Design and Industrial Deployment of Innovative Manufacturing Processes for Fuel Cells and Fuel Cell Components

Fuel cells offer the highest electrical efficiency for conversion of chemically stored energy. They can significantly contribute to an efficient use of produced hydrogen carriers and to the reduction of overall CO₂ emissions. The Clean Hydrogen Joint undertaking has a set a vision to reach for 2030 accumulated fuel cell installed power of >2.5 GW with total production rates >500 MW/year. Cost reductions have been achieved as part of the FCH 2 JU but additional reductions are needed to increase the market penetration of fuel cell solutions. The stacks are still the main cost driver for the fuel cell system, additional cost reductions can be achieved through high quality level and increased automation of stack manufacturing. One of the objectives of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership is to reach stack manufacturing costs (solid oxide) of ≤800 €/kW at annual production volume of single manufacturing line of at least 100 MW.

Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcome:

• Cost reduction of fuel cell systems by automation of specific and time-consuming manufacturing steps;
• Increased fuel cell systems and component manufacturing capacity of European industry establishment of a European supply chain of specialised solid oxide cells (SOC) manufacturing equipment;
• Improved sustainability of the manufacturing processes and products; significantly reduce or reuse waste and lower the energy and carbon footprint.

In addition, project results are expected to contribute to at least one of the following specific (quantified) outcomes:

• Automation of stack assembling and sealing with yield >90%;
• Automation of cell manufacturing with integrated quality control measured and yield >95%;
• High speed interconnect manufacturing and coating within the specification of stack manufacturer;
• Time-efficient and inexpensive quality control procedures suitable for inline inspection.

Project results are expected to directly contribute to all of the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA Pillar 3, Hydrogen End Uses: Clean heat and Power:

• reduction of CAPEX of stationary fuel cells of all sizes and end use applications. The target is to reach stack production cost <800 €/kW at production capacity of 100 MW/year;
• support of development of processes suitable for mass manufacturing.

In addition, due to high synergies in manufacturing of SOFC and SOEL stacks this topic will also contribute to the following objectives for pillar 1 Renewable Hydrogen Production

• reduction of electrolyser CAPEX below 520 €/kW;
• increasing scale of deployment and series production for steam electrolysis.

The manufacturing of solid oxide fuel stacks and stack components according to state-of-the-art is performed by a large amount of human force. The degree of automation for cell and interconnect production reaches 30% and for stack manufacturing stays below 15%, however the target values of 50-65% for 2026 should be reached to enable the envisaged high-volume production. The manufacturing processes reached reasonable yields but often are historically developed and not designed for automation. Re-design of critical steps for mass-production manufacturing, development of automation of human workforce and time-consuming manufacturing processes in stack and/or components manufacturing and quality control are entirely addressed by present call.

Support under the FCH 2 JU managed to create a track record of projects^[1] (HeatStack, SOSLeM, qSOFC) directed towards cost-effective manufacturing of components, stacks and systems. The development in the HeatStack project showed the potential to reduce the production cost of the sealing in the SOFC stack by 90%. The glass sealing inside the stack is estimated to be responsible for about 10% of the stack production costs. In addition, the qSOFC project contributed considerably to solid oxide stack development by enhancing manufacturing and quality assurance at key parts of the all-European stack manufacturing value chain. This project concluded that a stack cost level of 1000 €/kW is achievable at production levels of 15 MW/year. The specific improvements include: increase speed of cell production, interconnect manufacturing and stack conditioning processes. Finally, the SOSLeM project helped to create a new stack production plant, making the manufacturing process cheaper, cleaner and smarter by introduction of automated laser welding, simplification of the design for automated component stacking and end-of-line testing.

The scope of this topic is to adapt and develop manufacturing processes on a prototype tool that can then serve several manufacturers. It aims at establishing a European supply chain of specialised SOC manufacturing equipment that can be adapted by several manufacturers, or even exported to overseas markets in scenario where European technology is licensed for local production in overseas territories. The supply of equipment is a market opportunity on its own, though the proximity with the domestic manufacturers supports their ability to stay ahead of competition.

