"RESTART"fuel cells

The project centres on the development of a new type of fuel cell and its development to prototype maturity. In future, in addition to biogas (methane), it will also be possible to use various other focussed fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ethanol or ammonia.

The aim of the project is to develop extremely robust titanate materials as catalytically active anode current collectors and to enable their integration into the proven Hexis fuel cell. The new anode and its microstructure will be compatible with low-cost ferritic interconnectors and is much more tolerant to overloading and fuel contamination.

The latest findings and developments in materials science and catalysis will be combined with modern methods of material modelling and electrochemical and imaging microstructure analysis to increase the lifetime and performance of fuel cells. This approach makes it possible to define reliable design recommendations with regard to suitable structure-performance correlations and to put them into practice for satisfied end customers. We would like to thank the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) for funding this project.