Design and Operation of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells - Chapter 12: Mobile applications: Cars, trucks, locomotives, marine vehicles, and aircraft

Over the past few decades, global warming and the consequent climate change have undeniably caused severe damage. One of the abatement strategies is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. For mobile applications, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology has been developed as a clean alternative to the internal combustion engine. This chapter summarizes the developments of SOFCs for providing energy for the propulsion and auxiliary operations of land, aerial, and marine vehicles. Experimental and simulation studies have shown that SOFCs have operational robustness and higher energy efficiency and, hence lower greenhouse-gas emission than conventional diesel engines. However, the cost of SOFCs must be reduced substantially to promote their wider adoption for transportation purposes.