SGL Group is to provide carbon fiber components for a project aimed at developing higher performance fuel cells.
The €7 million joint development project INSPIRE, will run for three years and intends to develop a new generation of fuel cells with higher performance and longer lifetime, which will play a major role in the electromobility of the future.
SGL Group is responsible for the development of the gas diffusion layers (GDL), which will be manufactured based on carbon fibers. The GDL allows a steady supply of gas to the catalyst layers, which are located on both sides of the ion exchange membrane and which convert hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy and water.
‘INSPIRE, with high-profile partners from the fields of science and industry, offers an excellent platform to accelerate the utilization of fuel cell technology with its innovative materials and components,’ said Dr Gerd Wingefeld, CTO at SGL Group. ‘For SGL Group, it highlights our entrepreneurial claim to play a key role in shaping developments in the megatrends of mobility and energy supply. These include not only graphite anode material for lithium ion batteries and carbon fiber composites for lightweight-construction passenger compartments, but also our gas diffusion layers for alternative drive technologies based on hydrogen.’
This story is reprinted from material from SGL, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
