Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc. (Cambridge, MA) announced it has entered into an agreement with TotalFinaElf, a leading oil company, to study the effects of gasoline on fuel processors and fuel cell stacks designed for the automotive industry. According to the agreement, the two companies will identify constituents of reformate under variable reforming approaches that adversely affect proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell life and, subsequently, quantify the impact.
The companies intend to accomplish this by determining the characteristics of a reformer subjected to a wide range of process conditions (air, steam and temperature), identifying potential PEM contaminants, and conducting tests with design gases to measure the rate of performance loss in a fuel cell stack.
