Abstract
National Research Council Canada (NRC) has been reorienting its fuel cell activities towards manufacturing challenges. Some challenges in industrialization of fuel cell manufacturing concern quality control, supplier development and process development. As the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell plays a critical role in cell performance, NRC has been working closely with Vancouver-based fuel cell companies to develop and validate quality assurance methods to characterize GDL attributes and properties, which strongly correlate with PEM fuel cell performances.
Highlights
Vancouver is a world center in the automotive Fuel Cell industry, which is reflected in the significant advances made in the fuel cell vehicle technology at Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC) and Ballard
The gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell plays a critical role in the cell performance
During manufacturing of a membrane-electrode assembly, MEA, the GDL goes through processing e.g. unwinding, cutting, bending and laminating that will lead to changes in its attributes, which may affect the performance of the resulting MEA in the end
Summary
Vancouver is a world center in the automotive Fuel Cell industry, which is reflected in the significant advances made in the fuel cell vehicle technology at Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC) and Ballard. During manufacturing of a membrane-electrode assembly, MEA, the GDL goes through processing e.g. unwinding, cutting, bending and laminating that will lead to changes in its attributes, which may affect the performance of the resulting MEA in the end. These changes have to be understood in order to properly define specifications to suppliers. To guarantee that the accumulated changes will not exceed the allowable range, quality control and characterization methods will have to be developed In this context, NRC has been working closely with Vancouver-based fuel cell companies to develop and validate a set of quality assurance methods to characterize GDL attributes and properties, which strongly correlate with PEM fuel cell performances. Some of the GDL parameters such as thickness, electrical conductivity, porosity and permeability are measured and provided by the GDL
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