Latest Developments in Fuel Cell based Air-independent Propulsion Systems for Submarines

摘要

Today fuel cells (FC) are the most successful and common air-independent propulsion (AIP) system for submarines.rnThe reason for this may be found in the absolute silence of the energy generation in combination with outstanding efficiency, high reliability and low maintenance.rnThe paper will describe the first and second generation of submarine fuel cells, the status of development and give an outlook. Furthermore the latest developments in reformer technology, introduced to produce the necessary hydrogen for the fuel cells on board out of hydrocarbons, will be presented. Just recently the first methanol reformer built to submarine standard was put into service, taking this technology from demonstrator status to a full scale military standard prototype.