Challenges of fuel cell technologies for the needs of the energy transition to a zero-carbon technology

Abstract

The study focuses on the challenges of implementing fuel cell technologies and materials to achieve efficient use of green hydrogen and zero CO2 emissions. It is shown that only identifying the optimal parameters for each fuel cell component and technology and testing the system will help achieve the planned output-specific power. The thorough structure optimization of the membrane-electrode complex and testing in actual operating conditions will accelerate the implementation of fuel cell technologies. An example of structural optimization and improvement of catalytic activity of electrodes and electrolytes is shown. The current density of 0.36 μA/cm2 was obtained at a voltage of 0.6 V and a temperature of 500 °C for the fuel cell with 75–80 μm thick ZnO electrolyte and without membrane electrode assembly optimization. It is shown that the fuel cell electrodes’ catalytic activity depends on the modeling profile and structure of the catalytic layer, which was verified by testing in real fuel cell operating conditions.