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Auto-Stack: Implementing a European Automotive Stack Cluster

Contract No. FCH-JU 245142

FCH-JU Program Review Day 2011, Nov 22

by André Martin and Ludwig Joerissen

Zentrum Für Sonnenenergie- und Wassserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg

1

Scope of project to address challenge

• Development of a common OEM specification

• Assessment of the technical status of supply chain

• Conclusions for research priorities

• Analysis of synergies between applications

• Development of a business concept

WP1 OEM System Requirements

WP2 Supply Chain and Cost Analysis & identification of Research Needs

WP4 Business Model

WP3 Road Map

2

Consortium combining expertise

Automotive

OEMs Research

Institutes

Component and System Suppliers

Autostack Consortium

3

Baseline system requirements to meet

• Generally – comparable with ICE

– Performance, dynamics

– Gravimetric + volumetric power density

– Cost

– Durability, robustness, degradation

– Cold start, cold start time

– Limitation to one fuel only(H2)

+ Superior efficiency (vs. hybrid – ICE) + Sustainable fuel concept

4

Packaging forces high power density

785 mm

Dri

vin

g d

irec

tio

n

Sid

e vi

ew

61

8 m

m

driving direction

865 mm

61

8 m

m

driving direction

865 mm

770 mm610 mm

driving direction subfloor limit

688

mm

610

mm

786

mm

688

mm

610

mm

786

mm

5

605 m

m

510 mm

600 m

m

140 mm

450 m

m

„Common box“ volume

V = 40 l

Stack needs to fit in “common box”

6

Focus on core components

• Scope of supply chain analysis was limited to MEA and bi-polar plate only as they determine performance and ~ 90% of mass production cost.

• Assessment included 54 companies with headquarters or operations in Europe.

• Thereof, 22 were considered particularly relevant. The feedback in this group was 73%.

Requirement: Availability of industrial components until 2020 based on target specification.

7

MEA – performance does not meet target

• The requirement could not be fulfilled by any of the European suppliers answering the questionnaire.

• Despite many research activities, no data were found matching this requirement.

• Reduction of Pt-loadings towards target value seems rather unlikely under industrial conditions in the mid term.

• Hence, substantially higher Pt-loadings will be required to meet technical targets.

Target: Pt-loading 0,16mg/cm² with a power density of 1,5 A/cm²@0,67 V = 1 W/cm²

observing automotive durability, robustness, degradation and efficiency

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Power Density / Efficiency

Pt loading Durability

1 W/cm2 0.675 V @ 1.5 A/cm2 / 0.8 V @ 0.2 A/cm2

0,16 mg/cm2 5000 hrs, >20,000 starts

Conflicting objectives need to be addressed

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0,000

0,200

0,400

0,600

0,800

1,000

1,200

1,400

0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70 0,80 0,90

Pt Loading [mg/cm2]

Po

wer

Den

sit

y [

W/c

m2]

0,00

20,00

40,00

60,00

80,00

100,00

120,00

140,00

Sta

ck C

osts

[€/k

W]

Pt = 30€/g, kA = 300€/m2

Pt = 30€/g, kA = 200€/m2

Pt = 30€/g, kA = 100€/m2

Pt = 30€/g, kA = 50€/m2

1 W/cm2

representative

stationary MEA

representative

automotive MEA (2010)

projected MEA (2015)

"automotive ready"

projected MEA (2015)

"power optimized"

costs refer to "automotive ready" MEA (2015)

Balance of power density and Pt-reduction is critical

10

Metallic BPP offer benefits over carbon

• The requirement could not be fulfilled by any of the carbon plate suppliers but by all suppliers of metallic bi-polar plates.

• However, metallic bipolar plate suppliers show a general lack of expertise in coatings and seals.

• Only one supplier offered a fully integrated BPP with sufficient technical maturity.

• Data from outside Europe suggest that carbon bipolar plates can be produced with cell pitch < 2 mm but there still remains a major gap to metallic bipolar plates.

• Cost projections for metallic bi-polar plates @ mass production (10 million units ) are between 33% (average) and 45% (maximum) lower than carbon plates.

Target:

Cell pitch < 2 mm with final target < 1.5 mm including seal

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Technical choices are requested

• The assessment suggests, that high power density has to be the outstanding development target.

• This will allow to address critical packaging requirements and cost targets while still matching automotive performance, efficiency, robustness and durability.

• Reduction of Pt-loading seems to face technical limits @ 0.5 – 0.6mg/cm² based on current technology, at least until 2020.

• Metallic bipolar plates offer better potential to achieve volumetric power density and cost targets vs. carbon bipolar plates.

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Research Topics Identified

Short Term Mid-Term Long Term

Integration of full size automotive stack based on Auto-Stack Roadmap.

* Development of advanced MEA with increased power density @ 0.4 mg/cm2 Pt-loading, lower humidification requirements and elevated operating temperatures.

Materials research on highly active non noble metal catalyst materials for replacement of Pt-group metals.

Development of optimum power streams in fuel cell systemsto optimize the balance of fuel cell and energy storage.

* Development of advanced low cost, corrosion resistant and highly conductive bipolar plates.

