The Flexible Fuel Cell

灵活的燃料电池

• 批准号: EP/G041792/1
• 负责人: Anthony Kucernak
• 金额: $ 27.71万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FG041792%2F1
• 关键词: Flexible; Fuel; Cell

Fuel Cells have a problem.The current geometrical design of common fuel cells is not fault tolerant and requires all components to operate in an almost ideal manner. This is because each power generating unit in a fuel cell stack is connected in series: the weakest link in the fuel cell chain dictates performance and reliability. Put simply: if a fuel cell is like a string of batteries all connected in a line, then that fuel cell can only operate as well as the worst performing of all of the batteries. If one of the batteries fails, then the entire fuel cell fails. This means that each battery (or membrane electrode assembly in the fuel cell case) must be produced to very high standards. We need to make sure that none of them fail during the operational life of the fuel cell stack. This makes the fuel cell electrodes very difficult to produce and contributes significantly to their cost. But what if we could design a fuel cell stack so that we can switch out bad units and allow the fuel cell to continue operation?Such a fuel cell would then show fault tolerance and resilience to adverse environmental and internal influences. Indeed it might even be possible to nurse poorly performing electrodes, and coax them back to good health (or at least stop them from failing entirely). In a nut-shell, that is the purpose of this project - to radically redesign how fuel cells operate. This will allow us to have much greater control of the fuel cell operation compared to the configuration used almost exclusively everywhere else. An interesting by-product of the new design is that we can integrate the power control electronics directly with the fuel cell. This means that we can achieve significant space savings and a decrease in the cost of the controlling electronics. In order to produce this new type of fuel cell, we require a very tight coupling between both Chemistry and Chemical Engineering aspects of the work. The development of new types of electrodes is guided by some subtle chemistry associated with the production of 'through-membrane' connectors. The integration of those electrodes into a stack requires a radically different type of housing. Such work must be carefully guided by modelling and simulation, and the results need to be fed back to optimise the electrodes. Thus we require close cooperation between both chemists and engineers in order to ensure the success of the project. The research team will be assisted by four collaborating external partners. These collaborators will assist with the development of the fuel cell system and represent a balanced team representing the development chain: a technology transfer company (Imperial Innovations Ltd) who will manage the commercialisation of this work out of Imperial; an applications developer (Applied intellectual Capital) who will define the market and establish precise operational requirements; a materials supplier / developer (SPC Technologies Ltd) who will supply sample materials for use as flow fields and sealant material and contribute expertise on the processing of porous plastics; and a potential end user (The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) who will test the robust lightweight design against requirements for infantry missions.

燃料电池有一个问题，目前常见的燃料电池的几何设计不能容错，要求所有组件以近乎理想的方式运行。这是因为燃料电池组中的每个发电单元都是串联连接的：燃料电池链中最薄弱的一环决定了性能和可靠性。简单地说：如果燃料电池就像一串连接在一起的电池，那么这个燃料电池只能运行在所有电池中性能最差的一个。如果其中一个电池失效，那么整个燃料电池也会失效。这意味着每个电池(或燃料电池外壳中的膜电极组件)必须以非常高的标准生产。我们需要确保在燃料电池组的使用寿命期间，它们都不会失效。这使得燃料电池电极的生产变得非常困难，并大大增加了成本。但是，如果我们可以设计一种燃料电池组，这样我们就可以更换坏的单元，并允许燃料电池继续运行？这样的燃料电池将显示出容错能力和对不利环境和内部影响的弹性。事实上，甚至有可能对性能不佳的电极进行护理，并诱使它们恢复健康(或者至少阻止它们完全失效)。这就是这个项目的目的--从根本上重新设计燃料电池的运作方式。这将使我们能够比几乎所有其他地方都使用的配置更好地控制燃料电池的运行。新设计的一个有趣的副产品是我们可以直接将功率控制电子设备与燃料电池集成在一起。这意味着我们可以实现显著的空间节约和控制电子设备成本的降低。为了生产这种新型燃料电池，我们需要在化学和化学工程两个方面的工作之间进行非常紧密的耦合。新型电极的开发是由一些微妙的化学物质指导的，这些化学物质与“穿透膜”连接器的生产有关。将这些电极集成到电堆中需要完全不同类型的外壳。这项工作必须通过建模和模拟来仔细指导，结果需要反馈以优化电极。因此，我们需要化学家和工程师之间的密切合作，以确保该项目的成功。研究小组将由四个合作的外部合作伙伴协助。这些合作者将协助燃料电池系统的开发，并代表一个代表开发链的平衡团队：一家技术转让公司(Imperial Innovation Ltd)，负责管理Imperial公司这项工作的商业化；一家应用程序开发商(应用智力资本公司)，负责定义市场并制定精确的操作要求；一家材料供应商/开发商(SPC Technologies Ltd)，负责提供用作流场和密封剂材料的样品材料，并提供多孔塑料加工方面的专业知识；以及一家潜在的最终用户(国防科学技术实验室)，负责针对步兵任务的要求测试轻质设计。

项目成果

Mechanical, electrical and microstructural characterisation of multifunctional structural power composites

• DOI: 10.1177/0021998314554125
• 发表时间: 2015-06-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Greenhalgh, E. S.;Ankersen, J.;Wienrich, M.
• 通讯作者: Wienrich, M.

Development of open-cathode polymer electrolyte fuel cells using printed circuit board flow-field plates: Flow geometry characterisation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.08.106
• 发表时间: 2014-10
• 期刊: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
• 影响因子: 7.2
• 作者: Oluwamayowa A. Obeisun;Q. Meyer;James B. Robinson;C. Gibbs;A. Kucernak;P. Shearing;D. Brett

Analysis of effective surface area for electrochemical reaction derived from mass transport property

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2014.09.023
• 发表时间: 2014-11-15
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF ELECTROANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
• 影响因子: 4.5
• 作者: Iden, Hiroshi;Kucernak, Anthony R.
• 通讯作者: Kucernak, Anthony R.

Dataset for the paper "A catalyst layer optimisation approach using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for PEM fuel cells operated with pyrolysed transition metal-N-C catalysts", J Power Sources, 2016, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.05.035

论文“使用电化学阻抗谱优化 PEM 燃料电池的催化剂层优化方法（使用热解过渡金属-N-C 催化剂）”的数据集，J Power Sources，2016 年，DOI：10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.05.035

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.51438
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Zenodo
• 作者: Kucernak

Assessing the performance of reactant transport layers and flow fields towards oxygen transport: A new imaging method based on chemiluminescence

评估反应物传输层和氧传输流场的性能：基于化学发光的新成像方法

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2014.10.055
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Journal of Power Sources
• 影响因子: 9.2
• 作者: Lopes T