The Rolls-Royce decision not to keep the Tognum fuel cell business going came after a detailed analysis, which concluded that the business would not be profitable in the long term, according to a Deutsche-Presse Agentur report.

Tognum will wind down its fuel cell development site in Ottobrunn, which has about 70 employees, by the end of this year. It is now in discussions with the works council, says the DPA.

Tognum originally announced its intention to shut down the fuel cell business at the end of December, but the appearance of Rolls-Royce and Daimler to take over the whole of Tognum AG temporarily offered hope.

Tognum had been developing molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) systems based on technology originally licensed from US-based FuelCell Energy. On the other hand, Rolls-Royce is developing a different high-temperature fuel cell technology, using solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems. However, the two technologies face differing challenges.