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Cost competitive fuel cell technology to be unveiled at COP15
Serenergy, Metha Energy and Lithium Balance have developed a methanol fuel cell technology that can compete on a price per kilowatt basis
The UN Climate Change Conference COP15 is under way in Copenhagen, with teams of delegates from 192 countries taking part. They will be here for two solid weeks, and this gives the Danish cleantech industry unprecedented opportunities to showcase its technology and attract customers worldwide.
One of the technological offerings is from a small group of Danish companies which have converted a Fiat Scudo into an electric-fuel cell hybrid with a difference – the fuel cell doesn't use hydrogen gas as its feedstock. Instead it uses methanol, which is a liquid at normal temperatures and can be tanked up just like gasoline.
According to professional journal Ingeniøren (The Engineer) which reports the news, the key feature of the technology that fuel cell specialists Serenergy and Metha Energy, together with battery management technology firm Lithium Balance have developed, is economic.
Jesper Toft, managing director of Metha Energy, told Ingeniøren: "We can reduce the costs in each cell by a third, and at the same time increase the efficiency of each cell markedly. These two factors, increased energy output and reduced costs, mean that we can reach an economic level which makes it commercially realisable."
Toft sees the fact that the price per kilowatt is competitive, and that methanol can be distributed just like conventional fuels for internal combustion engines, as compelling arguments for the technology. At the same time he emphasises that the aim is not to outcompete the EV as a concept, but to support it.
The methanol fuel cells do not produce the motive power for the EV, but continuously recharge the batteries while the vehicle is being driven. This overcomes the primary problem of EVs at the current stage of battery technology - namely the action radius. With a tank of methanol as feedstock for the fuel cells, the range of an EV can be increased to 500 kilometres (310 miles), while the secondary problem – battery charging time – is eliminated since methanol can be tanked as fast and as easily as gasoline.
According to Ingeniøren's reporting, the technology makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by 70% in relation to an internal combustion engine car. So there is an interesting story to be presented in Copenhagen during COP15, which represents just about the best opportunity imaginable to find potential partners and customers.
