Membranes and catalyst performance targets for automotive fuel cells

Membrane and catalyst performance targets for automotive fuel cells are presented. The Fuel Cell Commercialization Conference of Japan (FCCJ) has worked with three automobile manufacturers in Japan to define the target performance, durability, and cost of fuel cells for transportation application, and in January 2007 produced a booklet describing them. This article provides an overview of these target values and highlights the durability parameters specifically required in the automotive application in relation to the current knowledge of degradation mechanisms of fuel cells. On the basis of this information, FCCJ has proposed a methodology for testing membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) as an approach to the evaluation of materials for the two most important components: electrolyte membranes and electrode catalysts. This is intended to assist the development of materials that achieve the target durability, which is described below. Keywords: MEA; membrane; catalyst; durability; degradation mechanism; performance target; test protocol; automotive