Ballard Power Systems Inc. (Vancouver, BC, Canada) has claimed significant progress in three areas crucial to the commercialization of automotive fuel cell stack technology - freeze-start capability, durability and cost reduction - without compromising performance. Ballard has demonstrated a stack design that can start repeatedly from -20 °C and operate for more than 2,000 hours at a substantially reduced cost, with no performance trade-off.
"We achieved a technology hat trick by demonstrating three of the requirements most critical to advancing fuel cells along the path to commercialization. Ballard continues to make considerable progress toward meeting the goals set by the auto industry and the US Department of Energy," said Ballard Vice President of Research and Development Charles Stone. "We believe we are the first fuel cell developer to successfully demonstrate these key technology milestones simultaneously in a single fuel cell stack design. This industry-leading technical benchmark represents a significant stride towards the next generations of fuel cells."
