Following the article “Netherlands New Sub...” of January 19, 2021, Anonymous kindly commented on the estimation of cost of fuel cell AIP for submarine.
Assumed cost of fuel cell system is consisted of (i) cost of fuel cell, (ii) distribution cost of fuel cell including anti-shock and safety system such as hydrogen leakage, (iii) price of metal hydride, and (iv) distribution cost of metal hydride cylinder (cylinder structure, gas/medium distribution, flow meter, heat sensor, heating system, anti-shock, non-magnetism, corrosion resistance, adiabatic, thermal insulation etc.)
As there are no data on (ii) and (iv) which are not so serious in Stirling generator, (i) and (iii) are estimated on other information.
(i) unit price per power of fuel cell is nearly same as that of Stirling generator. As price of Stirling generator (240kW) is 2 billion price of fuel cell (480kW) is 4 billion yen.
(iii) Price of commercial metal hydrogen cylinder [size 81mm(diameter) x 270mm (length)] is 200,000 yen.
Estimated metal hydride cylinder for Type 212A: size 60cm (diameter) x 350 cm (length) and 32 sets?.
Then estimated price of metal hydride for Type 212A is 4.5billion yen [=(60/8.1)^2 x 350/27 x 200,000 x 32]
Cost of fuel cell system = (i) + (ii) + (iii) + (iv) = (ii) + (iv) + 8.5billion yen (US$8 million). Judging from technology level used and severe requirements, (ii) and (iv) are considerably expensive.