Feature based bipolar plate forming

Abstract

Abstract By the end of the 1990s, the global peak of energy supply from oil and gas deposits had already been reached. Since then, there has been a clear trend towards the development of new, more sustainable ways of supplying energy. To realize this reduction, a holistic and rapid restructuring of the energy supply towards CO2-free and renewable energy production, storage and processing across all areas of life is necessary. The development and implementation of a functioning hydrogen economy can be crucial with respect to the goal of climate neutrality. The scale-up and commercialization of technologies for the cost-effective production and use of hydrogen carry significant importance. Accordingly, innovative production technologies and process chains must be developed to be able to manufacture fuel cells reliably in high volumes and at optimized costs. In this context, BPPs in the PEM-FC are responsible for about 80 % of the total weight, just over 50 % of the system volume, and up to 40 % of the total cost. Current research approaches in the field of BPP forming focus mainly on the optimization of a pre-selected production technology. Thereby, the possibility of combining different forming technologies to represent a holistic process chain is mostly disregarded. This research gap is to be closed by the developments within the scope of this work. The bipolar plate is not to be regarded as a coherent component, but as a composition of different geometric features.