The design for manufacturing and automation should be considered along the whole value chain of stack production. The joint effort on several subjects such as component supply chain, process automation, stack and system manufacturing are needed to address the challenges of cost reduction by automation and upscaling.

Proposals should address the following:

• Proof of concept, design and adaptation of approaches from automation industry, whose implementation for the production of cells, stack components or stacks, could significantly improve production process for selected critical manufacturing processes should be considered;
• The demonstration of two or more automated production steps, initially performed manually with considerable time effort, should be performed. The ones with the greater impact on costs and waste production should be considered preferably;
• Archetype for the mass production of FC, definition of a virtual production process with a high degree of automation (at least 75%) and implementation of mature methodologies known from automation industry for target production volume of at least 100 MW/year (from 20,000 to 100,000 units/year depending on nominal stack power) utilising the developed automated production step should be planned;
• Techno-economic assessment and demonstration of stack output of 100 MW/year (corresponding from 20,000 to 100,000 units/year depending on single stack power) resulting in target manufacturing costs <800 €/kWel should be provided;
• Digital concept for complete component tracking and continuous validation of virtual twins for component and/or stack manufacturing should be considered;
• Circularity assessment in technology / prototypes development should be provided;
• The IPR on the manufacturing tool and equipment is to be with the automation company, in order to enable other manufacturers to benefit from the experience and to strengthen the overall sectors competitiveness in Europe.

At least one of following manufacturing processes should be addressed:

• Sealing process of high temperature solid oxide cells: design, implementation, test of automated sealing stations for stack manufacturing with easy stack connection-disconnection and integrated cost-effective sealing process control and quality assessment for 20,000 to 100,000 units/year;
• Ceramic cell production for solid oxide cells. Automated ceramic cell production, which cover the areas of raw material quality control, semi-products manufacturing, layer deposition technology, sintering (i.e. tunnel furnace), handling of green and sintered parts and quality monitoring able for a cell production capacity from 1.5 to 4 million units/year;
• High speed bipolar plate production and coating, production related quality monitoring and comprehensive testing methods using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, if required, designed for cell production capacity from 1.5 to 4 million units /year.

By the end of the project the production process utilising automated steps, initially performed by manual working force, should be successfully demonstrated resulting in considerable (>60%) reduction of production time and costs of corresponding manufacturing steps.

Activities are expected to start at MRL 4 and achieve MRL 7 by the end of the project.

The topic is not intended to cover the establishment of pilot or full-scale manufacturing plants, or basic research on new materials, or fundamentally new cell and stack designs. The focus of the project is to demonstrate, in an industrial environment, the possibility of automating the most expensive processes, today performed manually or with technologies not suitable for the achievement of the production objectives described in the topic. The project should close the gaps for design and supply of automated turn-key equipment for production of stacks and/or stack components.

Consortia should include industrial partners responsible for: automation, quality control and stack or stack component manufacturing. A leading role is expected to be taken by the automation/equipment manufacturer/s in the consortium. The industrial partners should be supported by research institutes, which focus on but not limited to: relevant manufacturing technologies, failure analysis in manufactured components, implementation of non-destructive testing (NDT) and novel quality control methods, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for quality management, post-operation analysis of stacks and components.

Consortia are encouraged to explore synergies and cooperation with Made in Europe partnership (Cluster 7) as well as to seek for additional national funding.

This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen and fuel cell systems and components.

Proposals are expected to address sustainability and circularity aspects. In particular, circularity and sustainability by design concepts should be holistically considered towards the whole technology chain.

Proposals should provide a preliminary draft on ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation.

Activities are expected to start at MRL 4 and achieve MRL 7 by the end of the project.

At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 7.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2022 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021–2022 which apply mutatis mutandis.

[1]https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/projects-repository_en