Polymer electrolyte fuel cell stacks at CNR-ITAE: State of the art

Fuel cell technology development is one of the main activity at CNR-TAE Institute. Inside this a particular attention is devoted to Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) that are the most probable candidate as future energy suppliers for transportation, portable and domestic applications. This activity is addressed to new materials and components evolution, to system design and to modelling. Single cell is not able to supply the requested voltages also for small electronic devices, then PEFC stack of different size must be evolved to match the application request. In this field the research is moved in two different direction, small size stack for portable applications and medium power stack (1-4 kW) for transport and stationary applications. This activity is supported by modelling and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) studies, and by the evolution of dedicated test station and measurement devices. First result of PEFC stack research was the development of 100 W stack prototype based on low Pt loading electrodes evolved at CNR-ITAE and working at low pressure. Starting from this first experience, a hydrogen fuelled air breathing stack of 15 watt for portable application was realised. The scale up of the cell active area was approached searching a method allowing the design of the flow field with specified geometrical characteristics and fluid dynamic properties to maintain the performances reached in small active area cells. A computer aided design method was evolved and the design of the 200 cm2 active area cell was realised starting from 50 cm2 laboratory cell.