Fuel cell with Aluminium as base material

BALBAS aims to investigate whether coated Aluminum alloys can be used for bipolar plates in fuel cells (BPP).

In a previous project, also lead by RISE, we have shown that sufficiently low contact resistance can be obtained initially for current collector plates. In that project a methodology was also developed to assess material selection in demanding environments. However, this specific environment differs somewhat from the environment in the current research question for the BPP.

To determine if it is possible to use coated Aluminum alloys as bipolar plates, the contact resistance needs to be low and the corrosion resistance good during the life of the product.

The project intends to use methodology developed in ALUSAP for exsitu aging, but also test in a real fuel cell to verify the relevance of the exsitu methods. This is done through instrumental surface characterization before and after the aging tests.