A FUEL CELL WORKSHOP FOR SAARLAND′S SUPPLIERS: OUR GOALS COMPARED TO OUR RESULTS

摘要

Today, fuel cells and their technical potential are a major topic, discussed in public. Often the fuel cellsare considered to be the energy saving technique that will solve all our future supply problems. Throughthe study of daily papers and different energy related journals, one can get the impression that today, fuelcells can be bought in a discount store already. The actual technical level of the fuel cells is however inthe stage of prototyping and pilot- and/or field tests. Only the American company ONSI has produced a200kW phosphoric acid fuel cell unit in series.Because of the importance of the fuel-cell-system technique, the institute IZES received order by theMinistry of economy of the land Saarland to organize an industrial workshop on the subject: ''The marketfor fuel-cell-systems: A chance for the Saarland economy!' Such a Workshop is considered to be achance for the suppliers in Saarland to establish themselves with their products in the fuel-cell-systemengineering field. It makes sense to do this in an early stage of development. The main goals of this eventwere the presentation of new possibilities and the practical benefits of the fuel-cell-system technology forthe Saarland economy. Besides today′s big success in e. g. IT and material technology, Saarland′straditional competences is located in the fields of energy, electrical engineering, metal processing andplant engineering.