Biomimetic design applied to fuel cell redesign

拟议的研究集中在一项新兴技术——燃料电池——它将在可持续能源系统的发展中发挥不可或缺的作用。燃料电池几乎被普遍认为是未来能源转换的首选设备，它比广泛使用的内燃机排放更低，效率更高。加拿大很早就认识到燃料电池的潜力，并营造了一种环境，使新公司可以很容易地找到进行尖端燃料电池研发所需的人员和资源。然而，与世界各地的燃料电池公司一样，加拿大公司也面临着许多严峻的挑战。位于安大略省密西沙加（Mississauga）的Hydrogenics公司是我们在该应用中的合作伙伴，它是PEM燃料电池技术的领导者，并帮助确定了成本设计挑战，包括材料选择、零件制造和系统制造问题，以及性能设计挑战，包括传热、传质、化学反应速率和小型化。对于工程问题，有许多优雅的解决方案都是受到生物现象的启发。我们相信生物能源系统为燃料电池的设计提供了丰富的思路。生物能源系统使用广泛的燃料，是分布式系统，并采用不同的电子和离子传输机制，以及传输特定分子的机制，特别是跨膜。多伦多大学的BIDLab（创新与设计仿生学实验室）开发了一种方法，通过这种方法，可以系统客观地识别与任何给定工程问题相关的生物类比。相关生物类比背后的策略将应用于开发新的概念，以解决上述燃料电池的挑战。其目的不是直接复制生物系统，而是确定如何最好地抽象和使用更高层次的生物策略来激发燃料电池的解决方案。这些概念中最有前途的将与Hydrogenics合作进行原型设计。

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.