subject: 3rd Annual Conference- Fuel Cell Durability & Performance 2007 - Stationary, Automotive & Portable [print this page] The 3rd annual meeting in The Knowledge Foundations Fuel Cells Durability & Performance series will provide an interdisciplinary discussion forum for fuel cell developers, manufacturers and suppliers working in the fields of fuel cells materials, stacks, system design, fabrication, and testing. The objectives of this meeting are: to discuss the latest innovations and emerging durability and performance issues common for all fuel cell systems, and specific to different types, designs, and sizes of fuel cells; to bring the attention of the testing systems, standards, and regulations development community to the current hurdles preventing fuel cells systems from large scale commercialization.
Table of Contents :
Thursday, November 15, 2007
8:00 Registration, Exhibit Viewing/Poster Setup, Coffee and Pastries
Nancy Garland, PhD, Acting Fuel Cell Team Leader, Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies, The U.S. Department of Energy
The Department of Energys Hydrogen Program recently initiated new research and development projects aimed at reducing component cost and increasing stack durability and performance of transportation and stationary fuel cells. Updated progress in the Program including highlights from the new projects from will be presented. There has been recent interest globally in the introduction of fuel cells to the marketplace because they can drastically reduce the time to recharge/refuel and because of their reliability. New market transformation activities in the Program such as forklifts for distribution centers will be discussed.
9:30 Technology Development Needs for Stationary and Transportation Fuel Cells
Tom Jarvi, PhD, Director, Technology Development, UTC Power, United Technologies
To enable broad commercial applicability, fuel cell technologies must be made significantly more affordable while maintaining or enhancing durability and performance. Previously, industry and academia have focused primarily on understanding and enhancing performance. In recent years, it has become apparent that the performance requirements of many applications can largely be met, and the focus has shifted to increasing durability and reducing cost. This talk will attempt to clarify the significant challenge that simultaneously meeting cost and durability requirements represents for fuel cell products.
10:00 An Automotive Perspective on Durability Protocol Challenges from Single Cells to Fuel Cell Vehicle Systems and Industry Needs
Durability of PEM technology in dynamic ranges, though much progress has been made in recent years, are not yet up to the level of conventional vehicle powertrains. Public durability protocols (from the USFCC, US DOE, JARI, for example) are helpful for establishing a baseline for the state of the art of the technology in single cells. But these arent yet commonized due to a number of reasons. Also, it is too early to standardize the protocols as the technology evolves, but guidelines or protocols are needed. There are many challenges involved in establishing such single cell protocols, due to different operating conditions. Also, there are potential degradation effects not only to the catalyst and membrane, but also due to hydrogen impurities. For automotive applications, fuel cell systems, durability protocols are considered intellectual property, making it difficult to establish a common guideline or standard. However there is a draft standard initiated at SAE (J2722) which is attempting to establish a drive durability cycle baseline.
