Last 27th October 2021, the follow-up meeting of the MEDUSA 300 Phase I Project took place in the offices of the General Sub-Directorate for Planning, Technology and Innovation (SDG PLATIN) of the Ministry of Defence. The members of the MEDUSA Joint Venture, together with their collaborator the Fluid Physics Laboratory of the UNED, satisfactorily presented the results achieved related to the scaling, the optimisation of components and the design of 1 kW technological demonstrators. MEDUSA Joint Venture is a temporary union of companies constituted by the CIDAUT Foundation and JALVASUB Engineering to carry out the Phase I of the MEDUSA 300 Project.

The milestone reached is of great importance for the development of the next phases of the Project. It means having demonstrated the national technological and industrial capacity required to start, with all the guarantees and without risk, the manufacture of the PEM fuel cell demonstrators. This demonstration is intended to be on the real scale required for the S-80 submarine and with functional features achieved that even exceed those specified in the project.

This project will develop the fuel cell system for the AIP S-80 Spanish submarines, which will be based on the innovative design of the ULPHE-PEM (Ultra-Light Platinum Content High Efficient- PEM Fuel Cell). The ULPHE-PEM fuel cell is a new generation of polymeric fuel cells, which can operate both at low and high temperatures, and which is based on a completely Spanish-patented technology, more efficient and with lower weight, volume, and cost than those presently existing on the market.