Bipolar plate performance targets

Although it is difficult to determine the quantitative requirements of plate and plate materials appropriately for various fuel cells and different applications in a development phase, such a target would be helpful to direct the development effort and make necessary trade-offs. The cascaded performance requirement targets in 2010 and 2015 for bipolar plates of fuel cells in transportation applications were set by the U.S. DoE (Department of Energy) according to functions of the plate mentioned before and overall requirements of performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost of a stack, as shown in Table 5.1 [7]. The technical target in the DoE s multiyear research, development, and demonstration plan has been popularly and worldwide... 

DoE 2010/2015 Performance Targets of Bipolar Plates for Transportation Fuel Cells ... 

Direct hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered vehicles have reached a level of development where the major automotive companies have publicly announced that initiation of commercialization is imminent around 2015. The targets of performance, durability, and cost agreed upon by various organizations, including the US DOE, appear to be achievable in the specified time frame. Well-delineated pathways and strategies have been established to address the barriers of cost and durability of PEMFC stacks and achieve the automotive targets. The principal directions for reduction of cost and enhancement of durability of key fuel cell components, i.e., electrocatalysts, membranes, and bipolar plates are briefly summarized in this section. 

Trends in short- and lOTiger-term directions for key fuel cell components including electrocatalysts/supports, membranes, and bipolar plates have been elaborated in this section improvement of the performance and durability of these components will directly impact the entire automotive fuel cell system requirements, complexity, and cost. Durable catalysts with enhanced ORR activity, durable membranes that perform at very low humidity and durable bipolar plates that have low contact resistance will not only increase the power density and cost of the fuel cell stack but also simplify and lower/eliminate system component costs of the air compressor, humidification systems, recycle pumps, radiator, start-up/shutdown and freeze-start-related components, etc. A combination of advances in all the fuel cell components discussed above, system simplification, governmental policies that are sensitive to sustainable clean energy, and development of a hydrogen infrastructure will enable achieving the projected technical and cost targets needed for automotive fuel cell commercialization. 

Low costs, good processability, and high performance are the general targets for composite bipolar plates and they play a major role for selection criteria of the fillers as well as for the polymeric matrices. 

However, modern day PFMFC systems cannot quite reach these targets due to unforeseen degradation of the membrane. Catalyst Layer (CL), Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) and Bipolar Plate (BIP) components, leading to a drop in performance of the PFMFC, or even catastrophic failure. 

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