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Powder Metallurgy Approaches for Next-Generation Bipolar Plate Materials

Project description

Porous materials pave the way for fuel cells

Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are a promising clean energy technology that could greatly benefit transport applications. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PERMEABLE project plans to further reduce the weight of PEMFCs while retaining their performance by developing advanced porous materials for the bipolar plates. The low-density candidate materials under focus are titanium and titanium-based MAX phases that demonstrate good mechanical and conductive properties. These materials will be processed by powder metallurgy techniques that allow the fabrication of dense and porous structures. To further improve their performance, researchers will develop corrosion-resistant and electrically conductive coatings based on titanium nitride and graphene.

Objective

The proposed 24-month fellowship aims to reintegrate the researcher, Dr. Carlos Romero Villarreal, in Europe after 3.5 years in New Zealand. He will address the feasibility of using powder metallurgy (PM) approaches and coatings to process highly efficient, lightweight bipolar plates (BP) for PEM fuel cells (FC) based on porous flow fields. This fellowship will be carried out in the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in Spain, under the supervision of Professor Elena Gordo Odériz. As part of this, the researcher will carry out a 6-month secondment in ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel manufacturer, under the co-supervision of Dr. Domínguez and Dr. Botas.
The scientific objective of the proposal is to develop materials for metallic BP based on porous flow fields that have low density in order to reduce considerably the weight of PEMFCs while keeping a high performance, to increase the energy efficiency of transportation systems. This contributes to key EU and UN objectives like low-carbon and climate-neutral economies. The low-density candidate materials are titanium and Ti-based MAX phases, which have good mechanical and conductive properties. These materials will be processed using PM techniques that allow the fabrication of dense and porous materials. To improve their performance, corrosion-resistant and electrically-conductive coatings based on TiN and graphene will be developed. The mechanical, conductive and corrosion properties of these materials will be characterised to assess if they achieve the PEMFC target properties.
Along with the training in the relevant scientific skills, this proposal also has the objective to establish Dr. Romero as an independent researcher by training in several transferable skills key for academic and industrial environments such as leadership, teaching and supervision, project management, IPR and knowledge transfer and scientific communication (especially to non-specialist audiences).

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Topic(s)

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 172 932,48
Address
CALLE MADRID 126
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain

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Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 172 932,48
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