FCH JU STable and low cost Manufactured bipolar plates for PEM Fuel Cells (STAMPEM)

-

One key component in the PEMFC which contributes significantly to cost, weight, volume of the stacks and still needs to be improved to ensure cell lifetime, is the BiPolar Plate (BPP). Metal base bipolar plates are very attractive, but at protective coati ng is needed to avoid corrosion and keep the interfacial contact resistance low. The STAMPEM-consortium has been established acknowledging that further development of BPPs require Europe's best available resources, with respect to a new generation coating for low cost metallic bipolar plates for PEMFCs, with robust and durable properties for assembly and manufacturing, showing high performance after more than 10000 hours of operation. The concept of STAMPEM is to combine world leading industrial actors c apable of volume manufacturing with research institutions with the required generic competence capable of providing breakthrough solutions with respect to a new generation coating for low cost metallic BPPs. By involving an end user of the BPPs developed in the STAMPEM project, the results will be thoroughly verified under realistic operating conditions in a PEMFC stack. The initial phase of the project will be used to establish a testing protocol for BPP materials. In order to screen materials basic corr osion experiments will be performed with contact resistance measurements before and after the testing. Promising materials will further be tested in fuel cells and even further in stacks. The BPP materials go through a real mass production cycle, and also the real production vost will be analyzed. Also the possible detrimental contamination of the membrane will carefully be investigated. The most promising materials will in the end be fully integrated into a system.