AFC Energy is targeting the $20 billion diesel generator market with its alkaline fuel cell technology, capable of running on lower grades of hydrogen including from commercial ammonia, company CEO Adam Bond told S&P Global Platts on May 10.
The UK company has international partnerships with ABB, Acciona, Altaaqa, Extreme E and now international constructor Mace Group, with applications of its technology focused on power generation using hydrogen cracked from ammonia on-site."The use cases for all of the biggest green or blue hydrogen projects today are focused on the production of ammonia", Bond said.
For AFC Energy this meant targeting the global diesel genset market across an array of off-grid applications.
"What is the best zero-emission alternative to diesel? Both methanol and ethanol have a carbon element. If you work your way through the list of liquid fuels in order of highest energy density to lowest, the highest without a carbon footprint is ammonia–for data centers, construction sites, shipping and high power EV charging," Bond said.
Ammonia is four times as energy dense as gaseous hydrogen in volumetric terms and can be liquefied at around minus 30 degrees versus hydrogen's minus 230 degrees.
"It also has a commoditized price. In short, the cost of moving ammonia around is a fraction of the cost of moving hydrogen around, making it an ideal fuel for offgrid power," Bond said.
Whilst AFC Energy's alkaline fuel cells can use hydrogen cracked from ammonia, the same fuel cannot be used in a PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cell unless the hydrogen is first subject to being ultra-purified at high cost, the CEO said.
"Alkaline chemistry differs from PEM in that it can accept low-grade hydrogen. By low-grade I mean down to sub-90% purity versus the 99.9%-plus PEM needs," he said.
Alkaline fuel cells can also operate with, or without, platinum group metals, making them cheaper to manufacture than PEM fuel cells, he added.
