirements. Meanwhile, large passenger vehicles with long ranges will break even closer to 2030
[56].

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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

30
FCEV BEV ICE
27.75
25

20
TCO INR/km

18.75

15 15 15.75
15 13.875
13.875 14.25 13.5
13.5 13.875 12.75
13.125 12
10

0
2020 2025 2030 2040 2050

Year
Figure 10. TCO for Passenger vehicles [56].
Source: Hydrogen Council, “Path to Hydrogen Competitiveness–A Cost perspective”

Due to competitive costs in the automotive industry, Fuel cells and hydrogen must compete with
the alternative solutions available to survive in the marketplace. The high capital cost (on a $/kW
basis) today has led to a significant effort to reduce costs. The Department of Energy (DOE) in USA
claims to have reduced the cost of automotive fuel cells from $275/kW in 2002 to $47/kW in 2012
and is targeting a cost of $30/kW further as shown in figure 10 & 11[14–26, 57].

Figure 11. Cost of Automotive Fuel Cells [57].

Source: Global Climate Change, “Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles”
Fuel Cells having high power density and efficiency in terms of high voltage keep them apart from
conventional IC Engine vehicles for cost and performance [58, 59–63]. The fuel storage is another

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major factor in vehicle cost. The Hydrogen storage on-the-go is expensive, however, Fuel cells with
hydrogen produced on-board provide a much safer environment [64].

CONCLUSION
Fuel Cells provide the electric energy without polluting environment, due to which they are looked
as potential source of energy for automobiles. There are certain Fuel Cells which require pure
Hydrogen for reaction inside the Fuel Cell and other types require hydrocarbons/ certain compounds
which disintegrates into Hydrogen inside an FC. On one hand, storage of compressed Hydrogen is a
practical difficulty, while operating an FC at low temperature poses another challenge in an
automobile. Another challenge posed by Automobiles is excessive cost of technology for developing
and manufacturing the Fuel Cells.

Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Acknowledgment
This work is supported by Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune and
Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune.

Abbreviations
Nomenclature Description
AFC Alkaline Fuel Cell
ARAI Automotive Research Association of India
BEV Battery Electric Vehicle
CO Carbon Monoxide
DMFC Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
DOE Department of Energy
FC Fuel Cell
FCEV Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
HEV Hybrid Electric Vehicle
ICE Internal Combustion Engine
LCA Life Cycle Assessment
MCFC Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell
PEM Polymer Electrolyte Membrane
PEMFC Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell
PAFC Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell
SOFC Sold Oxide Fuel Cell
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
YSZ Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia

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cells_comparison_chart_apr2016.pdf (accessed on 30 October 2019).
3. Leonardo Giorgi, Fabio Leccese. “Fuel Cells: Technologies and Applications”. The Open Fuel
Cells Journal. 2013; 6:1–20.

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Fuel Cell Technologies for Automotive Applications Ahuja et al.

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