Partnership
The NIMPHEA partnership is composed of eight organisations representing four European countries: France, Germany, Spain and Greece. The consortium gathers all the necessary expertise in the field of fuel cell systems, from design to testing and assessment.
- Leading fuel cell system developers (Safran Power Units, Safran Tech) and experienced industrials (Advent) will lead the architecture definition, requirements and design activities.
- Recognised academic (Université de Strasbourg) and research (Fraunhofer ICT, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives – CEA , Centre national de la recherche scientifique – CNRS) partners will support the above-mentioned industrial partners with the characterisation, development, manufacturing, modelling and testing of the individual components of the MEA and of the up-scaled MEAs.
- Finally, the life-cycle costing, environmental life-cycle assessment and the eco-efficiency benchmarking will be managed by IMDEA Energy, a Spanish research institute expert in the energy field.
Their complementary profiles will allow the development and demonstration of a credible, new-generation, high-temperature MEA prototype validated at TRL4.
Safran Power Units
Project coordinator
Safran Power Units is specialised in the design and manufacturing of Auxiliary Power Units (APUs), starting systems for civil and military aircraft, as well as turbojet engines for missiles and target drones. It also innovates and develops new solutions for power generation that are ever more efficient, cleaner and more economical, by relying on hybridisation and fuel cell technology.
As the Project Coordinator of the NIMPHEA project, Safran Power Unit will be in charge of the technical, financial and administrative coordination of the project. Safran PU will also lead and monitor the dissemination and communication activities and will ensure the long-term exploitation of project results.
On a technical aspect, Safran Power Unit will focus on the specification of the new MEA, the identification of the aeronautical constraints related to MEA manufacturing and the management of safety topics related to the development of a new technology of fuel cell stack core component. Safran PU will also be involved in TRL evaluation of the MEA and in the demonstration using a full-size MEA and Safran bipolar plates.
https://www.safran-group.com/companies/safran-power-units
Safran Tech
Safran Tech is the R&D center of Safran Group. Safran Tech identify and apply innovative materials and processes to make products that are more efficient, lighter and easier to manufacture and maintain.
In energy field, Safran Tech develops systems to respond to environmental challenges and new uses, and last, on information domain, Safran Tech captures, processes and models information to improve Safran Grop productivity and generate products and services that are competitive and offer exceptional performance.
In the NIMPHEA project, Safran Tech will be involved in the specification and architecture development of the new MEA, in its preparation of the industrialisation and future integration. Safran Tech will also participate in the development of the catalysts to be used in the new MEA and in the scale-up process related to the catalyst synthesis.
Advent
Advent Technologies is an innovation-driven leader in the fuel cell and hydrogen technology sectors. Its vision is to accelerate electrification through advanced materials, components, and next-generation fuel cell technology. Advent’s technology applies to electrification (fuel cells) and energy storage (flow batteries, hydrogen production) markets.
In the NIMPHEA project, Advent will lead the activities linked to the MEA novel architecture concept design, material selection and implementation strategy. Advent will also carry out the fabrication and testing verification of the lab-scale and full-scale MEA.
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) / Université de Strasbourg
The Institute of Chemistry and Processes for Energy, Environment and Health (ICPEES) is a joint unit between the French National Research Council (CNRS) and the University of Strasbourg (Unistra), focusing on key topics such as catalysis and materials, polymer engineering and molecular chemistry and analytics.
In the frame of NIMPHEA, CNRS/Unistra shall be overseeing the development of the core components of the next generation of MEAs, and developing adapted carbon supports (e.g., corrosion resistance, high developed surface, etc.) for such aim. They’ll also perform an electrochemical assessment of the electrocatalysts kinetics for the HT-PEMFC anodic and cathodic reactions along with the assessment of the ionomer-H3PO4-electrocatalyst interactions.
Fraunhofer ICT
The Fraunhofer ICT is part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe’s leading organisation for applied research. Scientist and engineers at the Fraunhofer ICT perform applied research in the four business areas “Chemical Processes”, “Polymer engineering”, “Energy and drive (propulsion) systems” and “Explosives technology, safety and security”.
The Division for Applied Electrochemistry has high level expertise in testing of fuel cells and electrolysers on material, component, cell, stack and system level.
Within the project Fraunhofer ICT will coordinate the testing activities and perform itself test to evaluate the fulfilment of the MEA target as well as the MEA perspective operation behaviour in flight.
https://www.ict.fraunhofer.de/en.html
Commissariat à l’énergie atomique – CEA
CEA-Liten is a major European research institute and a driving force behind the development of the sustainable energy technologies of the future. The institute is spearheading the EU’s efforts to limit dependency on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in three key areas: renewable energy, energy efficiency/storage and development of materials.
CEA-Liten is involved in several aspects of the NIMPHEA project, which aims to support the development of high-temperature MEAs by improving their description and understanding. In particular, CEA will carry out nanostructural characterisations of materials and components, focusing on the interface between the catalyst and the electrolyte. In addition, CEA-Liten will carry out electrochemical characterisations, analysed using the PEMFC HT AME models developed as part of the project, in order to quantify the most limiting phenomena and improve the design of the bipolar plate.
IMDEA Energy
IMDEA is a research initiative driven by the Regional Government of Madrid (Spain) and formed by a network of independent centres which operate as public non-profit foundations. IMDEA Energy is part of the IMDEA network since its creation in November 2006. Its mission is the promotion of R&D activities in energy, with emphasis on topics related to sustainable energy technologies, including their analysis from technical, economic, environmental and social perspectives.
The Systems Analysis Unit of IMDEA Energy has a strong background in the technoeconomic, environmental and social assessment of a wide range of energy systems, especially hydrogen-related ones. The research team is composed by a group of experts on the development and use of modelling and simulation tools, life cycle sustainability assessment, and prospective analysis. Within NIMPHEA, IMDEA Energy leads WP6 on “techno-economic, environmental and risk assessment”. In particular, IMDEA Energy leads NIMPHEA tasks on environmental life-cycle assessment, life-cycle costing, and eco-efficiency benchmarking.