Through its Symbio joint venture with Michelin, Faurecia is investing beyond its interior-systems base into the fuel-cell future. With only a single proton and electron, hydrogen is the lightest element in the Periodic Table, but it is having a heavy impact on Faurecia. The French Tier-1 supplier, whose automotive seating and interiors businesses accounted for nearly 69% of sales in 2020, is staking a significant slice of its future growth in hydrogen fuel-cell systems. It’s a bold and admittedly disruptive strategy that Jose-Vicente March, Faurecia’s general manager, Zero Emissions in the Clean Mobility group, is confident will establish his company as a technology and market leader. fuel cells works, Faurecia Expanding Into Hydrogen

fuel cells works, Faurecia Expanding Into Hydrogen

“Yes, it’s been disruptive – but it’s applied disruption! Our initiative on hydrogen and fuel cells is a key mission for us,” March explained in an interview with SAE Media. “It’s part of Faurecia’s commitment to be CO2 neutral by 2050. One of our four business groups, Clean Mobility [its exhaust-aftertreatment products accounted for 26% of sales in 2020], was already addressing the market transitions from IC engines to zero-emissions engines. So, it was logical for them to lead our hydrogen effort. From both the business and environmental points of view, we will be part of the powertrain revolution.” Faurecia could have expanded into battery-electric technologies, but more than four years ago company leadership bet on hydrogen as well. “We believe the real solution for zero emissions commercial vehicles – trucks, buses, fleet vehicles – as well as some passenger vehicles and light trucks such as pickups and SUVs, is fuel-cell power,” March said. “The commercial-vehicle market especially is based on total cost of ownership (TCO). Fuel cells offer faster fueling, much lower mass than a battery pack and, we think, better range and payload.” While a fueling infrastructure is being built out, and there is growing demand for stationary storage, “distribution is a clear challenge for hydrogen in the U.S.” noted March, a Spanish engineer who began his career at Grupo Antolin. Industry forecasts and investors are equally high on hydrogen. An August 2021 report by Market Research Future projected the global hydrogen fuel-cell market to be worth U.S. $46.89 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 68.52% during the 2021-2028 forecast period. The market was valued at U.S. $1.17 billion in 2020. A growing list of vehicle OEMs, including BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nikola, PACCAR, Renault, Tata, and Toyota have active development programs. Faurecia itself projects demand for 2.5 million hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2030, including 500,000 trucks. Observed Tsukasa Watanabe, principal research analyst, IHS Markit: “While applications of fuel-cell technology are not expected to grow substantially over the short-term, fuel cell technology does have potential as an alternative to electric vehicles in the future. There are significant benefits for suppliers to diversify their product offerings and take advantage of new opportunities within emerging technologies.”

Ambitious growth targets

To create and accelerate a new business in an almost alien technology space required what March calls “a piece-by-piece approach”: establishing key partnerships, acquisitions and sharply focused hiring. While Faurecia had done some hydrogen R&D with the French government, the real entrée came in 2019 – a €140 million joint venture with Michelin, called Symbio. The JV is devoted to making hydrogen fuel cell kits and related hardware and services. Faurecia then acquired CLD, a China-based specialist in hydrogen storage tanks with annual capacity of 30,000 tanks. It also launched an R&D facility in France, supplemented by two planned hydrogen development centers in France and South Korea. A U.S. technical center is planned. “Symbio is developing the fuel-cell stacks and Faurecia is focusing more on the development and manufacturing of gaseous storage systems,” March explained. “Together we’re able to provide 75 percent of the value-add of the powertrain. So, we can really tailor our product to the customer’s requirements, from full systems to flexible solutions.” He added that Faurecia also supplies power electronics for fuel-cell electric propulsion systems. With this set of capabilities, Symbio aims to capture 25% market share and achieve a turnover of around €1.5 billion by 2030. The joint venture will eventually have three industrial sites supplying the Europe, Asia and U.S. mobility markets. Faurecia currently has hydrogen-related development activities with nine OEMs. Three of them – Hyundai, Stellantis, and Renault – have hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles fitted with Faurecia storage tanks and related hardware entering production in 2021. The Hyundai build is 1,600 commercial trucks; Stellantis is producing a fuel-cell version of Citroen Jumpy light cargo van, which will carry a Ram ProMaster badge for the U.S. market. The Citroen Jumpy vehicle uses Faurecia storage tanks and a Symbio fuel-cell stack.

