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Hyzon Motors: Sensible withdrawal from Europe

Hyzon Motors: Sensible withdrawal from Europe

The numbers for the third quarter and the outlook promise a very exciting future for Hyzon Motors and its 200‑kW FC modules for trucks. Series production will begin in the second half of 2024. The activities will be concentrated at one location in the USA. Hyzon with its subsidiary is withdrawing from Europe. That is the right step, since a young company should concentrate on the market that is most important to the company, in order to use the limited capital resources in a targeted way.

Hyzon, however, is still looking for a fulfillment partner in Europe who can independently bring to use the company’s FC stacks, comparable to the partnership with Fontaine Modification in the USA or one like Quantron with Ballard Power. Hyzon is focusing on the USA and Australia/New Zealand, where a hydrogen-powered waste collection truck was recently delivered to Remondis. The FC modules are produced in the USA, which makes sense given the subsidies.

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Hyzon will also benefit from the development of the H2 hubs, because the MACH2 project in the Midwest lies in the vicinity of its own production facility and belong to the projects of the DOE subsidized as part of the seven billion-dollar hydrogen hub program (awards of one billion dollars for each hub).

At the same time, Hyzon announced that they have agreed with the SEC to a payment of 25 million USD, payable in three installments over the next few years. This concludes this unspeakable issue, which is based on the misconduct of the former board of directors (accounting scandal). The cash burn per month can be massively reduced, and for ramp-up of module production only about five million USD is required. At the end of the third quarter are still 137.8 million USD in the bank, at a capital requirement of 10 million USD per month.

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With the parent company and majority shareholder Horizon from Singapore, the IP license agreement was able to be extended until 2030 and could also be extended to other activities: So Hyzon is also planning to introduce new 300‑kW FC single stacks into the stationary energy supply of data centers and hospitals. Ballard Power and Bloom Energy are already active in this area.

Parker Meeks, CEO of Hyzon, responded to a question about why his company was focusing exclusively on fuel cells and not electric vehicles: „The experience with battery-electric trucks for many has been one in which the usable range is not what they imagined, especially when going uphill, which is the case even in the Los Angeles Basin. If you know the area, if you’re going somewhere where there’s a long distance, you’ll probably have to drive up a hill. Fuel cell trucks do not lose power, and this is the crucial factor that makes them particularly suitable for heavy transport as opposed to transporting drinks.”

Summary: In the USA Hyzon is working on establishing and expanding capacities in order to ramp up production of the 200‑kW FC modules. The partnership with Fontaine Modification suggests that a large sales market is emerging here, as Fontaine rebuilds trucks or retrofits vehicles and Hyzon as a technology partner in this comes perfectly into use with its FC modules. In this context, we can also well imagine that Fontaine through parent company Marmon Holdings has a direct stake in Hyzon. There will surely be capital measures (new issue of shares), and the entry of a strategic partner would be the ideal way to achieve this.

A highly speculative, very interesting investment. Hyzon is suitable as an admixture to Ballard Power and Nikola Motors, as these three companies can be jointly assigned to the area of fuel cells in commercial vehicles.

Disclaimer

Each investor must always be aware of their own risk when investing in shares and should consider a sensible risk diversification. The FC companies and shares mentioned here are small and mid cap, i.e. they are not standard stocks and their volatility is also much higher. This report is not meant to be viewed as purchase recommendations, and the author holds no liability for your actions. All information is based on publicly available sources and, as far as assessment is concerned, represents exclusively the personal opinion of the author, who focuses on medium- and long-term valuation and not on short-term profit. The author may be in possession of the shares presented here.

Against the German Angst

Against the German Angst

The current situation of the German government appears to be a state of desolation: The constitutional court did not play along as hoped – albeit by the narrowest of margins – and has awarded the Ampel Coalition a 60-billion-euro gap in the budget.

Out of this, a desolate situation for the energy industry could also rise, since many projects that were to be financed via the planned fund for climate action and clean energy Klima- und Transformationsfonds (KTF) have come into question, justifiably or not. The uncertainty is great.

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The situation beforehand was already tense. Decisions from Brussels, for example, have had a long wait time. This was the case with the EU energy directive RED II, RED III and also the IPCEI projects – even though RED III was published on October 31, 2023. If things go well, at the end of the year still, the 37th ordinance on the implementation of the German emissions reduction act (37th BImSchV) could be updated – after twelve years.

