In this joint R&D project supported by the EU Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, an electrochemical in-situ diagnostics tool for the monitoring of locally resolved current densities in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, is adapted to three different water electrolysis technologies. The developed tools allow correlating performance issues and ageing processes with local anomalies. The corresponding mechanisms are investigated with ex-situ analytics.

Partners

– Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Stuttgart, Germany (Coordination)

– NEL Hydrogen AS, Notodden, Norway (Alkaline water electrolysis)

– Heliocentris Italy S.r.l., Crespina, Italy (Anion exchange membrane based water electrolysis)

– Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (Ex-situ analytics)

– Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (Ex-situ analytics)

– Hochschule Esslingen, Esslingen, Germany (Ex-situ analytics)

 The patented segmented printed circuit board (PCB) for the monitoring of current density distributions in PEM based fuel cells is used and continuously improved at DLR. Applications are e.g. the investigation of specific degradation mechanisms, or systematic optimisation of operation parameters.

 The embedding of an in-situ diagnostics tool in water electrolysis system enables:

– monitoring of performance and local anomalies during operation

– revealing systematical deficiencies not detectable with off-line diagnostics

– correlating degradation mechanisms and system parameters

– identifying and preventing critical operation

– systematically improving the efficiency of water electrolysis

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under Grant No. 621237 (INSIDE).