FUEL-CELL TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Fuel cells are an innovative technology, but present designs require much more innovation before they can make a large impact on future energy conversion markets. They are regarded today as competition for dispersed generation using conventional clean fossil fuels. Since they use hydrogen, they are built into large chemical plants which may be regarded as dispersed refineries. The size of the plant is determined by this refinery, which cannot be scaled down effectively to the units of a few kW of less, where the fuel cell potentially excels. If they are liberated from this requirement either by the use of new materials or (more likely) by the direct use of hydrogen, first from natural gas, then from renewables, they can have a major impact. How innovation may be used to tackle the home and automobile energy conversion markets is considered.