TPACTechnology Policy and Assessment Center
 
 

Innovation Drivers

Table of Contents

This section examines the forces driving fuel cell innovation, with emphasis on the question: "What is driving fuel cell technology development?"

Bibliometric trends can serve to model innovation drivers. The influence of various public and private market sectors can be analyzed through a secondary analysis of affiliation type. Institutions were classified into three affiliation types:

  • Academic (A): Universities, colleges, and institutes primarily for education and/or research.
  • Government (G): National laboratories, government agencies, and non-profit institutions.
  • Corporate (C): Corporations and companies operating as for-profit, private sector organizations.

Fig. 16: Fuel Cell Innovation Drivers

From 1987 to 1997, total articles from academia, government, and corporations are fairly evenly distributed. Academic organizations contributed 38.3% of total articles, government (31.8%), and corporations (29.9%).

Closer examination of the relative contributions reveals some intriguing trends (Fig. 16). In 1987, government organizations led publishing on fuel cell technology with 39.2% of total publications, followed by corporations (31.2%), and academia (29.6%).

Corporate interest in fuel cell publication waned in the late 1980's, yet subsequently increased during the early 1990's (Fig. 17). Perhaps following government sponsorship, corporations became the leading drivers of fuel cell publication in 1992 (36.1%); academia ranked second (34.6%), government ranked third (29.3%). Since 1992, however, the relative percentage of corporate R&D has declined, while academic publication has significantly increased. The trend might indicate a consolidation of corporations, leading to an overall decline in number of publications from corporate agents.

Fig. 17: Companies' Participation

In 1997, academic concerns reached a majority (50.6%) of publications followed by government (30.8%) and corporations falling to 18.6%. This shift in fuel cell publication could be due to increasing academic and government participation in corporate-initiated projects. Thus, fuel cell innovation appears to be driven by corporations and government, trailed by academic activity.

Fig. 18: Innovation Drivers

The innovation drivers for each specific fuel cell type vary considerably (Fig. 18):

  • Academia currently leads publication on SOFC's and AFC's.
  • Government research on PEMFC's is dominant.
  • Corporations dominate research on PAFC's and MCFC's.