The Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) is the central component of every PEMFC and has to fulfill a variety of different requirements. As a mechanical barrier it has to prevent the hydrogen and air/oxygen on the anode and cathode side respectively from mixing with each other and thereby generating an explosive atmosphere. To generate the electrical power catalyst layers are located at the interface of the membrane and the Gas Diffusion Electrode (GDE) on the anode and cathode side. Here the hydrogen is split into the electrons and protons on the anode side, while on the cathode side the oxyge ..read more

Is the open fuel cell just meant to be a nice to have item used for some basic educational applications? By far: NO! On the 13th and 14th September 2023 our little open fuel cell had its debut on the hy-fcell exhibition in Stuttgart. This exhibition is one of the places where the professional hydrogen and fuel cell community meets to discuss the latest advances in that area, transfer knowledge and (since it is a fair for professional companies) to seek for new business opportunities. The open fuel cell was part of the booth of the ZBT – the hydrogen and fuel cell center. Here it shine ..read more

The open fuel cell was presented at the Maker day 2023 at the public library in Duisburg. Many crafters showed interest in our open fuel cell. The visitors were able to see that the open fuel cell is able to produce electricity – and even more if they use a sheet to produce a wind flow on the passive cathode side.   ..read more

Livia and Roland are on vacation; so there is only a small Open Fuel Cell team meeting. We meet at the Chair of Energy Technology. Leander reports about the experiences he made when he tried to print more end plates using SLA. He had problems with the threads, which were somehow always crap. He solved it in the end with a testing piece on which he could test the different pressure parameters. We discuss that the last step which need to be undertaken to assemble a first cell with all the parts which we manufactured during the last months. Last meeting we finally managed to electroplate the ele ..read more

What is it for: 3D printing technology has become a significant fabrication technology for the fabrication of prototypes as well as small series production during the recent years. Compared to other technologies such as milling processes the needed material is only deposited where it is needed. Under ideal conditions items can be produced without the side effect of producing lots of waste materials. The 3D printing is referred to be a “tool less” fabrication technology. What does that mean? Can the printer be regarded as a tool? In a way – yes! However there are no conventional tools such as e ..read more

Today is the first Open Fuel Cell Meeting after I started working at ZBT. So I was able to pick up Leander and Frauke from the entrance and lead them to Burghard’s office. Today is the day on which we want to test a first OFC assembly for tightness. There are two main differences between our parts and the parts on Burghard’s original cell: the sealings which we printed with printed with PTU with a scab hardness of 95 instead of Burghard’s recreus Filaflex (scab hardness 70A) and the pressure plates which were printed on the SLA printer at the Chair of Energy Technology and not on Burghard’s Pr ..read more

After a few weeks break, the open fuel cell team meets again. This time at the Chair of Manufacturing Engineering.  Open Fuel Cells travel to Mannheim Burghard immediately starts to report: Alexandra and himself sent the fuel cell which we assembled in a previous meeting, together with another fuel cell (with reference electrode) to Prof. Nilüfer Baba at HS Mannheim. The asked for a few open fuel cells because they would like to test if they can base the experiments in their practical classes entirely on the open fuel cell. Hydrogen Source We again discuss the issue of the hydrogen sourc ..read more

We meet again at May 9, this time at the NanoEnergieTechnikZentrum, NETZ. Leander is back from his holidays and amazingly added lots of CAD files to the website. Roland brought a package that was shipped to my name but it contained nothing related to the Open Fuel Cell but Merch for to the Pint of Science Festival which I organized around that time. This sparked a discussed about Open Fuel Cell Merch and a Logo – but first things first. Livia asks how many of the sealings we need for one cell. Burghard says it’s two and looks at the sealings. The sealings of the original Open Fuel Cell were p ..read more

The main purpose of the end plates is to assure an evenly distribution of the compaction force over the whole area of the fuel cell. Table of Contents Anode End Plate In the explosion view you can see that this anode plate (white with ZBT logo) acts as a guide for the screws with which the stack is held together. Since the screws also function as guide rods to align all internal components of the open fuel cell like flow field plates, sealings and the MEA, the anode end plate in combination with the cathode plate also acts as an template. The red connectors for the hydrogen supply ..read more

This post will help you understand why you’d need flow fields and how to make them yourself from off-the-shelf printed circuit boards (PCBs). Table of Contents Why PCBs? Current collector and gas distribution In a PEMFC, the flow field plates generally fulfil two different purposes. One is to conduct the current generated at the MEA (membrane electrode assembly) to the next cell or to the power outlet of the cell or stack. The second purpose is to distribute the gases, hydrogen on the anode side and air or oxygen on the cathode side, evenly across the MEA. These plates must therefore ..read more