During the first project year (02/2023-01/2024), significant work was carried out. Firstly, the partners defined operation protocols for testing of materials (WP2) as well as for testing of single cells and short stack (WP4). In this context inputs from WP1 on relevant HD load cycles were provided and analyzed. The PEMTASTIC testing protocols and conditions are available as a public report and have been actively shared and advertised to other ongoing CleanH2 projects related to MEA or stack development. Specific in-situ and ex-situ test to parametrized degradation models were discussed in detailed and defined between modelers and experimentalists. In frame of the modelling task performance models were set which will be extended for degradation based on results of Gen1 MEA. Significant effort was dedicated to implement and debug the testing conditions for singe cells into the testbenches of involved partners in order to achieve sufficient reproducibility which is essential due to sharing of different aging tests among partners; i.e. the requirements and limitations of all involved testing infrastructure was considered and necessary adaptations were carried out. This important task is of fundamental importance for all following investigations. Initial testing was carried out using a commercial MEA from IRD. The MEA was used to run first durability test using PEMTATIC HD-load cycling along with characterization protocols with 1,500 h duration. Based on these tests the reproducibility of durability tests carried out at different facilities will be assessed. In terms of development of new MEA, Gen1 materials from IMERYS, Heraeus and Chemours were used to design Gen1 project MEA. Moreover, promising possible candidate materials as options for Gen2 MEA were identified, which will be designed in year 2 after considering inputs from degradations models. Regarding communication and dissemination, the project was presented during three fairs, has 9 workshop or conference contributions and was advertised on social media.
