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Fuel cells and electrolysers in future energy systems - VBN

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e.g. the manned Apollo missions, which has no price issue, availability of pure oxygen prob‐<br />

lems, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> which the excess water is useful for astronauts. The lifetime of AFCs is rather<br />

short <strong>and</strong> is not expected to <strong>in</strong>crease with further research; thus, ma<strong>in</strong>ly mobile applica‐<br />

tions should be considered. In recent years, research has shown that the purification needs<br />

may be lower than expected. Micro‐CHP based on AFC is also still be<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>vestigated [27].<br />

Phosphoric acid fuel <strong>cells</strong> (PAFCs) are widely used today as emergency power <strong>and</strong> st<strong>and</strong>‐<br />

alone units <strong>in</strong> hospitals, schools <strong>and</strong> hotels. They have been commercially available s<strong>in</strong>ce<br />

1992, but the costs of PAFCs are still about three times higher than those of other compa‐<br />

rable alternatives. The ma<strong>in</strong> problems related to PAFCs are based on the fact that they are<br />

dependent on noble metals for the electrodes <strong>and</strong> the fact that their reported efficiencies<br />

are not considerably better than those of other technologies. [24‐26;38]<br />

The AFCs <strong>and</strong> the PAFCs are often considered the most developed fuel <strong>cells</strong> of the five<br />

types mentioned [28]. However, although variants of both types are still developed, it will<br />

hardly be possible to improve the two ma<strong>in</strong> challenges, namely the lifetime of AFCs <strong>and</strong> the<br />

cost level of PAFCs, respectively [25;27].<br />

Fig. 7, Schemas of different fuel cell types<br />

39

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