Meeting Cost and Manufacturing Expectations for Automotive Fuel Cell Bipolar Plates

In this study, the Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA®) 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/kWnet (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.