The current status of fuel cell technology for mobile and stationary applications

Fuel cells are generally considered as a clean, efficient and silent technology that can produce electricity and heat from fossil fuels, biofuels as well as hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy. The expectations with respect to their commercial introduction in transport as early as 2003 and stationary applications by 2001 held since the mid 1990s have not yet been realised. The main hurdles preventing commercial introduction still are too high cost, lack of durability, too high system complexity and a lack of fuel infrastructure. To better understand the issues to be discussed in this review on fuel cells, the basic principles of fuel cells are explained in this introduction.