New Fuel Cell Materials

Many companies are diligently working to bring hydrogen, reformate, and methanol fed polymer electrolyte fuel cell products to a variety of markets. It appears that currently available fuel cell materials and designs will be adequate for near-term markets with the highest cost ($/kW) entry points. In these cases, challenges in engineering, manufacturing, and marketing must be overcome to prior to successful market penetration. However, there are also more technically demanding and lower-cost markets (e.g. automotive) for which current materials and designs may not be sufficient. The purpose of this conference will be to stimulate work on next generation fuel cell materials and fundamental fuel cell understanding that would significantly accelerate fuel cell commercialization for these demanding applications.