Biomimetic design applied to fuel cell redesign

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The proposed research focuses on an emerging technology - fuel cells - that will play an integral role in the development of sustainable energy systems. Fuel cells are almost universally viewed as the energy conversion device of choice in the future, offering much lower emissions and greater efficiency than the internal combustion engines in widespread use. Canada recognized early the potential for fuel cells and has fostered an environment in which new companies can readily find the people and resources needed to conduct leading edge fuel cell research and development. However, Canadian companies, similar to fuel cell companies around the world, face many serious challenges. Hydrogenics, a Mississauga, Ontario based company and our partner in this application, is a leader in PEM fuel cell technology and has helped identify cost design challenges, including materials selection, part manufacturing and systems manufacturing issues, and performance design challenges, including heat transfer, mass transfer, chemical reaction rate and miniaturization.      There are many elegant solutions to engineering problems that were inspired by biological phenomena. We believe that biological energy systems offer a rich source of ideas relevant to fuel cell design. Biological energy systems utilize a wide range of fuels, are distributed systems, and employ diverse mechanisms for electron and ion transport, as well as mechanisms for transporting specific molecules, especially across membranes.  The BIDLab (Biomimetics for Innovation and Design Laboratory) at the University of Toronto has developed a method by which biological analogies relevant to any given engineering problem can be identified in a systematic and objective manner.  Strategies behind relevant biological analogies will be applied to develop novel concepts to address the above fuel cell challenges. The aim is not to directly copy biological systems, but rather determine how to best abstract and use higher-level biological strategies to inspire fuel cell solutions.  The most promising of these concepts will be selected for prototyping in collaboration with Hydrogenics.