British gigafactory

by Hydrogeit | Dec 15, 2022 | Germany

With the help of the British government, a large-scale factory to produce components for the hydrogen and fuel cell market is to be built in England. Johnson Matthey (JM) intends to erect this gigafactory, a cost of 80 million pounds, at its location in Royston.

Earlier this year, the British technology company had set the goal of becoming “market leader in power components for fuel cells and electrolyzers” and achieving an over 200 million pounds turnover with H₂ technologies by the end of 2024. As part of this, numerous highly qualified manufacturing jobs are to be created by the first half of 2024.

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The British government has pledged support out of the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) so that components for 3 GW in PEM fuel cell stacks for hydrogen vehicles can be produced annually. The United Kingdom is forecast to require 14 GW in fuel cell stacks and 400,000 high pressure carbon fiber tanks annually by 2035.

Liam Condon, Chief Executive of Johnson Matthey, stated, “Decarbonising freight transportation is critical to help societies and industries meet their ambitious net zero emission targets. Fuel cells will be a crucial part of the energy transition.” The British economic minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, said, “We are working hard to ensure the UK reaps the benefits of the green industrial revolution, and today’s announcement reaffirms UK’s reputation as one of the best locations in the world for high quality auto manufacturing.”

Rolling bearings for cryogenic hydrogen

by Hydrogeit | Dec 15, 2022 | Germany

Hydrogen cooled well below zero poses particular challenges to the components used, especially the moving ones. The ball bearings of submersible pumps for pumping cryogenic media are examples of such heavily burdened parts. That is why NSK, a company originated in Tokyo, has developed self-lubricating deep groove ball bearings that work without the need to apply a separate lubricant.

Friction-reducing agents other than the pumped media are not used, which is normally tribologically unfavorable. Pumps designed for cryogenic applications have a double-row bearing arrangement of the pump shaft, where the inner and outer rings are made of special corrosion-resistant steel. The stainless steel NSK bearings have a wear-resistant cage made of self-lubricating fluoroplastic so that cryogenic gases such as GH₂ (gaseous hydrogen) or LNG (liquefied natural gas) can be pumped at down to -200 °C.

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The European rolling bearing manufacturer NSK Europe Ltd. now offers a whole range of deep groove ball bearings specially designed for these unusual operating conditions – with shaft diameters from 30 to 100 mm. They tolerate very low temperatures as well as rotational speeds of up to 3,600 min^-1 and are suitable for hydrogen refueling stations as well as for larger pumping stations.

H-Tec Systems introduces scalable Hydrogen Cube System

by Hydrogeit | Dec 15, 2022 | Germany

At Hannover Messe 2022, the company H-Tec Systems, from Augsburg, introduced the Hydrogen Cube System (HCS) to a wide audience. The HCS generates green hydrogen via PEM electrolysis. The modular system is suitable for use in large multi-MW electrolysis plants within the energy-intensive manufacturing and chemical industries or to store surplus wind power.

The Cubes are available as a closed container solution for outdoor installation as well as an open one for indoor installation. They are equipped with 18 S450 PEM stacks as well as integrated process water treatment and power supply. The system can optionally be expanded with a fresh water or hydrogen purification unit or a heat recovery unit, the manufacturer states.

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Several 2-MW Cubes can be combined to form a multi-megawatt system. A plant to reach 50 MW in the long term can also be planned and designed in this way. The Cubes achieve, according to H-Tec Systems, a system efficiency of 74 percent. They have an integrated process water treatment and power supply system. An HCS with five units, so with 10 MW electrolysis capacity, can thus produce 4,500 kg of H₂ per day. That makes 40 to 50 truck or bus tanks full. Through the modular construction, several units can be joined together as described and the entire plant can be centrally controlled and monitored.

The HCS is suited, according to H-Tec Systems, for various applications in industrial production such as for chemical plants, for fleet refueling of trucks or buses, or in steel production. Additionally, operators of renewable power plants have the option of using it as a power buffer. A specific example: According to the company’s own calculations, a 10-MW HCS could reduce the CO₂ emissions in the steel production industry by 117 tonnes per day and 42,000 tonnes annually.

Because of increasing demand, the Augsburg-based company intends to further expand its production capacity. Together with large-scale plant manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions, with its direct access to the large-series production knowhow of Volkswagen, an automated factory for the production of the electrolysis stacks is to be completed by the end of 2023, H-Tec Systems states. Through this, a production capacity of 1,000 MW is to be achieved, depending on demand, by 2025 – and continuously expanded in the following years, according to the current plans.

Author: Niels Hendrik Petersen

Quick market entry with partner Symbio

by Hydrogeit | Dec 15, 2022 | Germany

In June 2022, automotive supplier Schaeffler together with Symbio – a Michelin and Faurecia company – established the joint venture Innoplate which plans to produce “the next generation” of bipolar plates. Benjamin Daniel, head of the fuel cell business unit at Schaeffler Automotive Technologies, explains the new options.

