Reducing fuel cell production costs

Researchers at Finland’s Aalto University have developed a new and significantly cheaper method to manufacture fuel cells, which have the potential to someday power electric vehicles and replace batteries. However, fuel cells’ chemical processes must be sped up by expensive catalysts. The Aalto researchers have developed a new fuel cell in which the catalyst is prepared using atomic layer deposition (ALD) which allows the metal to be thinner and more even, lowing costs and increasing quality. This ALD method for manufacturing fuel cells requires 60 percent less of the costly catalyst than current methods. Also, the researchers created an alcohol fuel cell which used a palladium catalyst - much cheaper than today’s common combination of a hydrogen fuel cell with a platinum catalyst. Commercial production of these more cost-effective fuel cells could start in five to ten years.