Advanced methods and materials for quality assurance of fuel cell hydrogen

由于在运输行业使用化石燃料对环境造成的破坏，已经制定了国家和国际目标，以减少二氧化碳排放。这个问题的一个解决方案是进一步采用以氢为燃料来源的燃料电池汽车。预计到2030年，英国将有160万辆燃料电池汽车上路，1100个加氢站正在运营，以支持这一不断增长的行业。在欧洲，所有加氢站都必须证明其储存的氢气足够纯净，以防止燃料电池组件的降解。国际标准ISO 14687-2：20122规定了燃料电池氢中可能存在的13种气态杂质的最高杂质水平。执行该标准的质量控制存在很大的分析挑战，因为所列出的大多数杂质将很难使用标准技术进行测量。一些杂质，如氧气，很大程度上受到空气污染的影响，而另一些杂质，如甲醛，规定的水平如此之低，以至于需要专门的设备来提供准确的测量。尽管ISO 14687-2：2012 2建议了许多技术来分析这些杂质，但所需设备的体积使得提供完整的分析对于大多数实验室来说是不合理的。在某些情况下，需要9台以上的设备，这使得实验室的资本成本非常高。此外，由于燃料供应商希望尽可能多地保存他们的产品，因此需要大量的样品，这是不合理的。这个博士项目将调查如何通过使用钯合金膜进行氢浓缩来使杂质测量变得更容易、更便宜，以及开发这种设备所涉及的一些挑战和潜在的解决方案。

Due to the damaging environmental effects of using fossil fuels in the transport industry, national and international targets have been set in order to reduce CO2 emissions. One solution to this problem is the further adoption of fuel cell vehicles which use hydrogen as a fuel source. In the UK it is expected that 1.6 million fuel cell vehicles will be on the road by 2030, with 1,100 hydrogen refueling stations in operation to support this growing sector.In Europe, it is mandatory for all hydrogen refueling stations to prove that their stored hydrogen is pure enough to prevent degradation of fuel cell components. The international standard ISO 14687 - 2:2012 2 specifies the maximum impurity levels of 13 gaseous impurities that can be present in fuel cell hydrogen. There is a large analytical challenge associated with performing quality control to this standard, as most of the impurities listed will be difficult to measure using standard techniques. Some impurities, such as oxygen, are largely affected by air contamination, while others such as formaldehyde specify such low levels that specialized equipment is required to provide an accurate measurement.While there are a number of techniques suggested by ISO 14687-2:2012 2 to analyze these impurities the volume of equipment required makes providing a full analysis unreasonable for most laboratories. In some cases more than 9 pieces of equipment are required, making the capital cost for a laboratory extremely large. Additionally a large sample would be required which is unreasonable, as fuel suppliers will wish to preserve as much of their product as possible.This PhD project will investigate how impurity measurement could be made easier, and cheaper through the use of hydrogen enrichment using palladium alloy membranes, along with some of the challenges and potential solutions involved in the development of such a device.