H2-international: Bipolar plates are considered a strategic component in a fuel cell system. At Schaeffler how do you tackle the challenges of their production? Which areas of expertise do you bring to this?

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Daniel: The ability to mass-produce components such as bipolar plates efficiently and economically is essential for the large-scale deployment of fuel cell systems. This industrialization is at the heart of Schaeffler’s strategy and is an important part of the 2025 road map. It allows an overall reduction in the cost of fuel cell stacks and systems. As a world-leading automotive and industrial supplier we have extensive expertise in precision forming and punching technology as well as a deep knowledge of the processes involved in the mass manufacturing of metal bipolar plates. We use this experience both for electrolysis and as a key element in fuel cell stacks. Schaeffler’s high degree of vertical integration with regard to forming technology and its sophisticated coating processes form the basis for a sound understanding of mass production processes for bipolar plates.

What role does your joint venture with Symbio play here?

Together we see enormous potential in the developing hydrogen economy. The establishment of this Franco-German project will also strengthen the European value chain for hydrogen-based mobility. By the end of the year we will be starting joint venture operations under the Innoplate brand and pushing the production of next-generation bipolar plates for the entire market for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. As a result, customers will benefit in future from increased performance, larger capacities and a lower price. In addition, the joint venture allows us to quickly enter the market with a leading fuel cell provider as a partner.

What’s the current situation and what will the next steps be?

At the moment we’re developing the manufacturing processes in our center of excellence for hydrogen technology in Herzogenaurach and are establishing production at the joint venture site in Haguenau in France. At first we want to make 4 million bipolar plates a year at the production site in Haguenau, with the aim of producing around 50 million plates annually by 2030. By that time we expect there to be 120 members of staff working in this area. The joint venture’s customers are Schaeffler and Symbio. Symbio has already received its first order as a major fuel cell system supplier from a leading vehicle manufacturer. It’s envisaged that the joint venture will produce the bipolar plates for the order.

Author: Michael Nallinger

Efficient coating process for BPPs

by Hydrogeit | Dec 15, 2022 | Germany

In PEMECs (proton-exchange membrane electrolyzers) as well as PEMFCs (PEM fuel cells), chemical processes are taking place during operation that attack the surface of the material used and lead to corrosion in the medium or long term. Various studies show that because of internal corrosion processes in BPPs (bipolar plates) made of pure stainless steel, the, for example, target fuel cell service life of at least 10,000 operating hours in passenger cars is difficult to reach. Fuel cells for heavy-duty applications or for electrolyzers in continuous operation demand much longer lifetimes.

PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating, a technology used for decades for a variety of applications, presents a solution to this problem. “Through suitable coating of the two outer sides of BPPs, their corrosion behavior under long-term operation and thus their service life can be significantly optimized,” says Dr. Andreas Kraft, Director of Operations at PVT (Plasma und Vakuum Technik GmbH). According to him, this does not result in any loss of conductivity, but even rather an improvement towards a desired high conductance value. The company with headquarters in Bensheim, near Frankfurt am Main, has been operating in the field of ion- and plasma-assisted PVD coating of tools and components for more than 35 years.

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The coatings that are applied to the BPP, although very thin, constitute a major cost factor in the manufacture of the plates. “For a plate with a size of about 750 cm², the cost of coating should end up well below 1 euro per plate,” stressed Kraft. Simultaneous coating of both sides of a BPP therefore requires a highly productive coating process as well as technology that gives reliable, reproducible results. This is why, according to the materials expert, the batch coating systems typically used in tool and component coating are uneconomical in terms of productivity and do not lead to the desired results.

“For a mass production of this sort, only so-called in-line systems come into consideration, in which substrates are coated on both sides with high throughput and without rotation,” stressed Kraft. In contrast to batch systems, these are multi-chamber setups in which the substrates are transported from chamber to chamber. The chambers are separated by large transfer valves, and the spatial and temporal separation allows various defined processing steps to occur. This design allows for a clean environment with consistent vacuum and processing conditions.

With the i-L 4.3500 in-line system developed by PVT, according to Kraft, 5 million BPPs of size 500 mm x 150 mm for fuel cells can be coated on both sides in the same consistent quality. The system is realized by the combination of four individual modules, with each forming a chamber, so that BPPs could simultaneously, at different positions, be fed in (into vacuum), coated under constant vacuum conditions, and finally discharged again (back into ambient conditions).

The PVT manager stressed that the coating costs per plate for a fuel cell BPP typically end up well below 1 euro. Depending on the process and coating materials used, the costs can even turn out significantly lower, according to Kraft.

Author: Michael Nallinger