US firm plans ‘super tough’ hydrogen cells to power heavy-duty trucks

Chicago-based Celadyne Technologies has partnered with General Motors to develop durable fuel cells for heavy-duty applications such as trucks and the energy industry. The collaboration, made possible with funding from the Department of Energy (DOE), aims to use hydrogen as a fuel for energy and transportation markets at a mass scale.

With countries setting ambitious targets to reduce their carbon emissions to net zero levels, there is an urgent need to crack the problem of long-haul and heavy-duty transport. The transportation sector heavily depends on fossil fuels and contributes over 20 percent of global emissions.

Hydrogen-based fuel cells are a possible solution but were never designed for this role.

“Fuel cells were originally developed for light-duty systems,” Gary Ong, CEO and Founder of Celadyne Technologies, told Interesting Engineering via email. “To meet heavy-duty application milestones, similar to those of a diesel engine, we need to quintuple the durability of existing fuel cells.”

This is where Celadyne’s technology helps.

Improving fuel cell durability

Fuel cells and electrolyzers work on the same principle but produce opposite results. While electrolyzers split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, fuel cells combine them to produce water and electricity. In both these setups, the two elements must be kept separate at all times and allowed to mix when required. This is achieved through a proton exchange membrane (PEM).

However, when hydrogen crosses over through a PEM, it reduces the fuel cell’s durability. Slowing down the hydrogen cross-over rate is the key to durability. Celadyne achieves this through its advanced fuel cell design, which has three key qualities: it is thin, it limits the movement of gases and ions, and it allows the protons to move quickly.

Celadyne’s technology creates special membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) with thin selective transport (ST) layers closer to or within the PEM, which help control the movement of ions and gases but do not affect the movement of protons.

“We extend the durability by shutting down the root cause of failure in the fuel cell (pinhole formation and side reactions),” added Ong in the email to IE . “We’ve seen as much as a 4x improvement already in accelerated stress test conditions.”

Teaming up with General Motors

Celadyne has a Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with General Motors to improve electric vehicles’ efficiency, performance, and sustainability. With support from the DOE, Celadyne will provide materials and expertise to General Motors to help develop and implement its technology.

But why aim directly for heavy-duty transportation instead of trialing the technology in a smaller vehicle like a car first?

“Hydrogen makes sense where size, scale, and volume matter,” explained Ong to IE. Basically, it makes sense for industrial decarbonization and industrial logistics. It has much higher value in these hard-to-abate sectors where direct electrification or battery electrification can struggle.”

For Celadyne, the project also provides an opportunity to refine their offering further and expand to other customers in the area, working towards making durable hydrogen trucking possible.

“At Celadyne, we firmly believe that if you can unlock hydrogen, you can change the world,” added Ong in a press release. “We are dedicated to bringing our hydrogen solutions to the world’s major industries and players, propelling hydrogen toward mass market adoption for the sake of the planet.”