High Energy Density Fuel and Oxidant Storage for Fuel Cell Systems Suitable for Undersea Power Sources

9362009 Murphy自主水下航行器（AUV）、水下机器人和其他用于海洋应用的仪表化和远程操作系统需要尽可能高效的电源，以提供长距离或延长的使用时间。 显而易见的选择是燃料电池类型的电化学单元。 传统的燃料电池需要氢燃料，并且它们通常使用分子氧作为氧化剂。 例如，在AUV上，这些材料将被期望作为低温液体携带，就像在航天器中一样。 这提出了几个实际问题，其中包括存储，安全和处理的困难，以及AUV上的浮力问题，因为它们被消耗。 本课程研究电化学燃料电池动力系统中使用的替代燃料和氧化剂组合。 目的是探索具有比能量的燃料-氧化剂组合的可能性，这是对低温氢和氧的改进，而且还确定这种组合在其实际比容方面是否具有优势，包括在推进剂耗尽期间可能需要用于位移校正的任何附加体积。

9362009 Murphy Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (AUVs), subsea robots and other instrumented and remotely operated systems for marine applications require a power source which is as efficient as possible to give long range or extended use times. The obvious choice is an electrochemical unit of fuel cell type. Conventional fuel cells require hydrogen fuel, and they normally use molecular oxygen as oxidant. Aboard an AUV, for instance, these materials would be expected to be carried as cryogenic liquids, as in a space-craft. This presents several practical problems, among which are the difficulties of storage, safety and handling, and buoyancy problems aboard the AUV as they are consumed. This program examines alternative fuel and oxidant combinations for use in an electrochemical fuel cell power system. The objective is to explore the possibility of fuel- oxidant combinations with a specific energy which is an improvement on cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen, but also to determine whether such combinations have advantages in regard to their practical specific volume including any additional volume on board which may be required for displacement corrections during propellant depletion.