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Fuel cells in trucks: silent power instead of idling motors

Fuel cells in trucks: silent power instead of idling motors

Technology News |
By eeNews Europe



With a power consumption of several kilowatts, large trucks consume as much electric energy as a multi-flat house. To supply HVAC, refrigeration plant, auxiliary heating or the driver’s coffee machine the vehicles often let their engines idle on motorway stations or over night. Electric generators based on fuel cell, so called Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) could help saving energy and avoid noise and harmful exhaust fumes.

High-temperature fuel cells with solid electrolyte (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell or SOFC) could be commercially interesting, since they do not need platinum. By means of a reformer interposed between fuel tank and fuel cell, SOFCs can turn usual diesel fuel into electricity. Full-ceramics cell types are already quite mature, but they suffer from a critical drawback – their brittleness prevents their usage vehicles; they simply do not survive vibrations and shocks in their location in the vehicle floor for a very long time.

Metal-based versions as devised by scientists from the Jülich research centre along with Austrian companies AVL List GmbH, Plansee SE and the Vienna technical university perform much better; in addition they offer the perspective to lower production cost. Currently these cells however have another weakness: Already after several hundred hours of operation, their performance is declining significantly. "The reason for the excessive ageing effect lies in the micro structure of the electrodes, which is not yet optimal", says Dr. Martin Bram from the Jülich Institute for Energy and Climate Research. "Other factors are the interplay of the electrode material with impurities of the process gases as well as inter-diffusion and oxidation process at the boundary surfaces."


In the Christian Doppler lab (CD Lab), the scientists will explore these mechanisms in detail and develop solutions that prevent premature ageing. The anode-based high-temperature Solid Oxid Fuel Cell developed at the institute is already a success story, it currently is passing a long-term test run with already more than 60.000 operating hours. The new variant, the Metal Supported Cell (MSC-SOFC) to be developed is not even required to run that long – about 12.000 operating hours would be sufficient. In the long run, these fuel cells could also serve as APU during driving – they could provide additional electricity for hybrid vehicle functionality.

The research is conducted at the new Christian Doppler Lab in the Jülich research centre. And this is the other innovation in this story: Those who are familiar with the CD Lab network know that this is an Austrian institution, with their application-oriented research approach to some extend comparable to Germany’s Fraunhofer institutes. The CD Lab in Jülich, inaugurated these days, is the only the second one established at a German research institute.

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