A review of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: Technology, applications, and needs on fundamental research

Applied Energy, Volume 88, Issue 4, April 2011, Pages 981-1007

A review of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: Technology, applications, and needs on fundamental research

Yun Wang (a), Ken S. Chen (b), Jeffrey Mishler (a), Sung Chan Cho (a), Xavier Cordobes Adroher (a)

yunw@uci.edu

a Renewable Energy Resources Lab (RERL) and National Fuel Cell Research Center, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3975, USA

b Engineering Sciences Center, Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, NM 87185-0836, USA

Abstract

Durability and cost still remain as major barriers to fuel cell commercialization.  tTe current status of $61/kW (2009) for transportation fuel cell is still 50% higher than the target of the US Department of Energy (DOE), which is. $30/kW by 2015, in order to compete with the conventional technology of internal-combustion engines.  Although a lifetime of ∼2500 h (for transportation PEM fuel cells) was achieved in 2009, This is still just half of the DOE target of 5000 h.  Breakthroughs are critical to overcoming these barriers. Previous reviews tend to focus on one aspect, either a specific fuel cell application or a particular area of fuel cell research.

The three objectives of this review are: (1) to present the latest status of PEM fuel cell technology development and applications in the transportation, stationary, and portable/micro power generation sectors through an overview of the state-of-the-art and most recent technical progress; (2) to describe the need for fundamental research in this field and fill the gap of addressing the role of fundamental research in fuel cell technology; and (3) to outline major challenges in fuel cell technology development and the needs for fundamental research for the near future and prior to fuel cell commercialization.

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