This waiting has not exactly encouraged many investors to make their money available for projects for the future. The FID (final investment decision) especially for numerous electrolysis projects is still pending, because the framework conditions are not seen as sufficiently secure.

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Not without reason, numerous companies took part in the tender for the Important Projects of Common European Interest. In doing so, they are relying on EU member state funds to reduce their own financial risk.

The price they have to pay for these “gifted” state funds is that they have to abide by the giver’s rules. It also means that they have to put up with it when a decision takes longer in Brussels.

The loud lamentation therefore has a bit of hypocrisy to it, since after all nobody forced them to apply for an IPCEI. They could all have started much earlier on such projects, even at their own risk. But now some of them are sitting there complaining that their originally planned IPCEI project is no longer viable in the form applied for, although it was they themselves who had decided to take this path.

Again and again in this context have there been warnings that companies based in Germany could move abroad to where the framework conditions are supposedly better. Perhaps there are individual companies that will actually take this step. Exactly what their motives are, we will probably never know, but it should be clear that such a decision does not depend solely on the processing time in Brussels but is multifactorial.

And yes, one or two projects will probably never be realized – for whatever reason. Westküste100 is such a project. As a real-world lab it has done valuable work, but “H2 Westküste GmbH will not make a positive investment decision for the planned electrolyzer” can be read on their homepage. And “The reason for it is especially the increased investment costs.”

That may hurt one or the other player, since such a scenario may also threaten other projects. But isn’t it better to stop a recognizably uneconomical project at the right time than to desperately hold on to it and to go through with it against your better judgment? Isn’t it better to acknowledge the altered framework conditions by the now two wars and current energy emergency, and to recalculate?

Because Westküste100 won’t continue does not mean that the energy transition has been canceled, that we are not switching to renewable energies and hydrogen after all. Just because a few companies will produce elsewhere in the future does not mean that value creation will no longer take place in Germany.

The political commitment is there: German economy minister Robert Habeck as well as numerous minister-presidents of the federal states recently emphasized the enormous importance of H2 projects in particular. In addition, a startup scene has now established itself in Germany, which is pushing its way onto the market with new, innovative ideas. Here, investors are called to recognize their potential and make advance investments now at their own risk – without subsidies.

I don’t want to refer to the American e-car manufacturer again, but there exist – even in Europe – players who with a little instinct or a lot of money can make new technologies marketable at the right time.

The energy transition is a gigantic challenge – for everyone. Who, if not Germany, would be better placed to exemplarily show the way and offer suitable products? Instead of seeing the enormous potential that lies in this global upheaval, however, many in this country remain stuck in “German Angst.” It’s bad enough that this term (according to Wikipedia, “typical German hesitancy”) is now commonplace around the world.

The motto should therefore be: “Recognize and leverage potentials to shape a sustainable future together.”

Immense potential on the Bosporus

Immense potential on the Bosporus

How is Turkey’s energy industry developing?

Sometimes a rooftop walk is all it takes to get an overview of the essential systems for the energy transition and climate protection: On the technology center of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, 26 men and women, mostly renewables professionals from the Turkish city of Izmir, stand between solar modules, red steel hydrogen bottles and a pilot plant for capturing carbon dioxide from the air. Everything they see provokes lively interest and copious photos, including the view across to the nearby research wind farm. Here, in the Bergedorf area of Hamburg, the delegation from the German-Turkish chamber of industry and commerce AHK Türkei is able to observe firsthand how the outdoor components work together with the equipment within the building – such as the electrolyzer and the methanation plant. In a way, it’s like the energy transition in miniature.

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Not that there won’t be such plants in Turkey, especially since the country published its own hydrogen strategy at the start of this year. Like Germany, Turkey intends to use hydrogen to defossilize its domestic industry. Yet the Izmir engineers are visibly impressed by the system integration and process optimization in Hamburg, resulting in detailed questioning of the scientists from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences or HAW.

