FuelCon provides globally latest test station for fuel cell systems

The development of alternative propulsion technologies for vehicles is a recurrent topic for many years. Besides the advanced market entrance of battery-powered electro mobiles, the integration of fuel cell systems as a propulsion technology also takes on greater significance. From now on, due to FuelCon test equipment, the development of new systems can happen even better and more efficient.

For more than 15 years, FuelCon AG from Magdeburg-Barleben is specialized in manufacturing test stations for batteries and fuel cells and thereby makes a great contribution to the realization of the energy revolution. It is considered the most important aim to reduce the global CO2 emission. This shall be achieved particularly by the establishment of alternative propulsion technologies, without the usage of fossil fuels. From this stipulation evolved two main approaches for the last two years – electro mobility, as well as the utilization of fuel cell systems. Both versions offer promising solutions, but also involve various challenges. On the one hand, in the field of the battery powered electro mobility, the battery capacity and the time-consuming charging process are considered to be the crucial points. On the other hand, for the fuel cell technology, the attention lies especially on the development of durable and reliable systems. Furthermore, an important research objective is the exploration of new catalyst materials to diminish the demand for platinum in order to lower costs.

To be able to depict the complex processes of a fuel cell system, the associated research effort puts high requirements on test technologies and operators. The FuelCon AG has lately provided a customized Evaluator S100-LT for IAV Entwicklungszentrum, which is exactly the perfect test equipment, to allow an even more effective testing in the future. This system test station has not only the ability to emulate dynamic driving cycles, it can also reproduce endurance cycles with specific methods for an accelerated aging simulation. Hereby a vehicle’s continuous employment can be simulated. The consequently created operating conditions, similar to the ones of a vehicle, allow a highly dynamic adjustment of relevant parameters such as humidity, flow, temperature and pressure. Systems with an electric overall power of approximately 200 kW can be tested.

“The special requirement for this project is the realization of the operational parameters’ highly dynamic controllability, which is only possible with plenty of know-how in this performance category,” knows FuelCon-chairman Mathias Bode about the particularities of the S100. Especially the combination of the dynamic behavior’s complex requirements as well as the overall performance of 200 kW let the Evaluator S100-LT be considered the latest test station across the globe. “Naturally, we are glad that we could realize such an exciting and also complex project with IAV Entwicklungszentrum, which will assuredly contribute to better propulsion alternatives on the basis of fuel cell technologies in the future,” says Bode further on.

For the FuelCon AG, the next great project is already in store – the realization of an End-of-Line test station for an automobile manufacturer, which directly contributes to the increasing establishment of alternative propulsion technologies for vehicles.