The transportation industry is one of the largest consumers of energy in the U.S. economy with increasing demand to make it cleaner and more efficient. While more people are using electric cars, designing electric-powered planes, ships and submarines is much harder due to power and energy requirements.
A team of engineers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a high-power fuel cell that advances technology in this area. Led by Vijay Ramani, the Roma B. and Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished University Professor, the team has developed a direct borohydride fuel cell that operates at double the voltage of today’s commercial fuel cells.
This advancement using a unique pH-gradient-enabled microscale bipolar interface (PMBI), reported in Nature Energy Feb. 25, could power a variety of transportation modes — including unmanned underwater vehicles, drones and eventually electric aircraft — at significantly lower cost.
“The pH-gradient-enabled microscale bipolar interface is at the heart of this technology,” said Ramani, also professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering. “It allows us to run this fuel cell with liquid reactants and products in submersibles, in which neutral buoyancy is critical, while also letting us apply it in higher-power applications such as drone flight.”
The fuel cell developed at Washington University uses an acidic electrolyte at one electrode and an alkaline electrolyte at the other electrode. Typically, the acid and alkali will quickly react when brought in contact with each other. Ramani said the key breakthrough is the PMBI, which is thinner than a strand of human hair. Using membrane technology developed at the McKelvey Engineering School, the PMBI can keep the acid and alkali from mixing, forming a sharp pH gradient and enabling the successful operation of this system.
“Previous attempts to achieve this kind of acid-alkali separation were not able to synthesize and fully characterize the pH gradient across the PMBI,” said Shrihari Sankarasubramanian, a research scientist on Ramani’s team. “Using a novel electrode design in conjunction with electroanalytical techniques, we were able to unequivocally show that the acid and alkali remain separated.”
Lead author Zhongyang Wang, a doctoral candidate in Ramani’s lab, added: “Once the PBMI synthesized using our novel membranes was proven to work effectively, we optimized the fuel cell device and identified the best operating conditions to achieve a high-performance fuel cell. It has been a tremendously challenging and rewarding pathway to developing the new ion-exchange membranes that has enabled the PMBI.”
“This is a very promising technology, and we are now ready to move on to scaling it up for applications in both submersibles and drones,” Ramani said.
The Latest on: Fuel cell
via Google News
The Latest on: Fuel cell
- Fuel for Drug Resistance on April 17, 2019 at 11:10 am
Led by Senthil Muthuswamy, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess, the researchers further identified a key protein that imports leucine into cells and modulates sensitivity to ... […]
- Direct Methanol Fuel Cells Market Will Grow Rapidly Owing To Investment In Cleaner Energy Sources In Order To Reduce Carbon Emission Till 2023 on April 17, 2019 at 8:06 am
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) is a power source for the portable devices that produces electric power by the direct conversion of the methanol fuel at the fuel cell anode. These fuel cells are ... […]
- Board delays vote on fuel cell plant proposal, says it needs 'a lot of study' on April 16, 2019 at 2:57 pm
A California energy company is proposing to build a fuel cell plant in Medford that the firm says will be cleaner and cheaper than traditional power plants. Bloom Energy Corp., based in Sunnyvale, ... […]
- Intelligent Energy leads UAV fuel cell power market with launch of 2.4kW module on April 16, 2019 at 10:37 am
Extends product portfolio to offer a flight duration of over five times that compared to batteries Provides reliable solution for powering heavier and larger UAVs with higher payloads Loughborough, ... […]
- A Fuel-Cell Maker Needs a Savior and Nobody's Raising a Hand on April 16, 2019 at 8:25 am
(Bloomberg) -- FuelCell Energy Inc. has spent 50 years trying to take its low-pollution power plants mainstream. It’s running out of time. Just a decade ago, the Danbury, Connecticut-based ... […]
- Symbio JV to push fuel cell technology on April 15, 2019 at 12:35 pm
French auto suppliers Fauecia SA and Michelin are working together to accelerate automotive fuel cell technology. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture in ... […]
- Fuel Cell on April 15, 2019 at 11:41 am
Hyundai last week made the first U.S. delivery of its Nexo fuel-cell vehicle—to a customer in Southern California. Although the customer, Todd Hochrad, picked the Nexo... read more January 3, 2019 by ... […]
- Plug Power to Supply GenDrive Fuel Cells to Lipari Foods on April 11, 2019 at 8:04 am
Plug Power Inc. PLUG announced that it has entered into an agreement with Lipari Foods to strengthen its expanding customer base. Plug Power will supply GenDrive fuel cells and provide GenFuel ... […]
- New structures pave way for higher-capacity hydrogen fuel cells on April 10, 2019 at 5:02 pm
New metal organic frameworks may boost the performance of hydrogen fuel cells to new heights, new research suggests. A hydrogen fuel cell is a zero-harmful-emissions power source that acts like a ... […]
- 2019 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell arrives with tiny price hike, tiny range reduction on April 10, 2019 at 12:06 pm
The Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is one of a small number of hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles available in the US, and the latest model year is soon to hit dealers in California. Honda on Wednesday ... […]
via Bing News