AFC sells world’s first AEM fuel cell system

Fuel cells use AEM technology, rather than the traditional alkaline liquid electrolyte technology historically used in alkaline fuel cell systems

Fuel cell manufacturer AFC Energy hopes it will be able to scale up manufacturing of its new high energy-density 200kW anion exchange membrane (AEM) fuel cells—which can run on hydrogen or ammonia—following a large commercial order from technology firm ABB. ABB put in a £4mn ($5.3mn) order last week for the fuel cells, which it will use to create electric vehicle charging stations for grid-constrained locations and backup power for data centres. Earlier this year, the two firms delivered fully integrated charging systems at ABB’s facility in Estonia that used AFC’s alkaline fuel cell technology. AFC’s new fuel cells use its own AEM technology, rather than the traditional alkaline liquid elec