GET – GREEN EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES – English Language

Components
Hydrogen
Bipolar plates & the multi-stage
CellForm ® technology
Simon Brugger
For the hydrogen technology to succeed
in economy, mobility, and society,
big challenges are yet to be
tackled. These are for instance factors
like costs, efficiency, and suitability
for series production. Progress
in these areas is only made possible
through intensive research and
development efforts. The focus of
CellForm hereby lies on the development
of the key component of
the hydrogen technology, the bipolar
plate.
The bipolar plate
The hydrogen technology consists of
two principles: the electrolytic splitting
of water into hydrogen and oxygen
(electrolysis) by means of external
energy and the usage of the
energy through the reversed chemical
reaction (fuel cells). These electrochemical
processes take place in
every single cell which are stacked on
top of each other to a so-called stack.
The main part of this stack is the
bipolar plate, consisting of two very
thinly formed metal sheets welded
together. Depending on the application,
several hundred bipolar plates
are needed for a single stack.
As the name („bi“) suggests, a
bipolar plate serves as a basis for the
two poles of a fuel cell: the negative
Fig. 2: Metallic bipolar plate under a measuring device
anode plate and the positive cathode trons emitted by the hydrogen from
plate. The plates are responsible for the anode via an electrical device to
the distribution and reaction indication
of the gases in the fuel cell as migrate through the membrane and
the cathode. The remaining protons
they control the chemical reaction finally react with the oxygen atoms
of hydrogen and oxygen to electrical to form water. A cooling medium for
energy and water. They also ensure, temperature control of the individual
for instance, electrical contact between
the individual cells and sepa-
welded individual plates. The channel
cells is passed between the tightly
rate the membrane electrode assemblies
(MEA). The membrane electrode that serves as the contact surface
structure of the so-called flow field
unit serves as a semi-permeable between hydrogen and oxygen and
membrane which is only permeable
to protons and forces the elec-
can be seen in Fig. 3.
Hydrogen – advantages and
disadvantages
Fig. 1: CellForm’s metallic bipolar plates
Hydrogen has many advantages as
an energy carrier compared to alternative
technologies such as batteries.
For example, the resources
required are significantly more sustainable
in terms of extraction and
recycling, the refuelling time in the
mobile sector is significantly shorter,
and hydrogen-based energy chains
have a potentially lower TCO. However,
the main advantage of hydrogen
can be derived on the basis of
the energy transition: In a future with
28 GREEN EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES 2022