A research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon says it has built a high-entropy catalyst that finally makes direct-ammonia protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) stable enough for real industrial use hitting world-class power density and running for more than 255 hours at 600°C without significant degradation.
Why Direct-Ammonia PCFCs Matter
Ammonia (NH3) packs roughly 1.5x the volumetric hydrogen density of liquid H2 and is already shipped worldwide as a commodity fertiliser feedstock. The catch: cracking ammonia into hydrogen on-site is energy-intensive, and conventional fuel cells degrade fast when fed nitrogenous fuels directly. A PCFC that runs on raw ammonia would short-circuit much of the hydrogen supply chain particularly for shipping, off-grid power and heavy industry.
What KAIST Built
The KAIST team combined multiple metal elements into a high-entropy catalyst tuned for both ammonia decomposition and electrochemistry. The team reports that performance and durability dramatically exceed existing ammonia catalysts under the same conditions, with the cell operating stably for more than 255 hours at 600°C conditions that previously degraded competing systems within tens of hours.
Why It Lands Now
The breakthrough arrives as global green-ammonia infrastructure is being built out: Sri Lanka just launched a $1 billion green hydrogen and ammonia tender, First Ammonias 200 MW Texas project is moving toward FID, and shipping regulators are pushing operators toward ammonia and hydrogen fuel options. Cheaper, more durable direct-ammonia fuel cells could feed all three.
Beyond Hydrogen Burners
The advance sits alongside other 2026 clean-energy moves like BYDs all-solid-state EV battery roadmap and US utility-scale solar build-outs such as SOLV Energys 4 GW pipeline. Where solar and batteries handle daytime electrification, durable ammonia fuel cells could end up powering the long-duration, off-grid and maritime workloads that batteries cannot easily reach.
Reporting based on coverage from Phys.org, ScienceDaily and KAISTs research release.