Development of multi-scale modeling tool for MEA performance with focus on transport and aging phenomena.

* Development of industry wide uniform performance test schemes and commonly accepted test protocols.

* Development of characterization techniques for water management and state of health at cell and stack level.

Development of simplified system architectures and improvement of scale effects.

Development of cell modeling for accelerated stack design with focus on critical operating parameters.

* Similar topics were already part of the 2011 call for proposals

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Common OEM specification

• Power density – High operating point: 1,5 A/cm²@ 0,675 V/cell

– Low operating point: 0,2 A/cm2 @ 0,8 V/cell

• Stack efficiency: – High power: 51 %

– Low power: 61 %

• Pt - Loading – Low risk approach: < 0.6 mg/cm²

– Medium risk approach: 0.4 mg/cm²

• Stack-power 95 kW, scalable 10 – 95 kW or multiples

• Operating Temperature < 95° C

• Operating pressure < 2 bara

• Voltage 220 - 430 V

• Power density (95 kW stack) < 60 l / 75 kg

• Cost 101 €/kW @ 10,000 *95 kW stacks

• Durability beyond > 5000 h

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A 170 €

B 101 €

C 71 €

D 62 €

E 44 €

0 €

20 €

40 €

60 €

80 €

100 €

120 €

140 €

160 €

180 €

16 187 € 9 608 € 6 781 € 5 853 € 4 187 €

1000 10000 50000 100000 500000

Cost/kW gross - mBPP

Power density 1W/cm² Pt-price @ 21,1€/g =

reference to DoE Stack power 95 kW Total Pt-loading 0,75

mg/cm² Use of metallic BPP

Cost analysis shows pathway to target

Total stack cost

Production rate

Savings by No. of vehicles

when arriving at next level of

scale effect:

A B = 6,5 M€/1000

B C = 28,3 M€/10000

C D = 46,5 M€/50000

D E = 166,6 M€/100000

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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Inte

rmitt

ent p

ower

Backu

p po

wer

UPS c

ompu

ter c

ente

r

UPS T

elec

om

Grid

inde

pend

ent p

ower

APU T

ruck

(Ref

orm

ate)

APU T

ruck

(H2)

APU m

arine

(Ref

orm

ate)

Aircra

ft sy

stem

(APU

) H2

Aircra

ft sy

stem

(APU

) ref

orm

ate

APU B

us (

Ref

orm

ate)

APU R

ail (

emer

genc

y po

wer

)

City

Bus

pro

pulsio

n

Del

iver

y ve

hicles

(van

/ tru

ck)

Ran

ge E

xten

der (

Bus /

Van)

Special v

ehicle

s Li

ft tru

cks

Boat (

prop

ulsion

) (re

gula

r Ser

vice

)

Off

Roa

d ve

hicles

Co

mp

lian

ce C

oeff

icie

nt

/ %

At least € 1,0 billion market potential even @ low penetration rates.

Promising compliance with other applications

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Master-plan needs 2 product iterations

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Advanced

Concept

Phase 2 Development

Platform

Concept

Phase 1

Research

Phase 2 Research

Limited Production

Mass Production

Phase 1 Development

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Recommended two phase approach

• Mid term

– optimization of efficiency,

– improved catalyst utilization,

– enhancement of robustness and durability,

• Long term

– development of new PGM-catalysts and

– new catalyst materials as well as

– novel electrodes.

High power density

Improved flexibility

(Packaging)

Standardization Economies of scale (1)

Pt - reduction Economies of scale (2)

Market Volume

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Relative cost of Li-Ion cells per Wh

Typical Annual Production Rates

Consumer markets demonstrate feasibility…

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Summary and conclusions

• Common stack platform across several OEMs appears feasible for middle class vehicles.

• High power density of the stack is key to success and for achieving cost targets.

• Metallic BPP offer substantial cost benefits over carbon BPP and are the sole option to matching the targeted volumetric and gravimetric power density.

• Automotive ready MEA-technology foreseeable in 2015 will most likely require a Pt-loading of at least 0.5-0.6 g/kW.

• The proposed platform concept offers synergies with other applications which can further improve economies of scale.

• Market introduction of fc vehicles will require massive investment before and until reaching sufficient market penetration (optimum production rates).

• A platform concept exploring synergies can help mitigate and substantially reduce market introduction cost.

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AIP 2008 targets and results Topic SP1-JTI-FCH.1.3 „European Fuel Cell Cluster“

AIP 2008 Target Achievement

Overall scope and framework of the cluster

Agreement on general system layout and stack specification among OEM and supply chain.

Key technical, commercial and social targets

Harmonized automotive stack specification agreed, cost analysis available.

Survey of the European supply industry available

Expertise, relevant players and their role and contribution to the project

European stakeholder inventory worked out, key stakeholders were project partners

Forms of collaboration between industry and research

Cooperation – competition matrix worked out for application in automotive propulsion.

Research priorities defined.

Financial, resource and other requirements for success

Consistent technical road-map and ressource planning worked out.

Proposal for implementation of the project

Draft business plan available including financing options.

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Thank you very much for your kind attention