Analysis Of The Required Infrastructure For Electrified Heavy-Duty Commercial Vehicles

The decarbonization of the mobility sector is considered a crucial milestone to reach climate goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement and implemented into national law by the German Federal Government. When it comes down to decarbonization strategies for the road traffic, topic of political and scientific discussions so far was mainly the electrification of passenger vehicles. But with regards to the fact, that heavy duty vehicles account for just 1 % of the entire vehicle fleet but cause 25 % of the CO2 emissions of the road traffic, it has to be reevaluated whether this focus is purposeful. Due to their large payload and their high annual mileage, heavy-duty vehicles offer a large lever to reduce CO2 emissions in road traffic with a relatively small number of vehicles. Due to different applications, the requirements towards the drivetrain vary to a large degree in this vehicle segment, which makes it difficult to apply one decarbonization technology to the entire market. Other than for passenger vehicles, battery electric drivetrains are expected to account for a share of decarbonized heavy-duty vehicles, but not entirely. Fuel cell or pantograph electric drivetrains as well as synthetic fuels based internal combustion engines or electrified trailer drivetrains can be a part of achieving the 2030 emission targets defined by the Federal Government. In order to point out a possible path to decarbonizing the heavy-duty commercial vehicle segment, different powertrain configurations for in particular semitrailer trucks are analyzed and optimized in terms of their investment and operating costs. Belonging requirements for the necessary infrastructure are derived based on common driving profiles

A Study-Based Assessment Of Challenges Towards Production-Oriented Product Design Within Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel cells are a viable option for clean transportation, particularly for heavy-duty vehicles. As a result of this trend, significant scaling of production volumes is emerging in recent industrial announcements, which also correlates with an increasing degree of automation. However, the latter requires an adaptation of the product design of the fuel cell, which is currently designed for manual production processes and therefore for small production volumes. Furthermore, product design is strongly determined by performance and cost requirements, so production-related requirements tend to receive less attention. The described situation leads to a conflict: on the one hand, the requirements of mass production are unclear, but on the other hand, these requirements are necessary to design the product specifically for mass production. This paper aims to examine the described conflict focusing on the entire product life cycle of the fuel cell from product development to the production ramp-up. Therefore, an expert survey with 65 participants from the industry was performed and the key results are presented. Based on these results, central requirements are derived for a methodological framework to address the above-mentioned challenges. The overall aim of the proposed framework is to integrate manufacturing requirements into product development at an early stage to realize an increasing overlap between product and process development. Finally, a literature review focussing on product and process development is conducted and the identified methodologies are evaluated against the defined requirements. Based upon the identified gaps in scientific theory, a four-stage methodological framework is proposed to address the described conflict at the requirements level

Economic And Ecological Analysis Of Hydrogen Storage Systems

Within the decarbonization of the mobility sector, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) are serving a viable option in meeting the set targets. Especially for light- and heavy-duty applications with long and alternating ranges, FCEV offer technical advantages against other local-emission-free vehicles. For achieving the anticipated market share of up to 32% by 2030, the costs of heavy-duty FCEV have to be reduced significantly. The main cost driver is the hydrogen storage system, which nowadays is mostly based upon Type IV pressure tanks. Additionally, depending on the system boundaries and the chosen storage type, the hydrogen storage system can be responsible for the biggest amount of production-related emissions of all drivetrain components. As a result, the overall cost and sustainability of the final FCEV application is driven by the hydrogen storage system and the respective product and production developments. In order to understand the cost and emission distribution within the respective production processes, a holistic economic and ecological analysis of automotive hydrogen storage systems is conducted within this paper based on an internal tool. The focus lies on hydrogen storage systems that are technologically mature enough to be installed in light- and heavy-duty applications. From both the economic as well as the ecological analysis it gets clear that the liquid hydrogen storage is the most advantageous with the current state of the art. The reduction of the carbon footprint of carbon fibre would improve the other technologies significantly

Assessment of a Novel Process to Enable Roll-to-roll Production of Catalyst Coated Membranes

Hydrogen is becoming an increasingly important energy carrier within the next few years for many different applications within different industries, such as chemical industry, steel production or mobility. Furthermore, it can be used to store excess energy from renewable energy plants. Within this context, proton exchange membrane-electrolyzer and -fuel cells represent integral parts of this value chain, as they are responsible for hydrogen production and its reconversion to electricity. Both technologies have in common that they need a catalyst coated membrane (CCM) to enable the electrochemical conversion. Since nowadays electrolyzer and fuel cell production is still characterized by small-scale production processes, suitable large-scale production lines will be necessary for the market ramp-up. To address these challenges, a novel coating process for the CCMs is proposed by using a re-coatable transfer belt at which the catalyst ink is coated and dried first. Afterwards, the catalyst ink is transferred onto the membrane by applying a hot-pressing process. Within the presented research, the hot press process is focussed and assessed for the proposed concept. Therefore, the upstream production processes, such as catalyst ink production, coating and drying are described. A design of experiments is then conducted to investigate the applied process parameters within the hot-pressing process and optimized parameters are analysed. Afterwards, re-coating the transfer belt is tested, and the long-term usability of the employed belt is assessed by focussing structural changes

