MEAsureD project (Advanced MEAs ensuring high efficiency HDV), funded by the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon Europe program, is working to bring next-generation hydrogen fuel cell technology closer to real-world deployment. At its core, the project aims to develop advanced Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEAs) based on high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) technology operating above 160 °C — a key step towards making hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) commercially viable. Among the seven international partners forming this consortium, the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), through its research group CMT – Clean Mobility & Thermofluids, plays a strategic role: supporting the development of vehicle-level simulation tools and leading the generations of energy management strategy optimizers, as well as assessing the applicability of this technology beyond road transport.
Recent months have seen significant progress from the UPV-CMT on three interconnected fronts. First, an Energy Management Strategy (EMS), an optimisation algorithm designed to maximise hydrogen efficiency by intelligently splitting power demand between the fuel cell system and the battery, has been successfully integrated into the heavy-duty vehicle simulation platform Cruise-M. This task, in particular, required constant communication with AVL and ADVENT to update the EMS with the latest performance data for ADVENT’s HT-PEMFC technology. Second, regarding the durability evaluation of the HT-PEMFC technology, UPV-CMT has calibrated a semi-empirical degradation model based on PBI-based fuel cell data, achieving very low error against 100-hour Accelerated Stress Test (AST) data generated by the project partner TU Graz. This model will next be calibrated for the innovative Ion-Pair Membrane (IPM) technology being developed within MEAsureD, with the ultimate ambition of designing a 1,000-hour AST protocol that can reliably represent 20,000 hours of real-world HDV operation. Third, UPV-CMT has initiated the evaluation of HT-PEMFC technology for railway and maritime applications: representative vehicle types and operational routes have been identified, speed and power demand profiles established, and a unified modeling platform, already integrating the EMS, has been built for both sectors.
These advances collectively mark a remarkable step towards validating the full potential of MEAsureD’s HT-PEMFC technology. Once the ongoing simulation campaigns are complete, UPV-CMT expects to determine the optimal sizing of the fuel cell stack, hydrogen tank, and battery for both railway and maritime applications, directly informing the design of future clean-propulsion systems beyond road transport. Together with the degradation modeling work, which bridges short laboratory tests and decades-long operational lifetimes, the UPV-CMT’s contributions are helping to build the scientific and engineering foundation that MEAsureD needs to reach Technology Readiness Level 4 and, ultimately, accelerate Europe’s transition to zero-emission heavy-duty mobility.
