Have Industrial Suppliers Awakened to Hydrogen and Fuel Cells?
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By Venki Raman
NHA Trustee, and President, Protium Energy Technologies

In an attempt to answer the above question that was posed by Debbi Smith, Vice President of operations of NHA, I attended the Fuel Cell Summit October 24-25, 2005 at the Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT which was jointly organized by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), and supported by the NHA as an endorsing partner. The conference was organized in two tracks; the CCEF track focused on fuel cell markets while the SME track focused on manufacturing challenges and supply chain issues for hydrogen and fuel cell systems. The SME track was very well attended and had many representatives from the fuel cell supply chain industries. Overall about 500 people registered for the conference and my casual observation suggested that more than half of these attendees were in the SME Manufacturing Track sessions; a testament to the interest that this technology is generating within the manufacturing community.

At the outset, let me state my response to the question - I believe that the industrial suppliers are largely taking a wait-and-see attitude to hydrogen and fuel cells. The original equipment manufacturers' (OEMs) promise of a somewhat vague high volume future based on a low volume present has not served to sufficiently motivate and energize the supplier base. However this observation should not be seen in an entirely negative light or as an indication of a lack of interest. Instead it suggests that the fuel cell and hydrogen OEM developers have a lot of work ahead to bring the supplier base on-board to their development programs so that they can see for themselves the potential commercial opportunities represented by these technologies.

The presenters and panel participants represented a wide cross-section of industry, academia, R&D consortia, national laboratories, federal and state government institutions. The discussion topics covered manufacturing advancements, challenges, manufacturing collaboration projects, and the manufacturing supply chain from both the end-user and fuel cell company perspectives.

A recurring question that came up during the panel discussions was "when will manufacturing truly start in the hydrogen and fuel cell industry"? At what production volume level can we safely say that development is done? This is still very much an open question. Fuel cell stacks technology, balance of plant (BOP), and systems architectures are continuously changing at a rapid rate. The industry is not yet ready to "freeze" designs and move on towards standardization of stacks, and various system modules. The same is true for small distributed hydrogen generating devices and storage systems.

It would be accurate to say that a fuel cell supply chain doesn't exist yet. Far too many of the BOP components currently employed are not optimally matched to the fuel cell requirements, and far too much of the systems work is done in-house at costs that cannot be supported in true commercial applications. An overbearing concern about intellectual property protection by the technology developers has been a major impediment to adequate communication with the supplier industry. However things appear to be changing; a presenter from UTC Fuel Cells noted that technology developers are beginning to open-up their technology to stimulate interest on the part of the vendor community and thus enable them to provide lower cost componentry. The BOP components are thought to comprise fully 50% of the cost of fuel cell systems and are frequently cited as the cause of failure of various fuel cell trials. The BOP includes functions such as supply and control of the reactants (air and hydrogen) and removal of the by-products (heat and water). Sensors to monitor and control the flow of reactants, the removal of by-products, temperature, and pressure are necessary components of the BOP.

To date much of the efforts in fuel cell development have focused on the core stack technology issues associated with catalysts loading, membrane and electrode performance etc. However there is also need to take a Design for Manufacturability (DFM) approach in the design of components and system modules, and to consider Continuous Manufacturing Methods (CMM) from the early stages of development. DFM and CMM are critical first steps before production volume efficiency can take hold and help drive down manufacturing costs of the products.

Collaborations between suppliers and OEM's have begun to appear, as illustrated by examples presented by suppliers such as Parker-Hannifin and Modine who are helping OEM's achieve significant cost reductions by integrating many individual components into functional subsystems. The Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC), Dayton, OH is developing a comprehensive supply chain database for fuel cells and the associated hydrogen infrastructure. The intent is to establish an on-line forum where fuel cell developers, system integrators and prospective component manufacturers can assess their potential roles in the fuel cell supply chain, present their capabilities, and be linked to possible consumers of their goods and services.

In a recently initiated consortium effort, the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), Ann Arbor, MI is working with DOE in a new cross-industry collaborative program targeting the development of manufacturing technologies for affordable hydrogen-powered energy systems including fuel cell components and hydrogen storage systems.

The federal government will be doing its part as well. The DOE will soon issue a manufacturing Roadmap for Hydrogen Production, Storage & Fuel Cell Systems that was developed in consultation with industry, academia, and the national labs in a workshop held in July 2005. This roadmap will serve as the basis for a national manufacturing R&D program. The scope of this program will be generic, pre-competitive core R&D on fabrication processes. The cost-shared programs will be conducted by industry-led teams to develop manufacturing capability.

In conclusion, I would say that the time has arrived to seriously address the challenges to low-cost manufacturing methods for fuel cells and hydrogen and to develop a supplier network. The good news is that the industrial suppliers have awakened to this field and it is now the responsibility of the various OEMs to develop collaborative working arrangements with this community to achieve the end goal of low cost reliable fuel cell and hydrogen technologies.


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