Heavy-duty fuel cell engine from Ballard

Ballard Power Systems has unveiled its 9th generation fuel cell engine, the FCmove-XD, at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center May 20-23.

Ballard’s FCmove-XD fuel cell engine. (Photo: Ballard Power Systems)

“We are laser focused on strengthening the economic value proposition for heavy-duty mobility customers,” said Mircea Gradu, Ballard’s Chief Engineering Officer. “With the unveiling of our ninth generation of fuel cell engine – the FCmove-XD – we continue to push the boundaries and are once again raising the bar and re-setting the industry standard for PEM fuel cell engine performance. Our innovative FCmove-XD delivers significant improvements in reliability, durability, efficiency, power density, scalability, serviceability and total cost of ownership.”

The company said the FCmove-XD module delivers high volumetric power density heavy-duty applications, featuring an engine volumetric power density of 0.36 kW/L and gravimetric power density of 0.48 kW/kg. The scalable 120 kW fuel cell engine integrates DC/DC regulated output, enabling up to three modules to operate as one system with a single interface, capable of delivering a combined 360 kW of zero-emission power output.

With a design life of 30,000-plus hours of operation - or what the company said is more than 1 million miles in truck operation at typical duty cycles - Ballard said it developed the FCmove-XD engine to deliver durability and low total cost of ownership.

Enabled by an “open architecture” design and other advances, the compact FCmove-XD fuel cell module enables several important performance improvements (as compared to Ballard’s prior-generation engine), including:

• 120 kW power output from our latest high-performance single stack
• 33% reduction in total parts count, significantly improving reliability and reducing costs
• Ultra-high peak system efficiency at >60%, enabling improved fuel consumption (lower total cost of ownership) and efficient heat rejection
• Wide operating temperature range, up to 95°C
• Integrated power controller incorporates DC/DC converter, air compressor inverter, and a power distribution unit, along with proprietary software controls, enables improved engine operation and efficiency
• Rapid up and down transient times, with an innovative hot stand-by mode enabling rapid power increase
• Improved manufacturability with >50% assembly time reduction
• Easier access to parts for faster and lower-cost field maintenance
• Compliance with applicable safety codes and standards

“The power and performance requirements of the highly-segmented truck market are particularly demanding due to various use cases, including high vehicle utilization rates and payload requirements,” said Silvano Pozzi, vice president, Product Line Management. “One of the compelling features of our new FCmove-XD is scalability based on modularity. We can offer customers efficient integration of 120 kW, 240 kW, and 360 kW solutions dependent on truck class, use case, and duty cycle.”

The company said two engines, totalling 240 kW of power output, can be installed in the engine compartment of a typical Class 8 heavy-duty truck.

“In addition to our in-house FCmove-XD innovations and design improvements over the past three years, we have enjoyed strong collaboration with our maturing supply chain on new balance of plant component designs and related non-recurring engineering, and we also made important investments in certain production tooling,” said Pozzi. “Collectively, these integrated and parallel work streams have resulted in a category leader, boasting higher performance on all key metrics with significantly lower capital cost and operating costs for customers and end users. Initial pre-launch customer engagement has been very exciting.”

Ballard plans tomanufacture the FCmove-XD at its Oregon facility, enabling “Buy America” compliance starting in 2025, with future high-volume manufacturing expected at Ballard Rockwall Giga 1, Ballard’s 3 gigawatt Gigafactory planned for Rockwall, Texas.

Ballard’s PEM fuel cells are designed for buses, commercial trucks, trains, marine vessels and stationary power.