Development Of Scalable Production Concepts For The Cost-Efficient Assembly Of PEM Fuel Cell Systems For Mobile Applications

Polymer-Electrolyte-Membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems will contribute to enable climate-neutral mobility through the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. PEM fuel cells address applications which are hardly decarbonized by HV batteries. But apart from its advantages, such as short refueling times and higher energy densities related to batteries or locally emission-free operation compared to conventional drivetrains, the fuel cell technology still faces challenges that inhibit its wide market penetration. Especially the low production volumes result in costly manufacturing processes. The assembly of the fuel cell stack and balance-of-plant components to a system is predominantly of manufactory character. There is a consensus in the literature that scaling up the production is associated with cost reduction effects. But in order to increase the demand that justifies a growth in unit numbers, the costs per system have to be reduced. With regard to this so-called "hen-and-egg problem", a reduction of production costs for small output numbers is necessary, while already considering the future necessity to scale the production. This paper discusses the development of scalable production concepts for PEM fuel cell system assemblies. In addition to a modular production concept, the associated production scenarios are also considered. For a generic fuel cell system, a possible assembly sequence and assembly tasks are derived from the bill of materials. The assembly durations for the individual steps are then determined according to the Methods-Time-Measurement (MTM) methodology. This methodological approach is intended to provide an estimate for each process step in the assembly and can be transferred to other fuel cell systems. The paper shows how a bill of materials can be used to estimate the cycle time for a system, but also the cycle time for defined stations. In addition, by considering different scaling mechanisms, further improvements in the assembly process are shown, based on the results from the MTM analysis

Synergy Analysis Methodology For Decreasing Fuel Cell Production Costs

For meeting CO2 emission targets in the mobility sector, decarbonization efforts of referring applications are necessary. Fuel cell electric vehicles powered by hydrogen demonstrate a viable option to achieve those targets, especially taking the targets of heavy-duty applications into consideration. Higher ranges, short fueling durations and locally emission-free transport represent advantages offered by fuel cells in comparison to internal combustion engines or battery-electric powertrains. However, production costs of fuel cells are still a drawback. Latest analyses show that the utilization of scale effects even in early technology adaption phases can heavily decrease production costs. As the cell structure of fuel cells and electrolyzers show many similarities, the assumption of production synergies is made. Taking advantage of referring synergies, increased production volumes and thus decreased production cost are assumed for fuel cells. This paper introduces a methodology to identify synergies between fuel cell and electrolyzer production. The methodology is used to evaluate a company's production process portfolio on the example of the three alternative coating processes, based on an initial evaluation of the processes and the use of the Analytic Network Process. The application of the methodology results in synergy coefficients for production processes, using the examples of slot die, gravure and spray coating. The coefficients are transferred into an overall benefit of a production process portfolio. Finally, the effect of the considered synergies between fuel cell and electrolyzer production on the overall benefit of a company's production process portfolio is visualized. This paper is concluded with a critical review of the methodology and a summary of further research

Kompressionsverhalten von metallischen- und graphitischen Brennstoffzellen-Stapeln im direkten Vergleich

Brennstoffzellen-Stapel werden zu Beginn ihres Bauteil-Lebens einmal abschließend fix verspannt. Für das Kompressionsverhalten der Einheitszelle ist das Material der Bipolarplatte eine maßgebliche Einflussgröße. Auf Ebene der Bipolarplatte werden allgemein zwei Basismaterialien verwendet; beschichtete Metallplatten und Carbonplatten. Metallische Bipolarplatten bestehen aus dünnen Blechen. Bipolarplatten aus Carbon sind Vollkörper-Elemente aus carbongraphitischem Kompositmaterial, in deren Vollkörper die geometrische Struktur des Plattendesigns eingebettet ist. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Vergleich zwischen der Verpressung von Metallplatten-Stapeln gegenüber Carbonplatten-Stapeln auf Basis von produktionsnahen, statistischen Daten herangezogen. Hierbei ist das jeweils unterschiedliche Kompressionverhalten der Brennstoffzellen-Stapel mit ihren entsprechenden Federelementen entscheidend. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass ein fundamentaler Unterschied im Kompressionsverhalten zwischen beschichteten Metallplatten und komposit-basierten Carbonplatten besteht. Dies ist insbesondere im Hinblick auf großserien-taugliche Produktionsverfahren entscheidend, bei dem eng getaktete Stapel- und Verspannprozesse eine Schlüsselstelle im Aufbau von Brennstoffzellen-Stapeln als Massenprodukt darstellen.Fuel cell stacks are finally clamped in place at the beginning of their component life. The material of the bipolar plate is a decisive influencing factor for the compression behavior of the unit cell. Two basic materials are generally used at the level of the bipolar plate; coated metal plates and carbon plates. Metallic bipolar plates consist of thin sheets. Bipolar plates made of carbon are full-body elements made of carbon-graphitic composite material, in whose full body the geometric structure of the plate design is embedded. This article uses a comparison between the compression of metal plate stacks versus carbon plate stacks on the basis of production-related statistical data. The different compression behavior of the fuel cell stacks with their corresponding spring elements is decisive here. The comparison shows that there is a fundamental difference in the compression behavior between coated metal plates and composite-based carbon plates. This is particularly important with regard to production processes suitable for large-scale series, in which closely-timed stacking and clamping processes represent a key point in the construction of fuel cell stacks as a mass product

