Bipolar plate production at Feintool’s Taicang plant

Bipolar plate production at Feintool’s Taicang plant

Two European technology players have secured a long-term contract to supply a Chinese hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer with bipolar plates.

Swiss-headquartered Feintool and German-based SITEC said the unnamed fuel cell original equipment manufacturer (OEM) would use the plates in units being installed in commercial vehicles, buses and cars.

Set to be produced at Feintool’s Taicang, China site, the partners will employ forming, metal processing and welding techniques to produce the plates, with integrated coating and sealing also being applied.

Feintool said deliveries of the plates are expected to begin in 2025.

With the capacity to produce over 10 million plates per year, the Feintool-SITEC partnership says it can produce plates for solid oxide and PEM fuel cells, as well as electrolysers.

Despite having initially focused on Asian markets, the pair in 2023 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to “intensify” cooperation on bipolar plate production for European fuel cells and electrolysers.

Machined with complex flow fields and channels, bipolar plates in fuel cells distribute hydrogen and oxygen, conduct electricity and manage heat and water by-products. In electrolysers, they conduct electricity and manage the flow of water and gases.

The order comes as China races ahead in its hydrogen developments, taking a leading position in both technology manufacturing and project deployments.

According to the Hydrogen Council’s Hydrogen Insights 2024 report, deployments in China “outpace” the rest of the world, “as committed electrolyser volumes previously grew from 40% to about 55% of global capacity, and now reached 65%.”

Read more:Five takeaways from Hydrogen Insights 2024