Commercial Prospects
AFCs are the cheapest of fuel cells to manufacture. The catalyst required for the electrodes can be any of a number of different chemicals that are inexpensive compared to those required for other types of fuel cells.
The commercial prospects for AFCs lie largely with the recently developed bi-polar plate version of this technology, considerably superior in performance to earlier mono-plate versions.
The world's first Fuel Cell Ship HYDRA used an AFC system with 6.5 kW net output.
Another recent development is the solid-state alkaline fuel cell, utilizing alkali anion exchange membranes rather than a liquid. This resolves the problem of poisoning and allows the development of alkaline fuel cells capable of running on safer hydrogen-rich carriers such as liquid urea solutions or metal amine complexes.
Read more about this topic: Alkaline Fuel Cell
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