Hydrogen Project Site      

Affordable High-Rate Manufacturing of Vehicle Scale Carbon Composite High-Pressure Hydrogen Storage Cylinders

The objective of this project is to implement and demonstrate a high-pressure hydrogen storage cylinder manufacturing process in an automotive production environment, compatible with low-volume and specialty vehicle production rates of approximately 20,000 vehicles per year on a single tooling line. Complete performance tests of cylinders produced by this high-rate process will be performed. Cylinders will be available for independent OEM validation and verification.
 

Develop Low-Cost MEA3 Process

Problem/Impact: Develop a low-cost, integrated product-process for fabrication of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) for direct methanol fuel cells, based on a high-throughput rotary screen printing process. Alloys of precious metal catalysts will be evaluated, and electrode deposition and monitoring techniques will be studied. Once a prototype continuous system and design have been demonstrated, automation will be applied to certain process steps.

Benefit: High-volume, roll-to-roll batch manufacturing of MEAs can reduce costs and improve quality/consistency.

Implementation: The integrated coating-drying system will be evaluated against criteria of yield and low-cost manufacturing. SFC will build portable fuel cell stacks using the fabricated MEAs, and evaluate these stacks for durability

Impact: The project has the potential to drive high-volume applications of MEAs for portable power.
 

Innovative Inkjet Printing for Low-Cost, High-Volume Fuel Cell Catalyst Coated Membrane (CCM) Manufacturing

Problem/Impact: Provide an innovative solution based on inkjetting technology.

Benefit: On-demand manufacturing technique demonstrated by Cabot supports lean initiatives, and an opportunity to develop flexibility in meeting uncertain market and Fuel cell performance demands.

Implementation:

• Demonstrate advanced electrocatalyst inks for inkjetting

• Improve the print platform for double-sided printing of CCM

• Demonstrate CCM performance improvement >20%

• Attain Pt loading reduction >20 %

• Build a small pilot plant for CCM manufacturing

Impact: The project will help accelerate fuel cell commercialization, by providing a CCM/MEA supplier the flexibility to fabricate critical cost-sensitive components to meet fuel cell manufacturers’ performance specifications.
 

Manufacturable Chemical Hydride Fuel System for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Systems

Problem/Impact: Compressed hydrogen simply cannot supply enough fuel for a portable device within a limited fuel storage volume. In contrast to the weight of metal hydrides or the complexity of on-board reforming of methanol or other hydrocarbons, generation of hydrogen through reactions of chemical hydrides with water have significant advantages. Millennium Cell (MCell) has developed and publicly demonstrated systems (known as Hydrogen on Demand® or HOD™ systems) utilizing NaBH4 as a hydrogen storage medium in portable electronic device applications.

Although the underlying technology of hydrogen generation is well understood, in practice the bladder assemblies and cartridges are currently manually assembled in a labor-intensive, multi-step process resulting in a high degree of variability in the final product reliability and performance. Thus the current design and assembly method suffer from cost inefficiencies, lack of process repeatability, and non-optimized materials.

Benefit:

• Define a manufacturing process that will reduce overall process and product costs and enable HOD™ to effectively compete in the hydrogen storage marketplace.
• Develop a manufacturing process to transition MCell HOD™ technology for portable electronics applications from prototype-scale to pilot-scale manufacturing.
• Enable the manufacture of 100+ bladder type cartridges to deploy for field testing as an intermediate step to implementing large-scale production.

Implementation: Implement at MCell a manufacturing process to repetitively produce cost effective flexible bladder and cartridge systems to manage the fuel and discharged fuel of a chemical-hydride-based hydrogen storage system.

Impact: HOD™/PEM based power source offers substantial weight savings over competing battery technologies that are being used today. HOD/PEM based power sources can be conveniently designed to fit the space available in a given portable electronics device, including those for consumer applications (Figure 1).
 

Manufacture of Durable Seals for PEM Fuel Cells

Problem/Impact: FNGP and UTC Power have developed a customized elastomer seal material with a low level of contaminants and reduced compression set as compared to silicone.