While, on the one hand, the trip is a technical information-gathering exercise, the visit by delegates from Turkey’s third largest city to key renewables projects and organizations in the Hamburg metropolitan region also acts a way to initiate joint energy transition projects. The area around Izmir has ambitions to become a center point for renewable energy and green hydrogen. Similar to Hamburg, the city on the Aegean Sea and its surrounding region is characterized by its port as well as its industrial and commercial activities. Other cities and regions in Turkey which want to position themselves for hydrogen include Istanbul, Antalya and the southern Marmara area.

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Fig. 2: Energiecampus Hamburg: Hydrogen. Photovoltaic system. Wind turbines (Curslack research wind farm)

In January 2023, Turkey’s ministry for energy and natural resources presented strategies for expanding hydrogen technologies – with a focus on green hydrogen. The intention is to reach a capacity of 2 gigawatts by the year 2030; this will then rise to 5 gigawatts by 2035 and 70 gigawatts by 2053. As a starting point, those targets seem rather low. It is likely, however, that these will be further increased. After all, Turkey does not only want to produce hydrogen locally to decarbonize its own industry but, as the AHK Türkei explained when asked: “Excess green hydrogen is to be exported.”

German-Turkish collaboration

In keeping with this aim, German economy minister Robert Habeck and Turkish energy minister Fatih Dönmez signed a letter of intent in October 2022 in Berlin “relating to closer collaboration on green hydrogen matters,” as a spokesman for the German economy ministry explained. “The conclusion of the agreement coincided with the fourth German-Turkish energy forum, an important platform for dialog between representatives from politics, business and civil society of both countries within the climate and energy field.”

To support Turkey in climate change mitigation, Germany is making EUR 200 million available through loans from the German state-owned investment and development bank KfW. According to the German economy ministry, the loans “are to be made available to the market via Turkish partner banks and are to be used in particular for funding renewable energy and energy efficiency in Turkey. The International Climate Initiative will make a further EUR 20 million available for improved financing terms, particularly for innovative climate protection measures.”


Fig. 3: View of the electrolyzer in the CC4E

Largest solar plant in Europe

And because renewable electricity is needed for the production of green hydrogen, Turkey is planning to expand its wind power capacity to almost 30 gigawatts by 2035. An even sharper increase is proposed for solar energy, which is envisaged to grow from the 9.4 gigawatts calculated in 2022 to around 53 gigawatts in 2035. In early May, operation began at the biggest solar power plant in Europe, including Asia Minor, an event that went mostly undetected by the German public. The plant, located in the Konya province of central Turkey, has a capacity of 1.35 gigawatts and is also one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world. About 3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity is expected to be generated every year at the photovoltaic plant in Karapınar. That’s enough to meet the needs of 2 million people in Turkey, the company Kalyon PV has reported.

With the help of sun, wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass, the country could completely cover its own electricity demand in the future, according to an analysis by the Turkish hydrogen society NHA. Furthermore, it states that green hydrogen will first help decarbonize domestic industry, especially steel, cement and fertilizer production, so that the country is then ultimately in a position to export hydrogen, which is globally sought after as a base material and an energy storage medium.

German cooperation partners needed

“For Germany companies, there is potential in terms of know-how, project development and technological solutions,” explained the AHK Türkei. The actual size of the potential in the southeastern European nation, which, in any case, is more than twice the landmass of Germany, can already be seen in the current state of play for renewables: Despite its size and favorable wind conditions, the installed capacity of its wind plants, totaling 11.4 gigawatts in 2022, is still relatively modest. A chance, then, for the German wind industry to form business partnerships with Turkish companies? Yes, was the answer from the delegation in Hamburg, and by that the participants do not mean just large system manufacturers, but also small- and medium-size enterprises, suppliers and service providers.

“Following the announcement of expansion targets for offshore wind, the Turkish wind market is gaining new momentum and significance for the export of German technology and know-how,” confirms Jan Rispens, CEO of industry network Renewable Energy Hamburg, whose membership runs to around 240 organizations from the northern part of Germany. “For many years, Turkey has been a major wind market for German- and Hamburg-based companies.” For instance, Nordex, TÜV Nord and EnBW have operations in the country, be it through their own subsidiaries or by engaging in joint ventures with Turkish business partners.

