Luke Bates, Automotive Analyst at the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) explores the compelling opportunities for the UK hydrogen and fuel cell supply chain. A question we often get asked at the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) is “What’s the next big thing in automotive technology?”. Perhaps that question needs to be rephrased; maybe the next ‘big thing’ isn’t new at all. In fact, for the UK, what we should be looking out for isn’t technology, but opportunity – because what we’ve found in the process of creating our most recent publication – our fuel cell system value chain maps – is that our ..read more

Chandana Patnaik In 2014, Toyota opened the doors to the hydrogen society by launching Toyota Mirai, the world’s first commercial FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle). However, Mirai was not the first FCEV developed in the world. The credit of introducing the first FCEV to the world goes to General Motors, which developed Electrovan more than a half century ago in 1966. The GM Electrovan containing 2 giant storage tanks forhydrogen and oxygen, 32 fuel cell modules, electric motor, and a 550-feet piping throughout the rear of the vehicle weighted around 7,100 pounds. This system relied on rare me ..read more

The Devil Is In The Detail! A Closer Look at a Multiphysics Fuel Cell Electric Bus Model Theodor Ensbury Much has been made recently about the importance of using virtual models in delivering eMobility. Benefits are often talked about in general and holistic terms; reduction of prototypes, digital twins, model-based design and so forth. As one can easily imagine, the accuracy of a model directly influences its usefulness. After all, you need to trust what the model is telling you in place of real-world testing. But how does a model achieve that realism? What is the importance of detail and fid ..read more

Armin Diez, CTO and COO of EKPO Fuel Cell Technologies talks us through the development and large-scale production of high-performance fuel cell stacks to further advance CO2-neutral mobility Mr. Diez, EKPO has been active in the fuel cell sector for around 20 years through its parent companies ElringKlinger and Plastic Omnium. Tell us about your beginnings with fuel cells… Armin Diez: As far as ElringKlinger is concerned, we started developing the first bipolar plates for fuel cells in 1999. The production process for manufacturing a bipolar plate is similar to that of a cylinder-head gasket ..read more

The Use and Optimisation of Catalysts for Automotive Fuel Cells Wayne Thornhill  In the following paragraphs we will discuss fuel cell technology, as used in Fuel Cell Electric vehicles, and how optimised catalysts can improve their performance.  The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) is a concept which has now been around for a long time.  Whilst Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) have received a lot of attention in the passenger vehicle market in recent years there is a growing interest in fuel cells for heavy duty vehicles and vehicles for longer range travel such as taxis and SU ..read more

Looking around us, we see more and more applications for fuel cell technology gaining traction. Examples are more than 300.000 µ-Combined Heat and Power installations in Japan, and more than 30.000 fuel cell-powered forklifts in the US. In the transportation sector, OEMs like Toyota, Honda and Hyundai have introduced fuel cell electric vehicles to the market – and the interest in applying this technology in the Heavy Duty / Commercial Vehicle segment is rising, especially where pure battery electric technology might not be able to fulfill the specific requirements of enabling long distance ele ..read more

Jörg Feist, Silvia Araguas Rodriguez, Jim Hickey, Ahmed Zaid Sophisticated temperature detection is needed in traditional combustion engines, but how can the latest thermal mapping technology drive development in cleaner automotive propulsion systems? High temperatures are common in combustion engines. Some automotive pistons and turbochargers operate between 400 °C – 700 °C, with some high-performance turbochargers reaching beyond 800 °C. To drive higher thermodynamic efficiencies, operating temperatures in gas turbines now approach 1600 °C. Amongst other challenges, such high temp ..read more

FCTR Fuel Cell Track Freudenberg Sealing Technologies and Quantron AG agree to cooperate on emission-freeheavy-duty commercial transportation Freudenberg Sealing Technologies has launched the development of a special fuel cell system for heavy-duty trucks. The company is collaborating with Quantron AG, a specialist in the field of commercial vehicle conversion. The project’s first  fuel cell system will be installed in a heavy-duty truck for real-world testing in the near future. Thesecollaborative efforts are  being supported by the Energy Research Program of the Bavarian State Mini ..read more

    With an ever-strengthening commitment to sustainability, ABB and AFC Energy will partner on the testing and integration of fuel cells as part of the wider power portfolio for eMobility solutions and now also for data centers. ABB announced a strategic investment and development agreement with AFC Energy to further the advancement of fuel cell technology integration into its high-growth eMobility and data center segments. In 2020, ABB announced the launch of a strategic partnership with AFC Energy to create the next generation of high power sustainable electric vehicle (EV) chargi ..read more

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is using the transformation in the automotive industry to technologically and structurally advance the company Fundamental technological change in the automotive industry also requires suppliers to have the courage to make far-reaching changes. If they don’t have the courage to do so, they will not succeed in the long term. Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, one of the world’s leading suppliers of sealing solutions for the automotive industry, is using this disruptive upheaval as an opportunity. Strategic initiatives, technological partnerships, targeted investm ..read more