Argonne National Lab to build R&D facility to test large-scale fuel cell systems

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is con structing a research and development (R&D) facility to develop and test large-scale fuel cell systems.

Specifically, the Argonne facility, located in Lamont, Ill., will test fuel cell systems to be used in transportation applications including trucks, railroad locomotives, marine vessels, aircraft, and vehicles used in the agriculture, construction and mining industries.

The DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) is funding approximately $4 million to support the effort. The goal is to improve the performance, durability, reliability, and efficiency of heavy-duty fuel cell systems while lowering the cost.

“Providing the opportunity for independent, rigorous testing of first-of-a-kind, large-scale fuel cell systems will accelerate technology development and help identify challenges requiring further R&D,” HFTO Director Sunita Satyapal said. “Such capabilities leverage the national labs’ expertise and help to de-risk the technology before industry launches larger scale demonstrations and deployments.”

This is an important project because few manufacturers have their own capacity to test and validate such large-scale fuel cell systems. In fact, many have expressed interest in the ability of DOE national labs to provide such test capabilities. Argonne’s facility will emulate powertrains for all on- and off-road heavy-duty vehicles by operating in a hardware-in-the-loop environment leveraging the laboratory’s internationally recognized Autonomie software.

“The facility will serve as a national resource for analysis and testing of heavy-duty fuel cell systems for developers, technology integrators and end-users in heavy-duty transportation applications including trucks, railroad locomotives, marine vessels, aircraft and vehicles used in the agriculture, construction and mining industries,” Ted Krause, laboratory relationship manager for Argonne’s hydrogen and fuel cell programs, said. “The testing infrastructure will help advance fuel cell performance and pave the way toward integrating the technology into all of these transportation applications.”

The facility is expected to come online in fall 2025. At that point, the industry will be able to access a dedicated location and support staff to test and validate polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems ranging from 150 to 600 kilowatts.

The project builds upon the laboratory’s extensive fuel cell research experience, including operation of the Argonne Fuel Cell Test Facility from 1996 to 2012.

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