But the changeover from traditional energy sources to renewable forms will take time. In the past, the country has spent vast sums of money on importing fossil fuels, primarily natural gas and oil. “Importing energy cost around USD 97 billion last year alone,” says Yıldız Onur, commercial attaché in the Turkish consulate general in Hamburg and who accompanied the Izmir delegation. As a result, costs compared with the previous year have risen by nearly 90 percent, she states, adding that it therefore makes financial sense to concentrate more on domestic energy production in order to lessen dependence on imports.


Fig. 4: Methanation plant in the CC4E

Closeness to Russia

Famously, one of the ways President Erdoğan’s government is seeking to produce more of its own energy is through the use of nuclear power. At the end of April, he inaugurated his country’s first atomic power plant, built by the Russian state enterprise Rosatom, which explains why Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin took part in the ceremony via video. As it happened, the event took place on the same day that polling stations opened in Germany as well as in other countries for Turkish expatriates to cast their vote in Turkey’s election. Erdoğan also took the opportunity of the nuclear power plant’s inauguration to announce the expansion of atomic power and the exploitation of new gas reserves.

Turkish opposition alliance CHP was, however, not opposed in principle to nuclear energy, and is also not against the exploration of new gas fields in the Black Sea. Nevertheless, the opposition did criticize the dependence on Russia and instead wanted to focus on “Turkish technology.” New coal-fired power plants, though, should not be built. According to its policy, the CHP is concentrating on pursuing a green energy transition in all sectors, including agriculture.

Although the May 2023 election mandated the old Turkish government – there is indeed no way of avoiding green hydrogen. At least that is the firm opinion of entrepreneur Ali Köse, not least because of the European Union’s Green Deal and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a measure that would require companies in future to make equalization payments for carbon dioxide emissions. Köse is a founder and board member of the Turkish hydrogen association H2DER and CEO of the company H2Energy Solutions. His company’s goal is to make Turkey “fit” for green hydrogen and to export it to Germany. The company, for instance, is currently working on a hydrogen mobility project in Istanbul.

Köse has observed that other companies in this field are likewise sounding out the Turkish market. They are linking up and building partnerships. What is missing, however, is the framework that will provide planning certainty for investors. And, in his view, even the expansion of rooftop solar energy systems is still hampered by bureaucracy. “In Turkey, fewer roofs are fitted with PV than in Germany,” says Köse, who regularly travels between the two countries. “Due to the solar radiation level here, every megawatt of installed PV capacity generates roughly double the amount of electricity as in Germany.”

Author: Monika Rößiger

Exploiting phase transition

Exploiting phase transition

Innovative cooling concept for fuel cells

Hydrogen fuel cell systems have significant advantages over established technical solutions for both motive and stationary applications. They are set apart particularly by their qualities of zero-emission operation, long life and high achievable efficiencies. However, their relatively high purchase price often deters potential users. To reduce costs, bipolar plates intended for mass-production are to be designed with as little material as possible. Thanks to an innovative cooling concept, applications can be made not only less expensive but also smaller and lighter.

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Reducing the installation space increases the power density of the system and raises the heat flow density. This creates huge challenges when it comes to efficiently controlling the temperature of fuel cell systems. In addition to established air and liquid cooling solutions, cooling that occurs through the change in the coolant’s state is an approach that shows much promise. By purposefully configuring the geometric surface properties of bipolar plates, greater amounts of heat can be dissipated while also enabling a targeted adjustment of the temperature distribution along the bipolar plate. The HZwo:FRAME joint project entitled “Innovative cooling systems for fuel cells” has successfully managed to develop a cooling concept based on the phase transition of a coolant and to demonstrate its function on a laboratory scale.

Greater heat transfer needed

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Effective and precise control of temperature is vital for the efficient operation of a fuel cell system. Commercially available fuel cell stacks currently offer two cooling methods: air cooling and liquid cooling [1].

Air cooling is characterized principally by its simplicity of design. The technical complexity is much lower compared with liquid-based cooling systems since no other elements are required aside from a fan. Its possible uses are limited chiefly by the relatively small quantity of heat that can be dissipated. Furthermore, air-cooled systems commonly lead to highly uneven temperature distribution within the fuel cells which can negatively affect their efficiency and long-term stability. Most stacks with a power output of under 5 kilowatts are actively air-cooled, for example in stationary applications.

