In 2021, there were approximately 60 million heavy-duty vehicles on the world's roads. Most of them are fuelled by diesel, but the share of electric and hydrogen-powered commercial traffic is steadily growing.
Ahlstrom-Munksjö understands the market challenges and is developing new commercial solutions under the FiltEV brand, to address unmet customer needs for high-performance filtration materials for electric vehicles. This includes, since December 2021, a dedicated filtration solution for fuel cell air intake.
“I am very pleased to introduce our new filtration solution for fuel cell air intake,” said Cedric Vallet, Head of Business Development, Industrial Filtration & New Vehicles. “By protecting fuel cells from harmful gases and particulates, we ensure an effective operation of the fuel cell and we extend its lifetime, optimising the cost/benefit for the end-users,” he added.
Air intake provides the oxygen to the fuel cell. Outside air can be polluted by various gases, including hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and ammonia (NH3), which are known poisons of the fuel cell catalyst. Based on a new proprietary multi-layer dry technology platform and customized adsorbent blends, Ahlstrom-Munksjö FiltEV Fuel Cell Air Intake media delivers exceptional adsorption properties on all these gaseous pollutants to reach always more challenging cathode air quality requirements.
Outside air is also polluted by a high number of particles that can enter the fuel cell, fouling the channels and the proton exchange membrane. Ahlstrom-Munksjö’s FiltEV Fuel Cell Air Intake media integrates high particulate efficiency layers, which deliver HEPA level performance, removing up to 99.95% of the smallest particles.
In 2021, Ahlstrom-Munksjö has also expanded its testing capacity as part of the company strategy to invest and grow in the industrial filtration and electric vehicle markets. A new test bench to evaluate gas adsorption performance was installed at the R&D center of the company in France. The investment was completed to assist strategic, high-priority R&D projects to develop next-generation molecular filters for fuel cell air intake filters, premium cabin, and clean room environments.
