The EU project GRASSHOPPER has made significant progress in recent months despite the Corona crisis. The PEM fuel cell stack developed in the project was successfully manufactured, assembled and operated as a short-stack. The performance of the stack can meet the ambitious expectations of an operation with 0.68 V at 1 A/cm2 defined in the project proposal, which resulted from the call (H2020-JTI-FCH-2017-1)! Furthermore, a stable and powerful operation within a wide variation of operating conditions has been proven. Test operation of the pilot plant can take place in the coming months, the unit has recently been moved to the operation ground.
ZBT played a significant role in the design of the flow field, the design in the sealing solution and sealing application itself as well as the set-up of the operating conditions between stack development and system operation. The design process was realized according to a development process established by the ZBT, which includes measurements in 25 cm2 test cells and several CFD simulations using AVL-Fire in various configurations (single channel, 25 cm2, full-format cell, pure flow simulation, multiphysical simulations).
- Department fuel cell systems (Modelling, operational strategies)
- Department new materials and technologies (Modelling)
- Department fuel cells and stacks (gaskets, prototyping)
- www.grasshopperproject.eu
- https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/H2020_FCH-02-7-2017