Liquid cooling has established itself as the prevalent form of temperature control in fuel cell stacks with a total electrical output of more than 5 kilowatts, for instance in vehicles. In liquid-cooled fuel cell systems, the coolant is pumped around a circuit through special cooling channels which are integrated into the fuel cells. The heat that is absorbed here must then be transferred back to the environment in a downstream heat exchanger.

Current developments are increasingly focused on thin metal bipolar plates as this type of plate lends itself to future mass production at favorable cost. At the same time, the power density of fuel cells can be increased, thus opening up new application areas and creating possibilities for miniaturizing fuel cell systems. Given this shift in development, the aforementioned conventional cooling solutions, based on convection alone, will be insufficient in future to dissipate the necessary amount of heat via the surface areas that remain.

Two-phase cooling (also referred to as evaporative cooling) makes it possible to reach the high heat flow densities required, i.e., the flow of thermal energy relative to the unit area and cooling time for miniaturized fuel cells. This cooling process exploits the effect whereby a large amount of energy – the latent heat of evaporation – is needed when the coolant changes into a gaseous state. This energy is extracted from the fuel cell during the phase transition on the surface of the bipolar plates, thus helping significantly to cool the fuel cell. Since this powerful cooling concept relies on low volume flows of coolant, the output required from the necessary peripheral equipment, such as pumps, can be reduced considerably when compared with air or liquid cooling [2].

Laser cutting

The research was motivated particularly by the huge potential that evaporative cooling offers in terms of the efficient heat management of fuel cell systems. Here, the attention was focused on metal bipolar plates since they are a key functional element in the fuel cell. As part of the development process, design concepts for the new cooling method had to be devised and implemented, such as the simulation-based calculation of optimized coolant flow or the design of durable gaskets. In the end, it was decided to produce the metal bipolar plates from a 100-micron-thick initial sheet using forming techniques and to then modify the plates to meet the requirements of the new cooling concept.

One project objective was to achieve a homogeneous temperature distribution on the bipolar plate. To reach this goal, a suitable surface functionalization was chosen as the method for influencing the heat transfer coefficient. This technique was applied by introducing microstructures in the form of single-pulse laser cuts using laser beam machining. The effect of these kinds of microstructures is, firstly, to enlarge the real surface area of the bipolar plate and, secondly, to increase the number of nucleation sites for bubble formation during the phase transition.

In connection with this, the microstructure density (number of microstructures per unit area), because of its relevance as a design parameter, was investigated by varying the spatial gap between the individual pulse cuts. Abb. 1 shows the results of microstructuring the test pieces at different pulse gaps of between 5 microns and 35 microns.

Proven at lab level

A laboratory testing area was developed and set up to examine the heat transfer of the modified bipolar plates (see fig. 2). The test fixture was designed so that the technical conditions would correspond to those of a real-world application and could be altered within a range of realistic load variations. A transparent process chamber and a bipolar plate envelop the cooling channels, thus enabling visual identification of flow and boiling processes occurring in the coolant. In addition, three shielded thermocouples were positioned centrally in the direction of flow and spaced evenly across the bipolar plate. These were used to measure the temperature distribution in the coolant.


Fig. 2: Test fixture: process chamber with integrated bipolar plate and temperature sensors

The experiments used different types of plate, including a stamped reference bipolar plate and a laser-structured, coated bipolar plate. The microstructure density was varied depending on the direction and length of flow in order to achieve the most even temperature distribution possible along the direction of flow.


Fig. 3: Structured bipolar plate with microstructure density reducing in the flow direction (left); detailed view of wave structure (center); detailed view of microstructuring (right)

The test fixture was used to run experiments to demonstrate and investigate the influence of surface functionalization on phase transition behavior. Here, the boiling processes on the structured surface were less distinctive than on the unstructured reference plate (see fig. 4). In addition, the measurements using the temperature sensors confirmed that the maximum temperatures arising could be lowered through surface functionalization of the bipolar plate. What is more, the temperature distribution along the direction of coolant flow was much more even: The temperature ∆T along the structured and coated plate was lower for all parameter sets examined in comparison with the reference bipolar plate.


