The motivation for the project resulted from the increasing number of enquiries from different users regarding larger capacity hydrogen-based fuel cell systems (> 100 kW) for use in stationary applications and in the rail, water and road transport areas.
In the development process special emphasis was placed on cost reduction, simple construction and long service life. In this way the material costs per kW compared with the preceding stack generation were significantly lowered while at the same time increasing performance density. At the test bench already over 5,000 operating hours were carried out with very promising results. Thus running times of well over 10,000 operating hours at a remaining performance of over 80 % of the take-off performance are expected. In addition to the fuel cell stack the relevant system periphery was tested and implemented. Here the aim in particular was to ensure simple integration in the respective customer application as well as to reduce system complexity in terms of future product costs. The new concepts were successfully implemented so that compared to current products, savings of over 65 % were made in pure material costs (in relation to stack performance).
With the two prototypes an added value of 65% in Germany was already achieved. However, a new supplier of the membrane for the fuel cells was sourced in parallel. As a result the added value will increase significantly. We can assume that the added value of the fuel cell system in series production will be up to 90 % in Germany.
Funding Code
03BV117