Technology challenges

Pressure tanks for compressed-hydrogen storage are highly engineered vessels. Their primary form factor is a cylinder, but in specialized cases the tanks also can be toroidal in shape. The cylinders are robustly constructed of reinforced, spiral wound carbon fiber to ensure safe storage of the gas at the high pressures typically used in fuel-cell vehicles. Tanks must be certified to the rigorous ISO/TS 15869 standard, requiring a battery of tests including burst (typically more than 2X the working pressure), fatigue (several thousand cycles of charging/emptying), fire (exposing the tank to open fire), leak/permeation (measuring the volume of gas escaping within a period of time), and ballistics, where live ammunition is fired at the tank. Faurecia has invested heavily in in-house testing capabilities, March said. Tank technology continues to progress, albeit incrementally, explained Charles Shappell, engineering director and VP at Faurecia’s Zero Emissions group in Farmington Hills, Michigan. “We are focusing on 350-bar (5,000-psi) and 700-bar (10,000-psi) pressures because that’s where the tank technology is today for automotive use – and it’s where we think the pressures will be going forward,” Shappell said. “We have Type III tank capabilities through our acquisition of CLD, but we’re really focusing on Type IV tanks.” Type III tanks feature a carbon-fiber-resin outer shell encapsulating a steel or aluminum vessel inside. The CF exterior shell is engineered to take loads placed on the tank. Type IV tanks are better suited for mobility applications. They’re constructed entirely of carbon fiber, with a polyamide- or polyethylene-plastic liner. The tank’s port is a metallic boss integrated into the structure. The hydrogen molecule’s tiny size means it’s a natural escape artist. Gas retention is an ongoing challenge in tank and systems design, said Shappell, who spent a decade as Faurecia’s innovation director. “The tank liner is where the technical challenge begins. The boss between the liner and tank is critical, too,” he explained. Liner materials R&D is a focus of Shappell’s team and have helped lower system leakage levels (both through tanks and related valves and fittings) in recent years. Type IV tanks offer lighter weight and very high strength. They’re also far more expensive than the fabricated steel, aluminum and blow-molded plastic fuel tanks that are familiar to vehicle engineers. “Cost is, along with safety and recyclability, an area that we’re working to improve,” March said. “In the end we’re going make it or break it if we’re competitive with this technology. Hydrogen storage is approximately half the cost of the fuel-cell propulsion system, so we need to make this technology affordable for all OEMs.” March cited production volume and the scale effect as keys to reducing storage-tank cost. Current volumes are very low. “For hydrogen powered city buses, it’s about 60 vehicles per year, and the OEMs are starting with small fleets for their proof-of-concept validations,” he noted. “And there’s the challenge of how to scale up when vehicle production volumes increase.” Faurecia’s Generation-1 hydrogen tank range currently includes small (D200), medium (D300-500) and large (D600) models, available in 350- and 500-bar specifications. Gen-2 tank development is nearly completed, according to March. He said Gen-3 tanks will offer “significantly lower cost.” To that end, engineers are also focused on increasing the company’s efficiencies in the use and manufacture of carbon fiber. The company has researched aerospace-industry processes as well as BMW’s holistic enterprise, with materials partner SGL, in carbon-fiber production for the 2013 BMW i3. “We’re looking at how to optimize carbon-fiber winding, and how to improve curing times, which are really still slow for higher-volume automotive applications,” Shappell said. Engineers are also investigating how to improve tensile strength of “tow,” the yarn used to weave carbon fiber fabrics. A 24K tow, for example, is composed of 24,000 individual carbon filaments, currently the industry’s highest tensile strength.

Flexible supply

March notes the rising investment and near-flood of competitors in the hydrogen fuel cell space as good news for Faurecia. “People are seeing the market for hydrogen development and that can only help us to be more competitive and challenge ourselves.” With the increasing number of players, both suppliers and OEMs, Faurecia’s competitive advantage comes from its auto-industry experience, global presence, and the expanding capabilities of the Symbio joint venture. “We can deliver full system integration – the customer gives us the requirements and we build the powertrain for them,” March said. “We also have customers who are interested in just the hydrogen storage system. And there are customers who are only requesting hydrogen tanks. We have a level of flexibility in this market that competitors can’t match.” Source: SAE