HIKS – Highly Integrated Cathode Subsystem: Development and production of a highly integrated air treatment module for use in automotive high-performance PEFCs with production-ready manufacturing technologies to realize automotive performance and cost targets

The management of the water produced played an important role in the performance and lifetime of a fuel cell. Membrane humidifiers can be used for this purpose as an external component to protect the ionomer membrane in the fuel cell from drying out at any time. For this purpose, novel flat membranes based on hydrophilic, uncharged polymers, which are cross-linked via suitable reactions, have been developed at IGB. With their humidification performance, these membranes represent a good alternative to commercially available membranes.

Humidifying membranes for water management in fuel cells

SEM image of an IGB flat membrane for humidification.
© Fraunhofer IGB
SEM image of an IGB flat membrane for humidification.

One approach to sustainable energy management is the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier. This can be produced by electrolysis, e.g. by fluctuating renewable energy, and can be used for mobile and stationary applications by generating electric power with fuel cells. The management of the resulting water plays an important role for the performance and lifetime of the fuel cell. Membrane humidifiers can be used as an external component to protect the ionomer membrane in the fuel cell from drying out at any time. However, commercial membrane humidifiers do not adequately meet the very demanding requirements for automotive applications in terms of water transfer, long-term stability, harmful gas tolerance and cost.

 

Development of humidifying membranes

The existing excellent infrastructure for testing and our membrane expertise are used to develop humidifying membranes in a targeted manner in the HIKS project. Building on the preliminary work on coated hollow fiber membranes [1], it is now possible to coat flat membranes with suitable polymers on a Coatema roll-to-roll smartcoater. One material approach here is the use of hydrophilic, uncharged polymers crosslinked via suitable reactions [2]. With their humidifying performance, the membranes developed in this way represent a good alternative to commercially available membranes.

Literature

[1] Jesswein, I.; Uebele, S.; Dieterich, A.; Keller, S.; Hirth, T.; Schiestel, T. (2018) Influence of surface properties on the dip coating behavior of hollow fiber membranes, J. App. Pol. Sci. DOI: 10.1002/APP.46163.

[2] Michele, A.; Paschkowski, P.; Hänel, C.; Tovar, G.; Schiestel, T.; Southan, A. (2021) Acid catalyzed cross-linking of polyvinyl alcohol for humidifier membranes, J. App. Pol. Sci. 139:e51606.

Project information

Project title

HIKS – Highly Integrated Cathode Subsystem: Development and production of a highly integrated air treatment module for use in automotive high-performance PEFCs with production-ready manufacturing technologies to realize automotive performance and cost targets

 

Project duration

August 2017 – December 2020

 

Project partners

  • Mahle Filtersysteme GmbH, Stuttgart (coordinator)
  • Fumatech BWT GmbH, Bietigheim-Bissingen
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology - IGB
  • Institute for Interfacial Process Engineering and Plasma Technology, University of Stuttgart
  • Institute for Organic Chemistry, University of Regensburg

Funding

We would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWi) for funding the »HIKS« project, grant number 03ET6091E.