EKPO Fuel Cell Technologies GmbH (EKPO) has received another major order from Aerostack GmbH, the joint venture between Airbus and ElringKlinger. As a follow-up order to the previous successful cooperation, this contract confirms EKPO as an important development partner. Over the next two years, EKPO will provide development services and deliver fuel cell stacks optimised for aerospace applications. The stacks based on the NM12 platform are integrated into the further development process of the customer in order to make fuel cells usable for aviation.

Julien Etienne, Managing Director of EKPO for Sales: "This order and the entire partnership with Aerostack not only shows the wide range of applications of fuel cell technology, but also the technologically leading capabilities of EKPO. As the next logical step in our cooperation with Aerostack, we supply stack components as well as Prototypes and provides development services to optimize the performance of Aerostack's first stack generation.This project allows us to further expand our know-how in key components, such as bipolar plates and sealing technology, so that we can offer our customers in the future with even more more powerful stacks can make an attractive offer."

With an output of up to 205 kWel and an extremely high power density of over 6.0 kW/l in the cell block, the NM12 stack family is the most powerful in the EKPO product portfolio. In addition, the stack design offers optimal conditions for scaling and modularization and thus enables customers to design their respective usage application flexibly and efficiently. With these characteristics, the platform is the ideal starting point to meet the unique performance expectations in aviation.

Through its parent company, ElringKlinger, EKPO has been researching and developing fuel cells for around 20 years. The compact stacks are based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology and convert chemical energy into electrical energy using hydrogen and oxygen. EKPO offers stacks in various configurations that can be integrated into customer systems. They optionally have peripheral components and system functionalities integrated in the media module, which allow a significant simplification and cost reduction of the fuel cell system. With the system solutions of its parent company Plastic Omnium, EKPO can cover the entire value chain of a hydrogen-based fuel cell drive. EKPO has a production capacity of initially up to 10.