"Mind the Gap" - jumping the hurdles limiting polymer fuel cell performance and commercialisation

在这项提案中，我们汇集了一些个人和机构，他们具有适合拟议工作的各种和互补的技能。该团队的所有成员都在燃料电池研究和开发方面拥有广泛和世界级的背景，他们工作的机构都有很好的条件来承担这项工作。此外，我们还得到了一些机构和公司的支持。该项目基于四个研究工作包和一个协调工作包。*燃料电池在“脏”燃料上运行燃料电池通常需要高质量的氢气以防止催化剂和膜中毒。这不仅增加了燃料的成本，而且限制了可使用的可能来源，除非使用广泛的清理方法。我们打算研究燃料/空气的中毒机理和毒物含量，开发具有更好的抗毒性的催化剂。目标是在短期内改善燃料电池在典型可用燃料上的运行，并在长期内使用“更脏的燃料”(生物来源)。*降低燃料电池的成本催化剂成本是燃料电池系统成本的主要组成部分之一(约占总成本的25%-30%)。我们打算研究减少铂装载系统，以及这些系统如何与劣质燃料/空气相互作用。短期内，我们的愿望是降低成本和催化剂需求。从长远来看，人们希望过渡到新的催化剂。因此，我们还将研究开发新的非贵金属(或低贵金属)催化剂，以及这些催化剂与新催化剂载体的集成。*燃料电池寿命的提高是催化剂降解和启动/关闭期间发生的极端条件以及其他外部事件的作用。在这一工作包中，我们将检查诊断，以询问和了解降解过程以及改进的催化剂载体和催化剂的开发以抵抗降解。*提高燃料电池系统效率提高燃料电池效率与诊断瓶颈和发生大部分损失的领域有关。我们将通过开发和应用一系列单元内和堆叠内方法来促进这一进程，以了解这些效率损失发生在哪里。同时，我们将研究燃料电池的发展，平衡工厂组件，以提高系统效率。这些方法将与系统建模相结合，以评估实现性能提升的最佳领域。

In this proposal we are bringing together a number of individuals and institutions with a varied and complimentary skill set appropriate for the proposed work. All members of the team have an extensive and world-class background in fuel cell research and development, and the institutions which they work are well provisioned to undertake this work. Furthermore we are supported by a number of Institutions and companies. The project is based around four research work packages and one coordinating work package.* Operation of fuel cells on "dirty" fuels Fuel cells typically require high quality hydrogen to prevent the poisoning of catalysts and membranes. This not only increases the cost of fuels, but limits the possible sources that can be used unless extensive clean-up methods are used. We intend to study the poisoning mechanism and poison content of fuels/air; develop catalysts with improved poison resistance. The goal is improvement in operation of fuel cells on typically available fuels in the near term, and use of "dirtier fuels" (biogenic sources) in the longer term.* Reduction of the cost of fuel cells Catalyst costs are one of the major components of fuel cell system cost (~25-30% of total). We intend to look at reduced platinum loading systems and how these systems interact with poor quality fuel/air. In the short term the desire is to reduce the cost and catalyst requirements. Over the longer term there is the desire to transition to new catalysts. Hence, we will also look at the development of new non-precious metal (or reduced precious metal) catalysts and the integration of these catalysts with new catalyst supports. * Improvement in fuel cell longevity Fuel cell longevity is a function of catalyst degradation and extreme conditions occurring during start-up/shut down and other extraneous events. Within this work package we will examine diagnostics to interrogate and understand the degradation processes and the development of improved catalyst supports and catalysts to resist degradation.* Improving fuel cell systems efficiency Improving fuel cell efficiency is associated with diagnosing the bottlenecks and those areas where the majority of losses are occurring. We will facilitate this process by developing and applying a range of in-cell and in-stack approaches to understand where those efficiency losses are occurring. At the same time we will examine the development of fuel cell balance of plant components to improve system efficiency. These approaches will be coupled with system modeling to assess the best areas to achieve performance gains.