International overview of hydrogen and fuel cell research

Increasing environmental problems, limited fossil resources and the geopolitical dependence on crude oil are enormous challenges for our societies. According to energy experts from all over the world, fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies will play an important role in the portfolio for a future energy economy. This is particularly true for the transport sector which is marked today by an extreme dependency on oil. Hydrogen needs to be produced cost-effectively and with zero or near-zero CO(2) emissions. Fuel cells, with their high electrical efficiencies and clean exhaust energy conversion, have the potential to produce excellent solutions to the ecological and economic problems provided that their development is pursued in a determined way and that their market launch is prepared. Based on experiences and results from intensive R&D and demonstration programmes in the last decades, regional, national, European and international efforts are underway to overcome existing bottlenecks through efforts reaching from fundamental research to market introduction instruments. The problems still to be solved are manifold: cost reduction for all components and systems of a hydrogen economy, performance improvements, manufacturing technologies, infrastructure development, international agreements on codes, standards and regulations, and many more. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.