J. Stanislowski, G. Block
Energy & Environmental Research Center, North Dakota, United States
Keywords: Hydrogen, fuel cells, tactical vehicles
The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) has teamed with Nuvera Fuel Cells, LLC (Nuvera) to design, integrate, and deliver a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to the Army Ground Vehicle Support Center for validation in field trials. The EERC has over 60 years of experience developing and commercializing promising new technologies and coordinating government–academia–industry teams to overcome technical challenges. Nuvera has over 25 years of experience providing fuel cells for a variety of on- and off-road vehicles. Its fuel cell stack architecture is resistant to shock and vibration typical of tactical vehicles. Nuvera’s open-flow field stack design achieves greater power density than conventional designs, enabling the fuel cell power system, referred to as a fuel cell engine, to fit into the same space as a typical internal combustion engine. Nuvera has already successfully developed 45- and 60-kW fuel cell engines suitable for many medium-duty vehicles in a hybrid configuration with batteries. To address higher power applications, Nuvera has developed its ninth-generation stack design, called OS2, as the basis of a compact 125-kW fuel cell engine (Model EN-125) that can be used for tactical applications and in Class 8 vehicles.