Fig. 4: Results of the visual examination: intensity of bubble movement (dark-blue areas) in the flow field of the reference plate (top) and the structured and coated plate (bottom) for the process parameters (incoming coolant temperature and heat flow density of the bipolar plate): 78 °C and 0.5 W/cm2 (left); 78 °C and 2 W/cm2 (right)

It was thus possible to prove that the thermodynamic properties of bipolar plates, particularly in the evaporation zones, can be influenced and modified through microstructuring. The project’s findings represent a further step toward achieving fuel cell stacks that are both cost-effective and space-efficient.

About the project

The project gathered essential and relevant knowledge for the design and technical realization of a fuel cell stack with metal bipolar plates based on the evaporation principle. The work was validated under realistic conditions. The following project partners worked in cooperation to achieve the project objectives: WätaS, Fischer Werkzeugbau, CeWOTec, the Department of Micromanufacturing Technology and the Department of Advanced Powertrains at TU Chemnitz.

Funding and project management: European Regional Development Fund (EFRE) / Sächsische Aufbaubank (SAB)

Reference(s)
[1]        A. Fly and R. H. Thring, A comparison of evaporative and liquid cooling methods for fuel cell vehicles, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 41, no. 32, pp. 14217–14229, 2016, ISBN: 0360-3199, ISSN: 03603199, DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.06.089
[2]        G. Zhang and S. G. Kandlikar, A critical review of cooling techniques in proton exchange membrane fuel cell stacks, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 2412–2429, Feb. 2012, ISSN: 03603199, DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.11.010

Authors:
Igor Danilov, M. Sc, igor.danilov@mb.tu-chemnitz.de
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Ingo Schaarschmidt, M. Sc, ingo.schaarschmidt@mb.tu-chemnitz.de
Dr.-Ing. Philipp Steinert, philipp.steinert@mb.tu-chemnitz.de

Better cleaning for maximum performance

Better cleaning for maximum performance

Effective and efficient cleaning of metal bipolar plates

Low weight and volume, good cold-start capability and relatively inexpensive series production are all benefits associated with metal bipolar plates. These key elements in fuel cell stacks are responsible for handling the essential tasks of supplying media, creating an electrical connection and cooling. Their ability to perform these well depends on factors such as the cleanliness of both the material and the joined plate. Ecoclean has trialed a variety of processes to find the most effective and economical method of cleaning.

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Fuel cells are among the key technologies for enabling the electrification of vehicle propulsion systems and also have a major part to play in the energy transition as a stationary energy source. At the heart of a fuel cell system are the bipolar plates or BPPs that are connected to the stacks. BPPs consist of an anode and a cathode with a proton-conducting film sandwiched between them.

BPPs fulfill a variety of tasks: They physically and electrically connect the anode of a cell to the cathode of the neighboring cell. They are also responsible for conveying the reactant gases – hydrogen on the anode side and air on the cathode side. For this purpose, the plates are designed with flow fields on both sides whose form is crucial for the performance of the overall system. In addition, the BPPs control the release of electrical energy and the removal of water vapor. Another function they perform is the management of heat.

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Plates can be manufactured from different materials: high-concentration graphite, graphite-polymer composites and metals. Metal bipolar plates offer advantages particularly when it comes to their use in automobiles. This is because they are low in weight and volume and have a good cold-start capability. What’s more, metal BPPs offer the potential for comparatively cost-effective series production which can be further improved through scaling.

Clean for quality and efficiency

The anode and cathode of metal BPPs are predominantly made from stainless steel alloy foils with a thickness of 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm. The material is usually rolled off a coil whose surfaces are contaminated during manufacturing by different rolling and drawing greases, oils, emulsions and other unknown impurities. In the next step, the anode and cathode foils are precisely reshaped in a mechanical or hydroforming process and the outer contours are cut, for instance, by punching or laser cutting.

Residual machining fluids (oils and/or emulsions) are also left on the plates following these processes. When the anode plate and cathode plate are subsequently joined, commonly in a laser welding process, this results in smoke residue and oxide being left behind. Finally, the bipolar plates are coated. A cleaning stage must be performed prior to the plates being coated, if not earlier, to ensure a homogeneous coating with good adhesion.

For tightly packed fuel cells, which are required to achieve a high output in minimal space, it is recommended that cleaning takes place before the joining stage. This prevents impurities becoming trapped between the anode and cathode which can become loose when the temperature rises during operation and block the microstructures of the flow fields. This would lead to a decrease in performance. At the same time, the intermediate cleaning stage will reduce the surface contamination from smoke residue and oxides during the laser welding process.

