Electric cars and those powered by hydrogen will be the usual trend beyond the middle of the next decade. A long time ahead but not so much for car suppliers, who have to research, test and develop. Those of Mann & Hummel have presented an interesting technology for the FCEV, the first results of the ISAAC project.
Suppliers to the automotive sector are obliged to embark on the electric cars and in the technology fuel cell to be able to survive in a future that, in the middle of the next decade, will be marked by zero emissions with electric power but also dominated by hydrogen. The only way that has more followers compared to the previous ones, even if they are more expensive.
The Germans of Mann + Hummel have embarked on an ambitious project led by the German Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport. This is the ISAAC Project, and in which a consortium of specialist companies is working to develop sophisticated technology for electric commercial vehicles equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell. More specifically, it is an array of sensors for an air filter installed on the cathodes that absorb harmful gases.
China is the target of the ISAAC project
The truth is fuel cells also contain components that become saturated with dirt, so they need a special air filter to avoid problems in their operation. Michael Harenbrock, leading expert in electric mobility at this German company, explained in a little more detail what the technology they are investigating consists of, noting that “The useful life of a fuel cell depends, among other things, on the cleanliness of the cathode air in the catalytic converter”, adding that “Oxygen is reduced in the platinum-coated cathode, but gases containing nitrogen or sulfur also bind to platinum particles. As a result, block the catalyst and therefore impair fuel cell performance».
This is precisely what they have managed to avoid in view of the first tests, with very positive results, a solution that they have also tried with active carbon filters but without achieving the same result, since harmful gases are selectively absorbed, but their storage capacity is lower. The problem you are facing now is the prediction of the useful life of the filter, since it is not like in the combustion models. However, the first conclusions do indicate that it depends, to a great extent, on the traffic environment.
Harenbrock points out that they already have a prototype but that there is a long way to go before it reaches serial production, clarifying that this system can also be offered in passenger cars with fuel cells. On the one hand, it is the costs that rule, which have to be reduced considerably because FCEV commercials compete with Combustion, and, on the other hand, one of the qualities it has also plays a fundamental role, and that is its long useful life. The project has its eyes on in a very specific market, Chinawhose metropolises present chaotic traffic, the perfect environment to check the filter and its sensors.
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Mann + Hummel