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The Fuel Cell Consortium for Performance and Durability (FC-PAD) will aid in the understanding of—and lead to significant improvements in—fuel cell performance and durability. Los Alamos National Laboratory is the consortium lead, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is the deputy lead, and Argonne National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory serve as technical partners. Innovations from the broader research and development community will be brought into the FC-PAD consortium through a Funding Opportunity Announcement.

The Fuel Cell Technologies Office has established collaborative research consortia comprising a core team of U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories and competitively selected individual projects. These core teams have the responsibility to carry out foundational research and provide support for the individual project’s research efforts. As a collaborative effort, it is expected that the national laboratory core team will have substantial involvement with each individual project’s research effort (Figure 1).

FC-PAD’s activities are coordinated across six different thrust areas: three component-specific areas and three cross-cutting efforts between subject areas. The component thrusts are shown in Figure 2 as 1 through 3: (1) electrocatalysts and supports, (2) electrode layers, and (3) ionomer, gas diffusion layers, and bipolar plates. The cross-cutting “technique” thrusts are shown in Figure 2 as 4 through 6: (4) modeling and validation, (5) operando evaluation and benchmarking, including accelerated stress tests and contaminant testing/tolerance, and (6) component characterization and diagnostics. These cross-cutting technique thrusts will be developed within FC-PAD and applied to the component thrusts as innovation in those thrusts are brought forth. View an in-depth description of the organization of FC-PAD, including its scientific activities.

Visit the FC-PAD website to learn more.

Consortia Overview Webinar

The Fuel Cell Technologies Office presented a consortia overview webinar on January 7, 2016. This webinar provided an overview of the organization of FC-PAD and the Hydrogen Materials—Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC), their planned scientific activities, and the role of individual projects selected to work with these consortia through the FY16 Funding Opportunity Announcement. Download the presentation slides from the webinar.

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