For the evaluation of different materials e.g. membranes and electrodes we decided to design our own laboratory cell.
The first design was supposed to be easy to manufacture and should be versatile enough to test all required materials and electrolytes.
Therefore, we chose a design that would allow us to use different thicknesses of membranes and different electrode geometries.
The cell was also designed to be able to work as a 5-cell short stack.
Several versions of the cell frame have been produced and tested.
Version 1.0 of the cell had a few weaknesses due to manufacturing tolerances.
Therefore, we decided to redesign the cell, especially the electrolyte routing and the sealing concept.
This made it easier to assemble the cell and also allowed us to use less sealing material.
Version 2.0 of the cell is now being employed for testing the performance of new material and also for quality control of established material that is available from different suppliers.
The cell was optimized for low pressure drop and thin felt.
In the next design we will develop a cell with even thinner electrodes.
This is one of our milestones for 2024 in cooperation with academic partners.
This cell will be further scaled up to a stack with 8-12 kW nominal power.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This work was supported by the project: IPCEI_IE_FLOW_BESS_012021