Technical Assistance in Fabrication and Testing of MEAs: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-16-00638

Altergy's fuel cell cost is highly dependent on expensive purchased membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), which amount to $0.42/watt in a 5kW system. In order to better compete with other power solutions, the company has identified an MEA breakthrough cost of $0.20/watt to unlock new, major markets for its fuel cell products. Since Altergy presently does not have an accurate cost model for the real costs of these MEAs, it is difficult to know whether the company goal is achievable. Altergy seeks to leverage NREL expertise to reduce cost and improve performance for Altergy's fuel cell products. The objective of this Small Business Voucher (SBV) project therefore will be for NREL and Altergy to work together in three major task areas: 1) demonstrating the fabrication of MEAs at NREL using NREL non-proprietary methods, to the intent of potentially fabricating MEAs at Altergy to reduce product costs; and, 2) creating a cost model to assist Altergy in manufacturing decisions.