Benefit: An advanced seal design and durable carrier film have been proven to meet tight tolerances and durability.

Implementation: UTC will demonstrate the application for a transportation fuel cell and conduct a 2,000 hour durability test on the fabricated seal

Impact: There is a need to combine this advanced seal with high-volume, low-cost production to enable its viability in PEM fuel cell applications.
 

Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation Methods

Problem/Impact: Hydrogen storage and transportable vessels have operating requirements of 10,000 psi compressed hydrogen for fuel tanks in commercial automotive fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and 15,000 psi for transportable pressure vessels to support the refueling infrastructure. To meet cost and weight targets the manufacture and testing of composite pressure vessels is critical.
Current composite pressure vessel manufacturers conduct destructive pressure-burst tests to verify product integrity and to meet existing code rules. Overall manufacturing cost is increased by these tests that are costly in labor and cycle time, lost product and are performed under strict safety guidelines only by trained personnel using specially built chambers, etc. A single pressure-burst test is frequently not sufficient for a single design or lot. Multiple tests can be cost prohibitive for low quantity or custom pressure vessel orders.

Benefit: Finding testing technologies that can be applied non-destructively during or following the manufacturing process of composite pressure vessels can substantially reduce manufacturing cost and improve cycle times while allowing manufacturers to retain records of the test data and test specimens for use with Statistical Process Control (SPC) to effect process improvements and support LEAN manufacturing principles and competitive market strategies.

Implementation:

• Investigate non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDTE) methods including Acoustic Emissions (AE), Modal AE, ultrasonic testing (UT) and other advanced NDTE technologies
• Evaluate their reliability, repeatability and safety
• Evaluate the use of analytical models against the data from destructive and NDTE methods.

Impact: Will reduce cost of infrastructure development, manufacturing cost, reduce weight and volume through use of advanced composite pressure vessels and help meet technical targets for durability.

Novel Manufacturing Process for PEM Fuel Cell Stacks

Problem/Impact: Develop and demonstrate a single-step methodology for manufacturing 250W PEM fuel cell stacks based on a mass-producible injection molding process.

Benefit: In addition to being highly cost-effective and scalable, the process will also result in significantly improved stack performance by increasing the durability and reliability of Protonex’s fuel cell stacks.

Implementation: Seals are being designed out of the stack to allow the major components to be easily manufacturable.

Impact: Targeted for portable power applications in commercial and military markets.

Qualifying Low-Cost High-Volume Manufacturing Technologies for PEM Fuel Cell Power Systems

Problem/Impact: Cost and durability are two of the major barriers to commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) power systems for transportation appli­cations. Several low-cost high-volume manufacturing technologies can be used to potentially lower the cost of PEMFC power systems. However such manufacturing technologies generally rely on the use of particular classes of materials. Material compatibility with PEMFC systems is a major concern with these technologies because PEMFCs have unique material requirements.

Benefit: The cost of targeted components will potentially be reduced by 50% in the near-term (end of this project) and by 90% with volumes of approximately 100 pieces per year. Low-cost manufacturing technologies and associated materials will be qualified for PEMFC power system applications. This will expand the portfolio of qualified manufacturing tech­nologies and materials for PEMFC power systems and therefore lower the barrier for component suppliers to enter the PEMFC component market.

Implementation:

• Use a low-cost high-volume manufacturing pro­cesses that focus on the DoE cost targets and are compatible with PEMFC power systems

• Qualify a low-cost high-volume process that produces PEMFC power system compatible and durable components and focuses on the cost gap between PEMFC power systems and the DoE $45/kW technical barrier

• Develop a component design that utilizes a low-cost high-volume manufacturing technology to reduce cost

• Establish a PEMFC material compatibility test

• Performance test new component to qualify low-cost high-volume manufacturing technologies for PEMFC.

Impact:

• Improved manufacturing costs and processes

• Potential to transfer technology from this project to other industries or to transfer technology from other industries to this project

• Potential benefits to U.S. manufacturing base.

© 2007