(Invited) Fuel Cells for Heavy Duty Vehicles
Authors: Bellerive Julie , Hu Jingwei , Dutta Monica , Knights Shanna D , Bach Peter 
Published: December 2020

The commercialization of fuel cell products for a variety of applications including forklifts, buses, cars and heavy duty trucks is well underway. Particularly in the heavy duty fuel cell market, recent studies suggest that in Europe, fuel cell electric buses (FCEB) total cost of ownership (TCO) will breakeven with battery electric buses (BEB) by 2023, and with internal combustion engine buses (ICEB) by 20241. For applications such as long-distance and heavy-duty transportation, the hydrogen route appears the decarbonisation option of choice, and can become cost competitive with internal combustion engines by 20302.

Over the past 30 years, Ballard has developed a wide array of technology “building blocks” for Fuel Cell stacks components. The application requirements (duty cycle, speed, vehicle weight, lifetime and environmental exposure) will determine the key stack features and result in customization of components where economically viable. In contrast with fuel cell stacks developed for passenger cars, Fuel Cells for heavy duty vehicles are particularly challenged by high durability requirements3, with MEA attributes such as catalyst loading and peak efficiency point significantly affecting stack and fuel costs.

Building on proven and demonstrated stack durability in the field of more than 35,000 hours in heavy duty vehicles4 Ballard’s MEA development activities draw from extensive field experience to support step changes in durability with each subsequent product iteration. The use of an accelerated testing and modeling approach developed and validated over numerous product iterations enables continuous cost decreases and gains in power density, operational robustness and reliability, with a calculated risk tolerance for new technology introduction.

Those MEA durability prediction models along with a good understanding of failure mechanisms are a cornerstone to developing the next generation of Fuel Cells for heavy duty vehicles. Of particular importance is the use of the voltage degradation model to evaluate the time to reach the degradation target for heavy duty applications (USDOE Ultimate target of 10% degradation at 30,000 hours5). Simulation results as a function of the electrode composition show the relationship between cathode catalyst loading and lifetime, and assist in making electrode design and composition choices for a successfully durable product. A sharp increase in voltage loss is observed when local oxygen transport resistance becomes limiting once the cathode reaches low surface area. Maximizing beginning-of-life catalyst electrochemical surface area (ECSA) utilization in the electrode structure, as well as optimizing surface area retention, can have significant benefits for lifetime. A combination of design choices or processing parameters during catalyst layer fabrication can be effective ways to optimize the electrode6.

The same voltage degradation model is used to demonstrate the relationship between lifetime and the peak operating current density of the product, which limits the stack design power density within the allocated voltage degradation constraints of heavy-duty vehicles.

The simulation results demonstrate that the ideal Fuel Cell stack for heavy duty applications is the result of complex trade-offs between cost, stack design attributes (e.g. catalyst loading), active area sizing (peak efficiency point) and durability, with the ultimate goal to achieve an attractive TCO for wide acceptance of the technology.

References

Deloitte and Ballard. (2020). Fueling the Future of Mobility: Hydrogen and fuel cell solutions for transportation. Volume 1 [White paper]. Deloitte China. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/finance/deloitte-cn-fueling-the-future-of-mobility-en-200101.pdf

McKinsey & Company and Hydrogen Council. (2020). Path to hydrogen competitiveness: A cost perspective. https://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/19006_hydrogen_class8_long_haul_truck_targets.pdf

Macauley, N., Lauritzen, M., Knights, S. and Kjeang, E., J. Electrochem. Soc., 165(10), F780 (2018).

https://www.ballard.com/about-ballard/newsroom/news-releases/2020/01/27/ballard-powers-fuel-cell-electric-vehicles-for-unprecedented-30-million-kilometers-enough-to-circle-the-globe-750-times

USDOE Hydrogen Class 8 Long Haul Truck Targets
https://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/19006_hydrogen_class8_long_haul_truck_targets.pdf

M. Dutta, A. Young, V. Colbow, J. Bellerive, S. Knights, Examining Catalyst Layer Design Strategies for Improved Fuel Cell Performance and Durability, ECS PRiME 2020