Fuel Cells: PEM Publishes Production Guides
The chair "Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components" (PEM) of RWTH Aachen University has published two fundamentally renewed guides on the production of fuel cell components and fuel cell systems together with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). The documents, each available in German and English, are available for free downloaded.
"Hydrogen technology will play a decisive role in the energy supply of vehicles in the future," says PEM head Professor Achim Kampker: "Fuel cells are a promising approach where drive batteries alone would become too large and too heavy – for example in electric trucks in the heavy-duty sector." If the drive is dominated by the fuel cell, the driving power requirement is primarily covered by the fuel cell itself. In this case, an additionally installed lithium-ion battery supplies short-term power peaks or serves to store recuperated braking energy. Alternatively, the fuel cell can also be used as a range extender: In this case, it acts as an onboard-charging system for the vehicle's lithium-ion battery, which is the main energy source.
Investment quantification for necessary machinery and equipment
The guide "Production of Fuel Cell Systems" devotes around 20 pages to the manufacture and construction of such systems as well as their application in vehicles, the scaling of their future industrial production, and the underlying cost structure. On just under 30 pages, the "Production of Fuel Cell Components" guide, on the other hand, deals with the technology development and operating principle of individual fuel cells, and in detail to the manufacture of their respective components. In addition, the necessary investments for machinery and equipment are quantified for all major production processes.
Free download and further publications
The guides "Production of Fuel Cell Systems" and "Production of Fuel Cell Components" are available for free download. Further publications on the topics of batteries, fuel cells, and electric motors can be found in the Electric Mobility Guides section.