Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development Hinges on Cost Model

A group of investigators at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) announces that a new cost model for the development and wide-scale implementation of hydrogen fuel cells is now in the works.

The study is meant to address the issues of complexity and elevated costs, which are currently preventing the widespread adoption of fuel cells in everyday applications. While the technology is matured to a degree that could enable its use, it still remains prohibitively expensive.

In order to find out how to reduce these costs, the Berkeley Lab team will build a sophisticated cost model that will include all aspects of buying, owning, operating, maintaining, and caring for a hydrogen-based fuel cell.

All these costs need to be taken into account when considering the full costs of fuel cells. In the end, it could be that the people buy such power sources in fact save a lot of money in the long run. However, this is not clear at this point, the team says.

In addition to traditional manufacturing costs, the new analysis will also quantify previously unanalyzed benefits and drawbacks that these devices may have. The research is funded by a $2 million grant from the DOE.

“There are, for example, human health benefits associated with fuel cells replacing fossil fuels, but they are traditionally not accounted for, especially not by the company making the fuel cells,” explains Berkeley Lab Environmental Energy Technologies Division expert and study leader Eric Masanet.

“But they are a benefit that society enjoys. So we will be using modeling techniques we’ve developed to see if there are optimal design and manufacturing strategies for different markets,” he goes on to say.

The goal is to make the new model available to fuel cells designers and builders, the general public, company and building owners, and to whoever else that might be interested. Having access to these data will enable people to make more informed decisions.

“Something like this [model] will have a shelf life. We’ll deliver a tool that can be updated over time with new processes, new designs, new cost data,” Masanet explains. He adds that the investigation will cover solid oxide and proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells, the two main types of fuel cells under research today.

Masanet says that the entire initiative is expected to unfold over the next five years. Within three years, the model will be made available to the public. For the following two years, Berkeley Lab experts will continue to update and refine their calculations, so as to maintain a significant degree of data relevance.