Project description
Making hydrogen fuel cells for a fraction of the cost
Hydrogen fuel cell technology offers a clean and reliable alternative energy source for a growing number of applications including transportation as well as stationary, portable and emergency backup power. Despite its promising potential, the technology has not gained sufficient momentum for a commercial breakthrough, largely due to its cost and complexity. The EU-funded EHSTACK project aims to remove these barriers to the large-scale deployment of the technology. By reducing auxiliary components, the project will aim to simplify the overall fuel cell architecture and make it more energy efficient. Power density is expected to be 1.5 times greater than competitive fuel cell technology. Finally, it will also integrate the development of proprietary machinery that will drastically decrease the production costs of a 30 kW stack from 1 000 EUR/kW to less than 50-100 EUR/kW.
Objective
EH Group Engineering (EHG) aims to become a leading player in the emerging hydrogen economy. This is via the commercialisation of a low temperature fuel cell (FC) based on a radical new design and the development of a transformative manufacturing technique that dramatically reduces costs:
- A uniquely simplified and re-designed FC stack at the micro level, making it significantly more compact, lightweight and efficient. It also simplifies the overall FC system architecture by reducing or eliminating auxiliary components, making it more efficient and cheaper. It delivers a power density of 1.5 times leading competitors’ products.
- A completely new concept of fuel cell stack design and assembly with high micro precision, integrating proprietary machinery that will enable the production at scale of a 30kW stack in less than a minute at a cost of less than 100EUR/kW (currently over 1,000EUR/kW). Radical cost reduction in fuel cell by process innovation in production with a sharply lower capex.
- Our FC technology can operate with minimal effects of gravity and in any orientation, making it a great candidate in the automotive sector as a power generator.
EH Group is focused on B2B; equipment manufacturers purchasing our FC to integrate them into their product offerings. Two patents have been filed with further three planned for late 2019. Our leadership team combines more than 50+ years of collective expertise in the field of engineering, fuel cells, low/high temperature materials, institutional finance and entrepreneurship.
The fuel cell market has been expanding at 25-40%p.a. in stationary and mobile applications, and is projected to reach 25bio USD by 2025. The electrification of heavy transport, such as buses, trucks and maritime vessels where batteries cannot compete on range, weight and refueling time are strong candidates for the deployment of our technology, as we forge towards the imperative of a low carbon future.
Fields of science
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managemententrepreneurship
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringautomotive engineering
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfuel cells
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringnaval engineeringsea vessels
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energyhydrogen energy
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2b - SME Instrument (grant only and blended finance)Coordinator
1197 Prangins
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.