The main target of our work is to industrialise the stack production, to deliver affordable fuel cell systems in larger quantities to saturate the emerging market/demand. Heart of our call is to build a worldwide new and unique machine which allows serially* produce the centrepiece of fuel cell system: the stack.This will revolutionize the way how stacks are produced in future. The members of the consortium are: a developer and producer of fuel cell systems (Proton Motor Fuel Cell GmbH), a supplier of MEAs and BiPolar Plates (BPP) (IRD), a supplier of industrial machinery for assembly, handling and testing equipment (AUMANN), two renowned research institutions (Technische Universitat Chemnitz / ALF, Fraunhofer IWU) and a EU project management expert (Uniresearch B.V.) and last but not least, UPS an international transport OEM with its own vehicle production of Light Commercial Vehicles. The result of our project work can be used for several purposes: Branding, Prototyping and Business development. The stacks can be used outside of automotive industry, because they can be adapted to other applications (such as uninterruptible power sources) by the design of a fuel cell system.

The REDHy project tackles the limitations of contemporary electrolyser technologies by fundamentally reimagining water electrolysis, allowing it to surpass the drawbacks of state-of-the-art (SoA) electrolysers and become a pivotal technology in the hydrogen economy. The REDHy approach is highly adaptable, enduring, environmentally friendly, intrinsically secure, and cost-efficient, enabling the production of economically viable green hydrogen at considerably increased current densities compared to SoA electrolysers. The REDHy method is based on the findings of numerous EU-funded initiatives and patented by the DLR (TRL2). It is uniting academic and industrial entities across a broad spectrum of expertise. Unlike SoA electrolysers, REDHy is entirely free of critical raw materials and doesn't require fluorinated membranes or ionomers, while maintaining the potential to fulfil a substantial portion of the 2024 KPIs. In accordance with Europe's circular-economy action plan, a 5-cell stack with an active surface area exceeding 100 cm2 and a nominal power of 1.5 kW will be developed, capable of managing a vast dynamic range of operational capacities with economically viable and stable stack components. These endeavours will guarantee lasting and efficient performance at elevated current densities (1.5 A cm-2 at Ecell 1.8 V/cell) at low temperatures (60 °C) and suitable hydrogen output pressures (15 bar). The project's ultimate objective is to create a prototype, validate it in a laboratory setting for 1200 hours at a maximum degradation of 0.1%/1000 hours and achieve TRL4. This final phase will emphasize the potential of the REDHy approach and its crucial role in the upcoming hydrogen economy, secure subsequent investments, and showcase the necessity for ground-breaking, innovative thinking to reach climate objectives in a timely fashion.

2D-PRINTABLE aims at using sustainable liquid exfoliation methods to make >40 new 2D-materials (2DMs) and to develop printing and liquid-deposition methods to fabricate nanosheet (NS) networks and heterostructures with unique properties to enable the production of advanced printed digital devices, in perfect alignment with the expected outcomes of the work program. To identify new 2DMs, we will use modelling to survey thousands of possible 2DMs to identify those with superlative electronic properties (conductors, semiconductors, insulators). Layered crystals of these target materials will be synthesized and converted to NSs using various liquid exfoliation techniques. Chemical functionalization will be used to modify and tune NS properties, and to achieve in-situ chemical cross linking. We will develop a range of printing and deposition methods to produce NS networks, employing both physical and chemical routes for strong coupling between adjacent NSs, leading to extremely low junction resistance and hence exceptional network mobility. Going further, we will print/deposit networks of different NSs on top of each other leading to heterostructures with strongly-coupled interfaces for efficient charge injection and transfer. These will be the basis for a range of printed electronic devices (transistors, solar cells or LEDs) with very high performance because of the superlative nanosheet properties, the quality of interfaces and the facile nature of inter-nanosheet charge transfer. For example, we expect to produce printed transistors with gate capacitance >0.4 mF/cm2, transconductance >0.1 mS/sq, Ion/Ioff ratio >10e6, mobility ~100 cm2/Vs with the latter value x10-100 times greater than the state-of-the-art in printed electronics. The knowledge developed in 2D-PRINTABLE will be instrumental for future emerging technologies in energy storage, health and environmental monitoring as well as water purification, to ultimately address most of today’s global challenges.