There are four large areas of application for fuel cell technology: 1. stationary applications in the (home) energy supply and in combined heat and power plants 2. mobile application in vehicles 3. portable applications in consumer electronics and leisure time activities 4. special applications (niche markets) in special purpose vehicles as well as in emergency or uninterruptible power supply (UPS). In stationary applications fuel cells will be used for decentralized energy and heat supply. For the power supply of single and multiple family houses smaller facilities with a capacity ranging between 1 and 10 kW (electric) are used, while power and heat facilities with a capacity ranging between 100 kW to 1 MW (electric) are needed to secure the power and heat supply of industrial facilities, hospitals and other large buildings. In order to make use of the existing distribution network, natural gas will predominantly be used as fuel. In the field of small facilities, large scale field tests are carried out mostly in Germany and Japan. In the framework of the Callux1 programme, several hundreds of heating appliances and facilities will be installed in Germany in the coming years and tested in daily use. The large size facilities are already in frequent use for decentralized energy and heat supply and are almost ready for the market, but they still need support for their introduction to the market. By using hydrogen, the fuel cell technology, as a pillar of electric mobility, opens a promising opportunity to dramatically reduce the CO2 emissions of traffic as well as the dependency on fuels based on fossil energy sources. According to the findings of the EU-funded project HyWays (Hydrogen Energy in Europe), conventional fuel consumption in traffic could be reduced by 40 % until 2050 through the introduction of hydrogen. Well-known producers in Europe, the USA, and Asia are working on electric cars with a fuel-cell power drive. Meanwhile, fleets of busses and automobiles are being tested worldwide in daily routine. In the context of cooperation projects, the automobile manu-facturers Opel/General Motors, Daimler, Honda and Toyota have provided selected pilot customers with fuel cell cars. The goal is to gather everyday experiences with these vehicles and to establish the know-how for the serial production of fuel cell vehicles. 1
Callux is the largest practical test of fuel cell heaters for private homes in Germany; it is part of the National Innovation Programme (NIP) for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology.
A prerequisite for the commercial success of fuel cell vehicles are fuel cell engines ready for serial production and a nation-wide network of hydrogen fuelling stations. This must be built up simultaneously. In the framework of the EU-funded ZeroRegio project in Hessen, a hydrogen fuelling station was built in the vicinity of the industrial park Frankfurt Hoechst. Liquid or gaseous hydrogen is available for fuel cell vehicles up to a pressure of 700 bar. Used in consumer electronics (laptops, cell phones, portable music and video devices), fuel cells as portable applications make it possible to extend the battery charging periods of the increasingly powerful devices or even to charge them offline. In the field of leisure activities (camping, mobile homes/caravans, yachts), fuel cell systems are used for additional energy supply (APU auxiliary power units). They supply the numerous electronic devices (computer, TV set, refrigerator, air condition, etc.) reliably with energy without using the energy of the vehicle or boat battery. The fuel cells with a range of capacity of several Watts up to 5 kW needed for these applications use as fuel the onboard propane gas or methanol which is available and distributed through a cartridge or capsule exchange system. As regards uninterrupted power supply (UPS) in telecommunication, today’s fuel cell systems are already capable of replacing heavy and expensive batteries. Numerous pilot projects have shown that in many cases the hydrogen and fuel cell technology runs more reliably and cost-saving than batteries. Suppliers of such fuel cell systems are well on the way to open up this market successfully. Apart from this there is a variety of niche applications. Fuel cell power engines are increasingly used in bicycles and ground conveyor equipment (on airports) or in special purpose vehicles. The advantages of fuel cell technology have been demonstrated convincingly in forklift trucks. In aviation and aerospace as well as in submarines fuel cell technology has already played a key role for several decades. Due to their special requirements, these niche markets, whose competitive structures differ from those of volume markets, can be established as early target markets for the first commercial fuel cell products.
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