As has been the case over the last few years, CIDETEC-IK4 has this year had a high-profile presence in the Open Day, energy being one of the main lines of research at the Centre.

On this occasion, CIDETEC-IK4 gave over its entire exhibition space to fuel cells, presenting three Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) in simultaneous operation and which sparked great interest amongst visitors.

As a landmark, CIDETEC-IK4 exhibited, for the first time in public in Spain, a working High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (HT-PEMFC), although a technology at an initial stage of development, is fast becoming one of the most promising lines of research in the field. This technology presents the advantages of greater resistance to poisoning of the electrodes by contaminants, greater electrochemical activity of the catalysers and an operation in absence of liquid water.

The HT-PEMFC demonstrated, a laboratory monocell, was fitted with a Polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane synthesised at the CIDETEC-IK4 laboratories, as well as in-house manufactured electrodes. Operating at temperatures of over 150ºC and fed by pure, unhumidified hydrogen and oxygen without, the fuel cell provides reasonable performances of 500 mA/cm2 at 500mV maintained over the duration of the whole experiment.

CIDETEC-IK4 is the only Spain-based enterprise in the CARISMA Co-ordination Activity for the promotion of research into HT-PEMFC, recently approved by the Sixth European Framework Research Programme.