Accelerating Fuel Cell Development with Additive Manufacturing Technologies: State of the Art, Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

In recent years, the use of additive manufacturing (AM) has been demonstrated in the fabrication of components in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), microbial fuel cell (MFC) and laminar flow-based fuel cell (LFFC). Various AM technologies have been successfully demonstrated in fuel cell manufacturing include material extrusion, powder bed fusion, vat photopolymerization and binder jetting. One of the unique advantages of AM is the ability to handle sophisticated design with features ranging from macro to micro scales, which are inaccessible by conventional manufacturing technologies. Well-designed complex 3D structures were reported to have the potential for increasing the performance of fuel cells. Therefore, AM presents itself as a promising fabrication method to promote the development of fuel cells. Besides, AM also showed its specialty in time-saving, flexibility, and on-demand manufacturability in the fabrication of fuel cell components. In spite of the prospects of AM in fuel cells, more studies and researches are required to overcome challenges, such as availability of material, manufacturing quality, and the costs. This review focuses on the advantages and applications of additive manufacturing that enable improvement in fuel cell performance. The critical challenges and directions for future development are also highlighted.

Powder-Based 3D Printing for the Fabrication of Device with Micro and Mesoscale Features

“…SLS 3D printing was employed to print graphite composite with mesoscale features down to 1 mm for fuel cell application [ 193 ]. The ability of 3D printing to create sophisticated 3D architectures allowed further improvement on the performance of fuel cells.…”

Complete Microbial Fuel Cell Fabrication Using Additive Layer Manufacturing

“…On the other hand, the resistance of double nickel-coated samples was about 3 Ω (measuring distance of 1 cm, both parallel and perpendicular to the direction of printed layers), which was much lower than that of carbon-coated ones. 1) measuring distance: 1 cm, 2) n/m: not measurable, 3) n/a: not applicable, 4) "C" stands for "carbon-coated", 5) cPLA refers to the commercial conductive polylactic acid (PLA) selected for this study. Figure 1 shows power output produced from the tested MFCs with different anode materials for 24 days.…”

“…The AM process, also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, builds three-dimensional structures from computer-aided design (CAD) models by adding material layer-by-layer. Technological progress has helped eliminate several limitations in manufacturing, and enabled the fabrication of products in complex geometry more precisely, with a shorter lead-time and minimum human intervention [1][2][3]. Consequently, applications of AM have been expanding rapidly in recent years, including industrial prototype printing, aerospace [4], medical implants [5,6] and the arts [7].…”

Robust three‐dimensionally printed polypropylene/highly sulfonated polysulfone composites for potential applications in fuel cells

“…Track etching and phase inversion methods are the reported methods for making porous substrates 19 . 3D‐printing technology, as a cost‐effective, fast, and scalable technique, has appealed much attention in a variety of applications including fuel cells recently 20‐22 . As Patterson et al 23 stated, there are limited works on the preparation of membranes by 3D‐printing.…”

“…19 3D-printing technology, as a cost-effective, fast, and scalable technique, has appealed much attention in a variety of applications including fuel cells recently. [20][21][22] As Patterson et al 23 stated, there are limited works on the preparation of membranes by 3D-printing. Most studies in this area have focused on membrane modules and spacers.…”