Choosing the right process

A key challenge in cleaning metal BPPs is the presence of usually invisible chemical film residue on the surfaces. This may be oils, greases, emulsions or other chemicals that are often of unknown composition. These unidentified contaminants require a cleaning solution that ensures they are removed reliably and appropriately. This is why German company Ecoclean has carried out experiments using laser and carbon dioxide snow-jet cleaning, wet-chemical solvent cleaning as well as steam-jet cleaning.


Fig. 2: Steam cleaning works due to a combination of steam, a precise quantity of fluid for the job, high-speed air flow and an adapted nozzle system

Both the laser and carbon dioxide snow-jet methods effectively removed smoke residue, oxide, chemical film contamination and particles from the welded seams of the joined bipolar plates with pin-point precision and within a matter of seconds. Good results were also recorded for both processes when cleaning whole BPP surfaces. Because the laser has to travel over the surface line by line, this option is time consuming. In the case of carbon dioxide snow-jet cleaning, the system can be fitted with an appropriate number of nozzles, thereby allowing for rapid treatment of the entire surface.

Wet-chemical cleaning with solvent using a flood method was able to successfully remove oils, greases and particles. However, it is not suitable for cleaning off emulsions, smoke residue and oxides. Wet-chemical immersion cleaning with water-based media is only possible to a limited degree due to the drying required and the considerable effort involved.

Good results were also achieved when using steam jets to clean chemical film and particulate contamination as well as smoke residue and oxides. For this process, the cleaning effect comes from a combination of steam, a precise quantity of fluid for the job, high-speed air flow and an adapted nozzle design. The cleaning procedure also takes just a few seconds.


Fig. 3: Analysis from infrared spectroscopy showed that steam cleaning completely removed the residue of the reference contamination

Controlled cleaning validation

Cleaning results are verified using the surface tension through the measuring techniques of contact angle measurement and test inks, fluorescence measurement and infrared spectroscopy. The fluorescence measuring technique proved to be unsuitable due to the absence of fluorescent contaminants. In terms of the input measurements for surface tension, the bipolar plates produced very different contamination values which were significantly reduced after cleaning.

A general statement about whether the component has a sufficient level of cleanliness for the next processing step cannot be made. For this to be possible, it would be necessary to determine appropriate process-specific requirements. For infrared spectroscopy, all residue on the test pieces (coil sections and BPPs) was first removed to establish a reference cleanliness. After the surfaces of the test pieces were analyzed using infrared spectroscopy, the test pieces were contaminated with reference contamination before being cleaned and then reanalyzed. This analysis then showed that steam cleaning managed to reliably remove chemical film contamination.

The cleaning trials and tests outlined were carried out in Ecoclean’s test center in Monschau by experts in component cleaning and surface treatment using the methods described as well as other techniques.

Automated cleaning

For an efficient workflow, it is possible for cleaning to be integrated prior to joining and/or coating in production lines. Automation can be adapted and optimized to suit the specific requirements and conditions of each production line.

Ecoclean is part of the SBS Ecoclean Group which develops, produces and distributes cutting-edge equipment, systems and services for industrial component cleaning and surface treatment. Its solutions help companies around the world from the automotive and supply industries as well as the highly diversified industrial market to implement efficient and sustainable production processes. The group has an international presence with 12 sites in nine countries and employs more than 900 staff.

Clean hydrogen from waste and plastic

Clean hydrogen from waste and plastic

Swedish port on the island Tjörn wants to be completely green

Plastic waste is a huge problem to the environment. One that is growing and growing with each passing day. On another hand, the global energy transition requires clean hydrogen in large quantities. So why not use the waste to generate the gas in a CO2-neutral way? Innovative technologies and projects show how this could be done. They are doing pioneering work and solving several problems all at once.

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The municipality Tjörn, north of Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden, has decided: It wants local energy production free of fossil fuels. The technology of Boson Energy from Luxembourg is to help in this. It takes non-recyclable waste and transforms it into clean electricity and green methanol. Green methanol could help the chemical and plastic industry replace fossil fuels.

