The corrosive zone at the anode of a proton exchange membrane water electrolyser extends only ∼200 μm into the porous transport layer under typical operating conditions, allowing replacement of platinum-coated titanium with much cheaper materials.
Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers are key technologies for the utilization of Green Hydrogen, one of the tools to be able to enlarge the use of renewable energy. During the 2020 decade, a large ramp-up of both technologies will take place and therefore, industrial processes will be needed in order to realize these goals and bring these technologies to the GW level. Sandvik Materials Technology has developed a coil-to-coil process to produce pre-coated stainless steel materials in a rapid and cost-effective manner. These coated material are the base material for the production of both bipolar plates and interconnects which are key for the rapid industrialization of both fuel cells and electrolyzers. A large portfolio of materials for PEM fuel cells, both PEM and AEM electrolysis but also SOC applications are available for this purpose. Sanergy HT has been proven over nearly the last decade to be the leading material in the interconnect fabrication for SOC application due to its excellent corrosion properties, very low Cr evaporation, and excellent performance after long-term exposures.
The optimization of the interconnect material carried out in the EU funded qSOFC project is essential to the mass production of high quality solid oxide fuel cells. Combinations of three different stainless steel grade substrates (Crofer 22H, EN 1.4622 and ASTM 441) together with two different coating compositions (CeCo and CeCoMn) as well as the impact of the use of different lubricants in the forming process have been investigated. The different combinations were exposed at 650 °C in air for more than 3500 h and ASR and SEM analysis were conducted. 441 CeCo and Crofer CeCoMn showed the best performance: ASR of 8 and 14 mΩcm2 respectively after 1000 h. They also showed very good microstructure with the formation of homogenous protective oxide scales.
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