CEA

CEA (French Atomic and Alternative Energies Commission) is a research state agency for nuclear
energy, employing a staff of 16 000 people.

The Program « New Technologies for Energy » launched in 2006 is devoted to four mains domains of R&D:

1) Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (includingmassive hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, fuel cell development from
components to integrated systems, safety, standards and public acceptance);
2) Solar energy and energy storage;
3) Biomass;
4) Nanomaterials for Energy.

In 2012, 1200 people from most of the 10 CEA research centres were involved in this program.

The Hydrogen and Fuel Cells program includes massive hydrogen production, hydrogen storage
and transportation, fuel cell development from components to integrated systems, safety,
standards and public acceptance.

About 250 people are involved in this program. One of the main topics is dealing with fuel cells, both PEMFC (1987) and SOFC (2000).

CEA works at the different levels of the development, which is necessary to improve the efficiency and the quality of the new
technologies routes. It has a great experience of several years in the development of fuel cell
systems and innovative materials. More than 50 people are now working on PEMFC in the different
labs involved on PEMFC R&D. They aim at developing, in cooperation with research groups and
industries, PEMFC components, stacks and systems mainly for transportation applications.
These developments are based on the following skills:
1) components development including of membrane and MEA fabrication and bipolar plates design and production, electrochemical
characterization, physical properties measurements;
2) local in-situ instrumentation;
3) components and system modelling, design and manufacturing of stack and system prototypes.

Moreover, CEA is heading the N.ERGHY research grouping and is a member of standardisation
committees ISO TC 197 and IEC TC 105.