Work Package Objective

The aim of WP8 is to examine tested stacks in post analysis and to evaluate overall cost reductions for implementation of improved cells developed in the project.

Post mortem analysis (PMA) is for instance a complete disassembly of a stack for a thorough examination of cells and other components (e.g. by optical microscopy or SEM), or it could be embedment as part of the stack in epoxy for cross section analysis by SEM. A PMA analysis is thus typically a very important tool in root cause analysis for potential stack and component failures like cell cracks or corrosion on interconnects.

Reduction of cost is required for fuel cells to become commercially available. Cost reduction potential will be analyzed directly by improvements to materials and/or processes where a primarily yield improvement due to better robustness/lifetime performance is expected.

Specific Challenge

In PROSOFC, PMA is an essential requirement for understanding failure modes of both state of the art cells and stacks and the improvements implemented, as suggested by the project. With the rather high risk in test procedures for testing long term robustness of stacks, a challenge might be to find the primary cause to stack failures before the evidence is corrupted.

Work Package Leader:

Organisation: HTceramix S.A.