Low Cost Metal Bipolar Plate Carbon Coating Technology for Heavy Duty Fuel Cells

Bipolar plate is the second most expensive component in fuel cell stacks. Metal bipolar plate is the preferred material for industrial. But metal plates are susceptible to corrosion, which has to be mitigated through a corrosion-resistant coating technology. The proposed project plans to demonstrate a novel, low cost coating technology for metal bipolar plates. It uses high quality carbon particles as the coating material and uses a reliable bonding structure to hold carbon particles through the operation lifetime (>25,000 hours) of PEM fuel cell stack for medium- and heavy-duty power applications. In the Phase I of the project, the high quality carbon material that meets the long term stable operation requirement of PEM fuel cells will be selected. The coating process will be tailored to produce the desired coating structure on flat metal foil and used metal bipolar plates. Their performance will be characterized to meet the targets and the manufacture cost analysis will be conducted to ensure the low cost production in large volume. The success of the project will benefit the cost reduction of PEM fuel cell power systems to meet the medium- and heavy-duty requirement (< $80/kW for 25,000 hours operation). It can also be used in PEM electrolyzer and flow batteries for grid scale energy conversion and storage, which is critical to utilize the wasted power from wind and solar power stations to reduce carbon emission and shift the economy to more sustainable energy supplies.