Introduction and scope
Fuel Cell technology is seen as one of the key enabling technologies for future zero emission transport and renewable-based energy infrastructure of Europe. Ideally, excess electricity from hydro power, wind power and solar power plants is converted via electrolysers into hydrogen to be used as fuel in FC vehicles or stored for later use in times of energy shortage. PEM Fuel Cell systems use (stored) H2 and convert it in electrical energy and heat. Even though the development of PEMFC components and stacks for transport applications have reached a mature level, in which the operational performance specifications are met, certain aspects like manufacturability, production efficiency and production cost have a large improvement potential since they have not been the focus up to this point.
Fit-4-AMandA focuses on several critical production steps in the PEMFC technology chain that are still inefficient with respect to cycle time, cost, yield and reliability. Fit-4-AMandA will provide a solution to automatize the production process for stacks in order to overcome the inefficiencies.
Scope
During the project new manufacturing technologies specific to the PEMFC stack production processes, advancing beyond state of the art equipment and tools, will be developed. Established automotive-industry best practices on production and quality will be analysed and transposed to the manufacturing of PEMFC components and stacks. New QA strategies relevant for the transport sector (compatible with ISO/TS 16949) will be proposed and assessed. The manufacturing readiness achieved at the end of the project will be MRL7 (Capability to produce systems, subsystems or components in a production representative environment).
In the scope of this project, the fuel cell system leveraging the components produced through the automated manufacturing process will be tested under real-word operating conditions of a light commercial vehicle, however these products are also viable in other mobile applications including heavy-duty buses, trucks, forklifts, auxiliary power units, etc. as well as maritime and stationary applications including prime power and uninterruptible power supply.
Facts and Figures
Full name: Future European Fuel Cell Technology: Fit for Automatic Manufacturing and Assembly
Acronym: Fit-4-AMandA
Duration: 36 months
Start date: 1 March 2017
Total budget: 2,9 M€
EC Funding: 2,9 M€
This project has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 735606. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Hydrogen Europe and N.ERGHY.
