Small Scale Fuel Cells for Ground Personnel

"The goal of this Phase I SBIR project (under AREA 3) is to develop the next generation of Protonex' low cost, reliable polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks by incorporating rolled good type membrane and electrode assemblies (MEAs) duringmanufacture. Such an achievement would further reduce the cost of fabricating PEM fuel cells while simultaneously improving manufacturing yield. Protonex has already demonstrated the capability to produce low cost, reliable fuel cells utilizing ourproprietary (patent pending) technology. The stack technology adapted to the rolled good MEAs will be applied to develop 20Watt fuel cell system (during phase II) that will be safe, rugged, highly efficient and easy to manufacture. Furthermore, the systemwill be compact and lightweight, allowing the DoD to achieve truly "man portable" power. To accomplish these objectives, Protonex has teamed with Albany International Techniweave (AIT) to capitalize on their advanced low cost, high performance rolled goodtype MEA technology. Our other teaming partner, Northeastern University (Dr. Sanjeev Mukerjee) will assist the development effort by characterizing the novel MEAs and corresponding gas diffusion layers (GDLs). In addition to military applications,developments in fuel cell power sources will have an immediate impact on a wide range of commercial power sources including battery chargers, laptop computers, emergency power and light (medical