PEM Fuel Cell with SS316 plates

[h2gen]

I want to put together a PEM fuel cell using Nafion membranes and carbon paper, but I want to use stainless steel plates instead of graphite for the bipolar plates.

Here is an example of PEMFC stacks that use stainless steel:
http://www.matuk.co.uk/docs/Paul_Ad****_PEM_Fuel_Cells.pdf

The design is similar to EBN dry cell stacks, however I need custom made SS316 plates in order to handle gas intakes and cooling. I do not want holes all around, I will keep the bolts on the outside because a PEMFC needs to be disassembled on a regular basis to change membranes, which do not last very long.

My ultimate goal is to build a Reversible PEMFC, which can be used as an electrolyzer to produce H2 and O2 gases, and later can be reversed to take stored H2 and O2 and produce electricity.

Ion exchange membranes, carbon paper and rubber gaskets are easy to find, but what's the most inexpensive place where to get custom fabricated SS316 plates?

Cheers,
H2GEN

[H2OPWR]

I want to put together a PEM fuel cell using Nafion membranes and carbon paper, but I want to use stainless steel plates instead of graphite for the bipolar plates.

Here is an example of PEMFC stacks that use stainless steel:
http://www.matuk.co.uk/docs/Paul_Ad****_PEM_Fuel_Cells.pdf

The design is similar to EBN dry cell stacks, however I need custom made SS316 plates in order to handle gas intakes and cooling. I do not want holes all around, I will keep the bolts on the outside because a PEMFC needs to be disassembled on a regular basis to change membranes, which do not last very long.

My ultimate goal is to build a Reversible PEMFC, which can be used as an electrolyzer to produce H2 and O2 gases, and later can be reversed to take stored H2 and O2 and produce electricity.

Ion exchange membranes, carbon paper and rubber gaskets are easy to find, but what's the most inexpensive place where to get custom fabricated SS316 plates?

Cheers,
H2GEN

Very interested in the design but the link does not work for me. I would like to see it. If you want high quality 316L Ss plates go to the for sale area and find the thread Metal Fabricator Here Again. The member is SCM. I got some from him. He will do any custom work you want and the quality is first rate. The prices were better than anything I could get locally. Good Luck

[h2gen]

Very interested in the design but the link does not work for me. I would like to see it. If you want high quality 316L Ss plates go to the for sale area and find the thread Metal Fabricator Here Again. The member is SCM. I got some from him. He will do any custom work you want and the quality is first rate. The prices were better than anything I could get locally. Good Luck

For some strange reason four letters in the link I posted get automatically "censored" by the Forum's vBulletin system and replaced with "*" because the author's last name is "A", "d", "c", "o", "c", "k". Funny...
Thanks very much for the tip, I will contact SCM for a quote.

In principle I am very surprised that the HHO community has not made the switch to PEM designs yet. The EBN dry cell is very close to typical bipolar electrolyzers used in the industry for the past 100 years, with one main difference - no membrane is used in the EBN cell, therefore it produces a dangerous oxy-hydrogen mix rather than keeping H2 and O2 gases separate, which is a lot safer. I guess most HHO hobbyists do not start by reading an electrochemistry book. If they did, they would discover that the majority of monopolar and bipolar designs shown on numerous YouTube HHO videos were already discovered in the early 1900's, but even back then they used various types of diaphragms to keep the hydrogen and oxygen bubbles from mixing together.

What I love about the HHO phenomenon is that people are rediscovering these devices but they are inventing very affordable ways to build them with off-the-shelf components. Fuel Cell research is dominated by Material Science companies charging an arm and a leg for PEMFC based on esoteric materials - it is refreshing to see a community of people interested in building affordable ones.

So the next logical step for HHO garage inventors is to start introducing the use of diaphragms or membranes, and try to approach the state of the art in Fuel Cell design but using much cheaper materials. Such movement could really accelerate the transition from an Oil-based economy to a Hydrogen economy.
- H2GEN