Rapid End-of-Line Testing for the Hydrogen Economy

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The hydrogen strategy for Canada sets the target for hydrogen to provide up to 30% of the country's energy demand by 2050. In this context, green hydrogen produced by electrolysis is the cleanest source of hydrogen, and hydrogen fuel cells offer the most efficient and clean method for generating power from hydrogen. Therefore, fuel cells and electrolyzers are perceived as key enablers of the emerging hydrogen economy. As technology and infrastructure development for the hydrogen economy advances, mass manufacturing practices to rapidly produce and test electrochemical cells at high throughput and low cost becomes of critical importance. In this context, the electrochemical stack end-of-line (EOL) process has typically three stages: leak-test, activation, and electrochemical characterization. These tests take several hours to complete, whereas the EOL manufacturing requirement is to complete the EOL stage within minutes. The proposed research is envisioned to develop rapid EOL test methods and diagnostic hardware that can detect a failure in an electrochemical stack within minutes, thereby addressing one of the major bottlenecks in the mass production of the hydrogen economy. The project will form a new university-industry research partnership between Simon Fraser University (SFU) Fuel Cell Research Lab (FCReL) and Greenlight Innovation Corp. (GI), covering the required expertise, facilities, and knowledge translation to generate transformative results and outcomes. Specifically, this partnership will merge FCReL's vast expertise and research tools on fuel cell diagnostics with GI's industrial leadership as the most established global leader in electrochemical test systems.