Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE| Duration: | February 2017 - June 2020 |
| Contracting Authority/ Sponsors: | Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) / NOW & Projektträger Jülich (PTJ) |
| Project Focus: |       |
QuBK – Qualification of Fuel Cell Components
Differential test cell of Fraunhofer ISE.
Both accellerated stress test (AST) protocols for the catalyst support from DoE (rhombus) and Nedo (dots) show a similar decline of the electrochemical surface area (ECSA) of a catalyst coated membrane (CCM).
ECSA trend during aging of a CCM by the catalyst AST of DoE (rhombus) and Nedo (dots). The effect of the higher potential limit of the Nedo protocol is obvious.
QuBK is aiming at the experimental validation of international test protocols of fuel cell components. Therfore, the test protocols are investigated with a sensitivy analysis and different protocols (e.g. of DoE (US) or NEDO (Japan) or Europe as regions with internationally leading fuel cell developers) are compared. As various protocols are evaluated with different materials from a variety of suppliers with scientifically sound in-situ characterization a reproducible interpretation of the test results is assured.
Fraunhofer ISE developed a differencial test cell for reproducible MEA characterization at high current densities. This test cell was licensed to baltic Fuel Cell GmbH. The international test protocols, especially of DoE / US and NEDO / JP were performed with this test cell to evaluated to effects on performance and aging of the test samples. The investigations focused on accellerated stress tests for catalyst, catalyst support, membrane and drive cycle testing.
Hydrogen cross over for different cell materials during the first 640 h of membran aging with the DoE mechanical AST.