The bonus: Both the electricity and the fuel for the port are to be negative-carbon through this, because Boson Energy’s process enables both a capture as well as the storage of CO2. With this process, the only solid that remains is a kind of slag. This can, however, be used as an environmentally friendly filling material or further processed into climate-friendly insulation material.

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The first phase of the project required an investment of 100 million euros – the total cost will amount to around 450 million euros. “The project in Wallhamn will enable us to demonstrate all aspects of our circular economy vision,” said Jan Grimbrandt, founder and CEO of Boson Energy. The Swede is a green pioneer. He was already co-founder of the company Mobotec Europe, which has upgraded coal-fired power plants for operation with 100 percent biomass. In 2008, Grimbrandt founded the company Boson Energy.

Use in the port and in greenhouses

The project on the island Tjörn is now to demonstrate how a changeover can be made for areas and applications in which decarbonization is likewise difficult: fuels for ships, the chemical industry, fertilizers and in greenhouses for local food production. “This project will be a model for the world,” Grimbrandt is certain. And not just for ports, but also for cities and islands confronted with energy access issues and want to get away from fossil fuels.


Fig. 2: Signing the memorandum of understanding – Torbjörn Wedebrand (CEO of Wallhamn AB) on the left and Jan Grimbrandt (CEO of Boson Energy SA)

Boson Energy has already signed an agreement with the startup Ecopromt. From the cooperation, a greenhouse for vegetable growing is to appear near the port. The concept developed by Ecopromt shall ensure a circular and space-efficient vegetable production in this – that doesn’t impact the environment. Putting the growing facility in the vicinity of the Boson Energy plant enables electricity, carbon dioxide and cooling to be directly supplied to the facility, which enables energy- and climate-efficient cultivation.

The Boson Energy plant is to generate 70,000 tonnes of green methanol produced from self-generated carbon dioxide and from hydrogen as well as supply an about 60,000-m2 autonomous greenhouse facility with electricity, green CO2, heat and cooling. Additionally, thermal energy will be supplied to port buildings. The water that is generated in the fuel cells is also recovered and used – in a closed cycle.

The municipality has, among other things, checked the suitable industrial sites in the areas identified in the ongoing detailed planning and design process. After all, it is benefitting from the fossil-free energy supply and sustainable jobs that will result.

One of the goals of the project is to make the transshipment port Wallhamn into the first negative-carbon ports in the world. The generation of local electricity means that all vehicles in the port will have clean charging and operation in the future. Shore power connections for ships that come in are also to be offered. Grimbrandt figures a total of 30 to 40 GWh of green electricity from hydrogen. This covers DC-DC charging of heavy-duty vessels, power for port operations and shore power connections as well as, with an energy management concept, smooth operation during load peaks.

Trash into green hydrogen

But not only Grimbrandt and Boson Energy are working to produce clean hydrogen from waste. With the technical solution of the company H2-Enterprises from New York, wastes such as plastic, sewage sludge and landfill contents are to be converted into clean hydrogen through incineration. H2-Enterprises uses an H2 thermolysis method that, at high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, converts plastics and carbonaceous waste into hydrogen and CO2.

It is a two-step process: First, steam reforming takes place, followed by the water-gas shift reaction and the separating out of H2 and CO2. At the end, the hydrogen can be further purified as needed. The captured CO2 can be used for commercial purposes or stored. Likewise, the clean H2 gas obtained from the process can be transported and stored as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC). The green gas can be sold in this form to customers around the world – or further processed into synthetic fuels such as e-diesel or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

100 kg H2 from one tonne of waste

This solution almost sounds too good to be true. Because it contributes to global environmental protection from two points at once: by elimination of waste and by the production of green H2. Both are urgently needed. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global demand for hydrogen in year 2030 could exceed 200 million tonnes in the desire to meet promised climate targets. In addition to reaching the sheer volume, however, the emissions-free hydrogen must also be offered at a competitive price.

On the other hand, the World Bank calculates that yearly around 2 billion tonnes of household waste accumulates that is not or only partially disposed of in an environment-friendly manner. This corresponds to about one third of the total discarded. Every minute, an amount of waste equal to the capacity of a garbage truck is dumped into the ocean. At this rate, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Already, from one tonne of waste, 100 kg of H2 can be recovered.