NATO STO

The specific topics to be covered are: • Fuel Cells - Identification and proposed technical solutions related to decreasing weight, increasing energy output and increasing reliability. One of the major focuses will be on trying to identify reasons for failures of fuel cells in a battle field environment and development of military specific mitigation concepts. • Hydrogen generation and delivery systems – Identify and propose potential “non-traditional” sources of hydrogen generation such as the use of windshield washer fluids, F-54 diesel /F-34 jet fuel, hydrogenated diesel or jet fuels, liquid organic hydrogen carriers and chemical hydrides. • Safety – Identify and propose solutions to allow the use of fuel cells in closed environments such as aircraft and tactical vehicles. Analyze emission from different fuel cell types including parasitic emissions e.g. of fuel transfer line also allowing for data from aged systems as far as they become available. Evaluate options to contain emissions, and define required ventilations of confined rooms also taking into account oxygen conception so that emissions by soldiers can be kept at a safe level • Hybrid solutions – Explore exploiting the occurrence of variable loads by optimizing energy and power delivery from the system through combining the fuel cell with an electrochemical storage device such as a high power battery, a ultra-capacity or a battery capacity hybrid solution • Battery charging – Explore the methods by which a fuel cell can directly, or in directly, operate as a battery charger in a tactical environment. • Specifications and standards required to leverage resources and enable NATO interchangeability