ECEC Facilities - Fuel Cell Fabrication & Testing
Fuel Cell Fabrication
The ECEC has been fabricating research fuel cells for more than a decade. These include hydrogen PEM fuel cells, direct methanol PEM fuel cells, alkaline electrolyte cells, electrolyzer cells, and cells designed for specific diagnostic purposes.
Facilities for fuel cell fabrication include a ball grinder, mixer-homogenizer, an automatic drawdown machine, a high-temperature hydraulic press, and manual and automatic spraying facilities. Fuel cells allowing direct optical access to the flow field and sampling of gases, voltages and currents throughout the flow field have been fabricated. Varying cathode and anode catalyst layer composition is routine.
Fuel Cell Testing
The ECEC has extensive facilities for testing fuel cells, including a number of Arbin and Teledyne fuel cell testing systems. Some of these are capable of sampling up to 12 channels of data at a time. Also available is Solartron Analytical equipment for potentio static and dynamic testing, a micro gas chromatograph and three environmental chambers allowing control of temperature from -40 degrees Celsius (C) to 200 C. ECEC also has high resolution, high magnification still and video photographic capabilities.
Experimental Fuel Cell Diagnostics Capabilities:
Gas Diffusion Layer Characterization
Membrane Electrode Assembly Fabrication
High-Frequency Resistance (HFR) Distribution
AC Impedance Spectroscopy
Accelerated Degradation Testing