IFSTTAR Belfort files for patent on a fuel cell

IFSTTAR’s intellectual property management department, with the support of Efficacity, has filed for patent on a diagnostic method for fuel cell state of health (SoH). The filing is the culmination of the work carried out by Efficacity and the IFSTTAR Belfort laboratory (UTBM fuel cell platform, FCLAB research federation) under the “Decentralised Production” programme during the Efficacity Institute’s first three-year phase (2014-2017). The approach involved testing a new method of classifying state of health using an existing database, and then applying the method to new experimental data, acquired from a stack activated on a dedicated test bench at the Laboratory under varying operating conditions of temperature, humidity and gas stoichiometry. The method makes it possible to identify SoH anomalies, the causes of which have been listed. Its speed of execution should ultimately permit its inclusion in an online calculator. This will make it possible to monitor the electricity production of a fuel cell to guarantee durability commensurate with its high investment cost.