SBIR-STTR Award

As a technology that would dramatically reduce both our dependence on foreign oil and lower carbon dioxide emissions, stationary and transportation fuel cells are very attractive. Although the stationary fuel cell market is well establishes and prototype automotive and bus vehicles have successfully demonstrated practical road tested viability, the overall cost of the technology is still too high. One cost component of the total system is the ability to manage the humidity inside the cell to an optimum level. The benefits are significant, resulting in improved cell performance and durability, lower cost, smaller footprint, lower weight of the balance of the fuel cell plant. Tetramers proposed new membranes are projected to be significantly cheaper than the current perfluorinated alternatives with increased performance and long term durability. Tetramer, working with General Motors, has developed a new partially fluorinated hydrocarbon proton exchange membrane (PEM) for automotive fuel cells which has performance equal to the currently used perflourinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) membranes at half the cost. Although these membranes were specifically designed to enhance proton transport for optimum fuel cell performance, we have surprisingly discovered that they also have excellent water vapor transport properties better than any of the current membrane products with respect to water permeability, but lacking in durability. The objective of this proposal will be synthesis of new membrane molecular architectures designed to enhance water vapor transport WVT (vs. hydrogen ion transport) by 70% over the current Nafion technology, while maintaining or exceeding the 20,000 cycle GM durability test. In addition, these membranes will have 50% projected lower cost than competing fuel cell water vapor membranes.Commercial Applications and Other

Benefits:
Phase II will involve scale up and commercialization of the automotive application with GM and expansion to non-automotive fuel cell systems with other partners. In addition, other humidification/ dehumidification applications will be explored.

This project targets improved efficiency and lower cost of proton exchange membrane fuel cells through the development of improved water vapor management. Fuel cells are highly efficient, non-polluting source of energy that can significantly decrease the US dependence on foreign oil while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Further improvements in performance and lower cost are needed to greatly expand the already growing commercialization of this emerging new approach to energy. In the laboratory, Tetramer has invented new membranes that have demonstrated 30% higher performance at & gt;50% lower cost than current water vapor membranes. We have also discovered synthesis routes to even greater performance a high degree of feasibility success was accomplished for this new technology during Phase I, which demonstrated higher performance, higher mechanical stability, and success with new molecular architecture syntheses. As is normal with applied research and development, further improvement routes to higher performance were discovered which will be implemented in Phase II Phase II will involve long term testing confirmation of the early stage performance achieved in Phase I, implementation of the synthesis improvements discovered in Phase I, down selection of the best membrane materials, and development of a cost based technology package for scale up. Greater participation of committed key commercialization partners will involve scale-up of the membrane synthesis, prototype testing, and focus on moving the commercialization process to privately funded Phase III. Commercial Applications and Other

Benefits:
Fuel cell applications provide clean energy sources for automobiles, buses, stationary power, forklifts, remote power generation, and military bases. Additional commercial applications have been identified which will increase the market size and lower the overall cost through economies of scale.