HYDRANGER - The Physically Integrated Hydrogen Fuel Cell - Lithium Battery Range Extender

我们目前正在进入“电化学动力时代”，取代化石燃料和内燃机。交通部门脱碳的迫切需要导致了电池技术的重大改进，以及电动汽车的迅速普及。锂离子电池技术走在了前列，大大提高了性能，降低了成本。然而，电池的重量/尺寸、充电时间和成本是中型和重型商用车面临的挑战。燃料电池与电池的混合提供了一个“两全其美”的方案，可以满足该行业的需求。燃料电池是一种电化学能源技术，在将化学燃料转化为电能方面具有已知的最高效率。它们的工作原理是通过电化学分解燃料分子(例如氢)，从而产生电流。聚合物电解质燃料电池(PEFC)不涉及燃烧或运动部件，在50-80℃的温度下使用氢燃料，被认为是最有前途的汽车燃料电池类型。它仍然需要降低成本，一种大规模制造的手段，以及提高寿命。Bramble Energy的技术采用印刷电路板(PCB)材料和制造技术，实现了低成本、轻质、坚固耐用的系统，具有使其高度设计灵活和耐用的基本优势。Bramble Energy方法以不同的方式考虑燃料电池的结构。传统的燃料电池需要资本密集型的、专门为每种应用量身定做的制造技术。Bramble Energy燃料电池只使用标准的印刷电路板材料和制造技术，因此其生产原则上可以在世界各地的任何印刷电路板生产工厂完成。2017年，全球商用道路车辆市场价值1.32万亿美元，是二氧化碳排放的主要来源。氢燃料电池为这一领域的脱碳提供了机会，由于重量和续航里程的要求，仅使用锂离子电池是极其困难的。该项目将演示如何将燃料电池集成到传统的锂离子电池模块中，并在运行中的“骡子”车辆中演示这种方法，从而使燃料电池有效地成为车辆电池组空间的一部分。这将显著提高燃料电池集成到电动汽车中的能力，改善可制造性、系统重量/体积性能和成本。

We are currently entering the 'age of electrochemical power', displacing fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine. The critical need to decarbonise the transport sector has led to major improvements in battery technology and the rapidly growing uptake of electric vehicles. Li-ion battery technology has led the way and resulted in massively improved performance and reduced cost. However, the weight/size, recharging time and cost of batteries are a challenge for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Hybridising fuel cells with batteries deliveries a 'best of both worlds' scenario that can deliver the needs of this sector.Fuel cells are an electrochemical energy technology that has the highest know efficiency for conversion of chemical fuel into electricity. They work by electrochemically splitting fuel molecules (e.g. hydrogen), with the consequent passage of electrical current. There is no combustion or moving parts involved, and the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), which operates on hydrogen fuel at a temperature of 50-80C, is considered to be the most promising fuel cell type for automotive applications.While the PEFC shows great promise and delivers in terms of performance (efficiency, power density, etc.) it still requires cost reduction, a means of large-scale manufacture and improvements to longevity. Bramble Energy's technology uses printed circuit board (PCB) materials and manufacturing techniques to realise a low-cost, light-weight, rugged system with fundamental advantages that make it highly design flexible and durable. The Bramble Energy approach thinks about the structure of a fuel cell in a different way. A traditional fuel cell needs capital intensive, bespoke manufacturing techniques tailored specifically to each application. A Bramble Energy fuel cell uses only standard PCB materials and manufacturing techniques such that its production can be done, in principle, at any PCB production plant worldwide.The global commercial road vehicle market was valued at USD 1.32 trillion in 2017 and is a major source of CO2 emissions. Hydrogen fuel cells offer the opportunity to decarbonise this sector, which, due to weight and range requirements, is exceedingly difficult to electrify using lithium-ion batteries alone. This project will demonstrate how fuel cells can be incorporated within conventional lithium-ion battery modules, and demonstrate the approach in an operational 'mule' vehicle, such that the fuel cell effectively becomes part of the battery pack space within a vehicle. This will significantly improve the ability of fuel cells to be integrated within electric vehicles, improve manufacturability, system weight/volume performance and cost.