The United States Department of Energyʹs high temperature, low relative humidity membrane program

The U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) Hydrogen Program works with industry, academia, and National Laboratories through research and development to overcome technical barriers of fuel cell and hydrogen production, delivery, and storage technologies. Two of the major challenges in the advancement of fuel cell technology are cost and durability of the polymer electrolyte membranes used for proton conduction in the fuel cell. To address these challenges, DOE initiated new membrane research and development projects to design membranes that meet its 2010 technical targets and will lead to membranes that operate in a fuel cell system that performs as well and costs as little as internal combustion engines. Three strategies are employed in the program: implementation of phase segregation in the membrane to create proton conduction pathways, use of non-aqueous proton conductors for operation under dry conditions, and hydrophilic additives to retain water at low relative humidity.