Low Platinum Fuel Cell as Enabler for the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle

In this work, the design and modeling of a fuel cell vehicle using low-loading platinum catalysts were investigated. Data from single fuel cells with low Pt-loading cathode catalysts were scaled up to fuel cell stacks and systems, implemented in a vehicle, and then compared to a commercial fuel cell vehicle. The low-loading Pt systems have shown lower efficiency at high loads compared to the commercial systems suggesting less stable materials. However, the analysis showed that the vehicle comprising low-loading Pt catalysts achieves similar or higher efficiency compared to the commercial fuel cell vehicle when being scaled up for the same number of cells. When the systems were scaled up for the same maximum power as the commercial fuel cell vehicle, all the low-loading Pt fuel cell systems showed higher efficiencies. In this case, more cells are needed, but still, the amount of Pt is significantly reduced compared to the commercial one. The high-efficiency results can be associated with the vehicle’s power range operation that meets the region where the low-loading Pt fuel cells have high performance. The results suggested a positive direction towards the reduction of Pt in commercial fuel cell vehicles supporting a cost-competitive clean energy transition based on hydrogen.