CHALLENGES FOR PEMFC FOR HIGH POWER APPLICATIONS: SCALING UP AND DURABILITY

Abstract

PEMScale1.5 is a DLR project involving nine DLR institutes from the areas of energy, transport and aviation in order to develop a concept of a generic, integrated fuel cell system with an output of 1.5 megawatts including electric drive. An application area, in which hydrogen-fed fuel cell systems are superior to battery drives is heavy duty transport with long travel range and heavy payload. Specifically, the advantages of electrical propulsion based on fuel cells is fast refueling and large amount of energy at relatively low weight allowing long driving ranges. Therefore, in order to decarbonize heavy duty transport fuel cells are a key technology. However, heavy duty transport covers a large spectrum of applications including trucks, ships, trains and planes. These applications require different fuel cell power demands in the range 300 – 1500 kW and exhibit very different requirements in terms of operation conditions and system design. A common requirement is exceptionally high durability of >25,000 operation hours. The goal of the PEMScale1.5 project is to identify specific requirements for the fuel cell systems and power trains of the individual applications. Moreover, a concept of a generic fuel cell system with a power of up to 1500 kW is proposed. The scope of the PEMScale1.5 covers the analyses of mission profiles and durations, requirements from different applications, definition of absolute power and dynamics of fuel cell, balance of plant, hybridization of the powertrain (Fuel cell + Battery), and components design such as bipolar plates (BPP) and flow field (FF) with large area. Moreover, a concept of a model-based approach for the development of durable membrane-electrode assemblies which is pursued in the EU project PEMTASTIC will complement the presentation.