Meeting Cost and Manufacturing Expectations for Automotive Fuel Cell Bipolar Plates

In this study, the Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA (R)) cost analysis methodology is used to examine several possible proton exchange membrane (PEM) automotive fuel cell (FC) bipolar plate (BPP) manufacturing approaches to help prioritize R&D needs in achieving the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) BPP 2020 cost target of $3/kW(net) (1). This paper provides: 1) an overview of BPP cost projections including automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers' (OEM) costs compared to DOE's 2020 target, 2) a comparison of three BPP base material selections (stainless steel (SS), carbon composite, and flexible graphite), 3) a list of manufacturing issues and limitations of metallic plates, and 4) identification of multiple pathways utilizing a roll-to-roll 2-D cell manufacturing approach inspired by Nissan (2). Sensitivity analyses are conducted to define a pathway to lower cost BPP assemblies for SS by postulating specific criteria (material cost, power density, etc.) to achieve the DOE BPP cost target.