Kompressionsverhalten von metallischen- und graphitischen Brennstoffzellen-Stapeln im direkten Vergleich

Brennstoffzellen-Stapel werden zu Beginn ihres Bauteil-Lebens einmal abschließend fix verspannt. Für das Kompressionsverhalten der Einheitszelle ist das Material der Bipolarplatte eine maßgebliche Einflussgröße. Auf Ebene der Bipolarplatte werden allgemein zwei Basismaterialien verwendet; beschichtete Metallplatten und Carbonplatten. Metallische Bipolarplatten bestehen aus dünnen Blechen. Bipolarplatten aus Carbon sind Vollkörper-Elemente aus carbongraphitischem Kompositmaterial, in deren Vollkörper die geometrische Struktur des Plattendesigns eingebettet ist. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Vergleich zwischen der Verpressung von Metallplatten-Stapeln gegenüber Carbonplatten-Stapeln auf Basis von produktionsnahen, statistischen Daten herangezogen. Hierbei ist das jeweils unterschiedliche Kompressionverhalten der Brennstoffzellen-Stapel mit ihren entsprechenden Federelementen entscheidend. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass ein fundamentaler Unterschied im Kompressionsverhalten zwischen beschichteten Metallplatten und komposit-basierten Carbonplatten besteht. Dies ist insbesondere im Hinblick auf großserien-taugliche Produktionsverfahren entscheidend, bei dem eng getaktete Stapel- und Verspannprozesse eine Schlüsselstelle im Aufbau von Brennstoffzellen-Stapeln als Massenprodukt darstellen.Fuel cell stacks are finally clamped in place at the beginning of their component life. The material of the bipolar plate is a decisive influencing factor for the compression behavior of the unit cell. Two basic materials are generally used at the level of the bipolar plate; coated metal plates and carbon plates. Metallic bipolar plates consist of thin sheets. Bipolar plates made of carbon are full-body elements made of carbon-graphitic composite material, in whose full body the geometric structure of the plate design is embedded. This article uses a comparison between the compression of metal plate stacks versus carbon plate stacks on the basis of production-related statistical data. The different compression behavior of the fuel cell stacks with their corresponding spring elements is decisive here. The comparison shows that there is a fundamental difference in the compression behavior between coated metal plates and composite-based carbon plates. This is particularly important with regard to production processes suitable for large-scale series, in which closely-timed stacking and clamping processes represent a key point in the construction of fuel cell stacks as a mass product

Kompressionsverhalten von metallischen- und graphitischen Brennstoffzellen-Stapeln im direkten Vergleich

Brennstoffzellen-Stapel werden zu Beginn ihres Bauteil-Lebens einmal abschließend fix verspannt. Für das Kompressionsverhalten der Einheitszelle ist das Material der Bipolarplatte eine maßgebliche Einflussgröße. Auf Ebene der Bipolarplatte werden allgemein zwei Basismaterialien verwendet; beschichtete Metallplatten und Carbonplatten. Metallische Bipolarplatten bestehen aus dünnen Blechen. Bipolarplatten aus Carbon sind Vollkörper-Elemente aus carbongraphitischem Kompositmaterial, in deren Vollkörper die geometrische Struktur des Plattendesigns eingebettet ist. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Vergleich zwischen der Verpressung von Metallplatten-Stapeln gegenüber Carbonplatten-Stapeln auf Basis von produktionsnahen, statistischen Daten herangezogen. Hierbei ist das jeweils unterschiedliche Kompressionverhalten der Brennstoffzellen-Stapel mit ihren entsprechenden Federelementen entscheidend. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass ein fundamentaler Unterschied im Kompressionsverhalten zwischen beschichteten Metallplatten und komposit-basierten Carbonplatten besteht. Dies ist insbesondere im Hinblick auf großserien-taugliche Produktionsverfahren entscheidend, bei dem eng getaktete Stapel- und Verspannprozesse eine Schlüsselstelle im Aufbau von Brennstoffzellen-Stapeln als Massenprodukt darstellen.Fuel cell stacks are finally clamped in place at the beginning of their component life. The material of the bipolar plate is a decisive influencing factor for the compression behavior of the unit cell. Two basic materials are generally used at the level of the bipolar plate; coated metal plates and carbon plates. Metallic bipolar plates consist of thin sheets. Bipolar plates made of carbon are full-body elements made of carbon-graphitic composite material, in whose full body the geometric structure of the plate design is embedded. This article uses a comparison between the compression of metal plate stacks versus carbon plate stacks on the basis of production-related statistical data. The different compression behavior of the fuel cell stacks with their corresponding spring elements is decisive here. The comparison shows that there is a fundamental difference in the compression behavior between coated metal plates and composite-based carbon plates. This is particularly important with regard to production processes suitable for large-scale series, in which closely-timed stacking and clamping processes represent a key point in the construction of fuel cell stacks as a mass product