Rapid End-of-Line Testing for the Hydrogen Economy

加拿大的氢气战略设定了到2050年氢气提供高达该国能源需求的30%的目标。在这种背景下，电解产生的绿色氢气是最清洁的氢气来源，而氢燃料电池提供了最高效、最清洁的氢气发电方法。因此，燃料电池和电解槽被认为是新兴氢经济的关键推动因素。随着氢经济技术和基础设施的发展，以高产量和低成本快速生产和测试电化学电池的大规模制造实践变得至关重要。在这种情况下，电化学堆的流水线末端(EOL)工艺通常有三个阶段：泄漏测试、激活和电化学表征。这些测试需要几个小时才能完成，而下线制造要求是在几分钟内完成下线阶段。拟议的研究旨在开发快速下线测试方法和诊断硬件，这些方法和诊断硬件可以在几分钟内检测到电化学堆中的故障，从而解决氢经济大规模生产的主要瓶颈之一。该项目将在西蒙·弗雷泽大学(SFU)燃料电池研究实验室(FCReL)和绿光创新公司(GI)之间建立一个新的大学-行业研究伙伴关系，涵盖所需的专业知识、设施和知识转化，以产生变革性的结果和成果。具体地说，这一合作关系将把FCReL在燃料电池诊断方面的丰富专业知识和研究工具与GI作为电化学测试系统领域最成熟的全球领导者的行业领先地位相结合。

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.