Fuel Cells
Hydrogen and fuel cell technology offer great promise as an energy source that can lead the U.S. toward greater energy independence and an improved environment. The successful development of a hydrogen economy will take many years and poses many challenges.
The NAVC is working toward this goal by:
International Fuel Cell Bus Demonstrations: A complete survey of all fuel cell bus demonstration programs underway around the world. Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Fuel Cell Bus Primer: An introduction to fuel cell bus technology.
More on the NAVC's fuel cell activities:
Fuel Cell Reports: Future Wheels II, published by the NAVC in September 2003, reports on the results of extensive interviews with fuel cell experts on the future of the transportation fuel cell industry. The NAVC interviewed 34 global experts representing fuel cell manufacturers, automakers, fuel providers, hydrogen suppliers, state and federal government agencies, non-profit associations and independent consultancies. These experts were asked their views on a wide range of issues surrounding development of a hydrogen and fuel cell industry. To date, Future Wheels II has been downloaded from the NAVC website over 20,000 times.
Future Wheels II is a follow-up to a report published in September 2000. The first Future Wheels focused on fuel cell infrastructure issues, and included a "fuel cell primer", which contains a section on hydrogen. The first Future Wheels has been downloaded over 100,000 times from the NAVC website.
Download Future Wheels II Download Future Wheels I The NAVC also authored a July 2003 analysis of the viability of electrolysis for military applications (distributed only to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) of the National Automotive Center.
Industry Work Groups, Information Dissemination: The NAVC is the facilitator for the U.S. Heavy-Duty Fuel Cell Vehicle Work Group, which is funded by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and managed by the Federal Transit Administration. The purpose of this industry-government work group is to promote the successful development and commercialization of fuel cell powered heavy-duty vehicles, primarily transit buses. Because transit buses are the main heavy-duty application for fuel cells right now, the Work Group has focused primarily on this application. The Work Group has over 60 members, from fuel cell manufacturers, transit operators, bus OEMs, electric drive system developers, government agencies and other interested parties, who come together to share information on and address challenges to the development of a fuel cell transit bus market. The Work Group has conducted face-to-face meetings and conference calls; information from these meetings is available from Lisa Callaghan at lisacal@navc.org.
The NAVC is also working with the U.S. DOT on development of an International Fuel Cell Bus Work Group. This Work Group met in November in Long Beach, California, and, at this meeting, the NAVC was tasked with developing a webpage on the existing and planned fuel cell bus demonstrations around the globe.
Fuel Cell Technology Development: Through two federal earmarks, the NAVC is a partner in Connecticut-based UTC Fuel Cells' program to develop the "Next Generation Bus' fuel cell powerplant. The NAVC is a subcontractor to the U.S Department of Transportation (DOT), overseeing the performance of the project milestones. UTC Fuel Cells is developing the next generation fuel cell bus powerplant for implementation in four fuel cell buses to be delivered to California in 2004 and 2005. A second round of DOT funding, in the amount of $1.5 million, was secured in FY'04, with the NAVC acting again as a sub-contractor to the DOT.
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