Gasoline Fuel Cell Would Boost Electric Car Range

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39203/?p1=A1

Energy

Gasoline Fuel Cell Would Boost Electric Car Range

The advanced fuel cell could eliminate range anxiety and make electric cars more practical, while keeping carbon-dioxide emissions low.

Friday, December 2, 2011
By Kevin Bullis

Gas guzzler: The fuel cell developed at the University of Maryland.
University of Maryland

If you want to take an electric car on a long drive, you need a gas-powered generator, like the one in the Chevrolet Volt, to extend its range. The problem is that when it's running on the generator, it's no more efficient than a conventional car. In fact, it's even less efficient, because it has a heavy battery pack to lug around.

Now researchers at the University of Maryland have made a fuel cell that could provide a far more efficient alternative to a gasoline generator. Like all fuel cells, it generates electricity through a chemical reaction, rather than by burning fuel, and can be twice as efficient at generating electricity as a generator that uses combustion.

The researchers' fuel cell is a greatly improved version of a type that has a solid ceramic electrolyte, and is known as a solid-oxide fuel cell. Unlike the hydrogen fuel cells typically used in cars, solid-oxide fuel cells can run on a variety of readily available fuels, including diesel, gasoline, and natural gas. They've been used for generating power for buildings, but they've been considered impractical for use in cars because they're far too big and because they operate at very high temperatures—typically at about 900 ⁰C.

By developing new electrolyte materials and changing the cell's design, the researchers made a fuel cell that is much more compact. It can produce 10 times as much power, for its size, as a conventional one, and could be smaller than a gasoline engine while producing as much power.

…

[RC]

1. Link for info in OP.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39203/?p1=A1

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Thanks! Left that out somehow…

:hi:

[mpgalloway]

3. Just another spam for funding for vaporware...

Every week for 20 years I have a drawer full of new energy saving inventions that will change the world.

If they work they are bought and shelved by the 1% owners of the energy cartels. Or no funding just like the
Aptera car company closing it's doors today.

Our future is fossil fuels until the world is destroyed. I'm tired of hearing about future energy saving inventions
that we will never see because of our politically corrupt system.

In case you think I'm negative. I talk from experience. There is no energy crisis. The crisis is a "for profit crisis"
created for us by our chicken shit leaders afraid to bite the hand that pays them.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Yeah, those MIT spammers… They’re notorious…

:sarcasm:

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Want Fuel Cells? Think Outside the Hydrogen Tank

http://www.mse.umd.edu/news/news_story.php?id=6128

Want Fuel Cells? Think Outside the Hydrogen Tank

…

Wachsman and his colleagues are working to change that. In the November 18 issue of Science, the team outlines the technology behind a new world record power density SOFC that generates two watts of power per square centimeter at 650° Celsius (1200° Fahrenheit). The cell uses a bi-layer electrolyte developed by Wachsman that is more than 100 times more conductive than the conventional zirconia-based electrolyte operating at the same temperature–also a world record. When the cells are assembled into a stack they should produce three kilowatts of electricity per kilogram of material, more than an internal combustion engine at approximately one-third the size.

The paper lays out a strategy to further lower temperature. The team believes its improvements to SOFC electrolytes and nanostructured-electrode designs could ultimately reduce the cells' operating temperature to only 350° Celsius (660° Fahrenheit). At that temperature they could start up fast enough for automotive applications, and would be more efficient and more affordable than current SOFCs because they could be manufactured from less expensive materials.

Progress At Risk

The DOE's 2012 budget request, however, does not include funding for the SOFC program, effectively eliminating it from the agency's research priorities and greatly reducing funding options for groups like Wachsman's. This decision, he believes, was made without a complete understanding of recent significant advances in SOFC technology such as those described in the Science paper, which, combined with their fuel-flexibility, put them in an ideal position to improve nationwide energy efficiency today.

In the current issue of Energy and Environmental Science, Wachsman and his colleagues, Craig A. Marlowe and Kang Taek Lee, make the case that SOFCs should be an integral part of our energy policy. SOFCs, they argue, meet all of the DOE's six key energy strategies: they deploy clean electricity, make use of alternative fuels, help modernize the power grid, will help gradually electrify the vehicles we drive, increase vehicle fuel efficiency, and increase building and industrial efficiency.

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1204090

[kristopher]

6. "effectively eliminating it" - That's good.

"The DOE's 2012 budget request, however, does not include funding for the SOFC program, effectively eliminating it..."


We've had enough hyping of fuel cells.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Nissan To Release Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle By 2015

http://inhabitat.com/nissan-to-release-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicle-by-2015/

Nissan To Release Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle By 2015

by Timon Singh, 11/30/11

Nissan is already dominating the electric car market with its http://inhabitat.com/the-nissan-leaf-officially-launches-in-japan/">Nissan Leaf, but they are about to take their sustainably powered agenda to the next level with a new strategy. According to the Japanese car maker, within the next four years, http://green.autoblog.com/2011/11/29/nissan-fuel-cell-vehicle-on-track-for-2015/">Nissan will release a brand new hydrogen-powered vehicle.The news was announced in Japan where Nissan showed off its next-generation fuel cell stack, saying that the hydrogen cell currently has the world’s best power density for its size. Compared to their 2005 model, Nissan said that the new hydrogen fuel cell has 250% more storage capacity, in addition to being lighter and smaller than the current version. For those that are interested, the current hydrogen fuel cell is 265lbs, whereas the new model is only 90lbs.

So how else does this hydrogen fuel cell differ from existing models? Nissan states that http://www.autoblog.com/photos/nissan-3rd-generation-fuel-cell/">this third-generation fuel cell stack uses an improved Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) that reduces the size by 50%. It also uses much less platinum which reduces the cost to 1/6 of what it previously was. This means that in the future, your average car driver will be able to afford them.

However, cost is still the main issue — particularly as the price tag for producing a hydrogen cell is around $50,000. But Nissan is confident that they could still reduce this price while increasing the storage even further. The release of a Nissan hydrogen-powered car is currently rumored to cost $128,000, but it is hoped that this will fall dramatically over the next four years.

…

[Gregorian]

8. Good stuff. They're finally getting serious.

The solid oxide is probably the way forward. I've been working with someone on solid oxide fuel cells for something similar.

The machining, mining, smelting, and everything else that goes into building an engine, and generator is prohibitive.

Until recently the fuel cell has not gotten the attention it deserves. And it's a very old concept.

[kristopher]

That view really doesn't track history

A fuel cell is the device to convert energy from one type of energy carrier (electricity) to another type of energy carrier (hydrogen) then back to the original energy carrier (electricity). In the case of the OP we need to change the first step to converting from chemical energy to hydrogen to electricity. Using reformers is nothing new.

The entire "hydrogen economy" dead end we've focused on for decades has been about fuel cells,

There is a reason the "hydrogen economy" is no longer being pursued. The problem is that the overall system efficiency of any economy build around the process involved in making. storing, distributing and reconverting to useful power is prohibitively expensive in terms of the original energy generating infrastructure required.

[Bob Wallace]

10. The hydrogen niche...

I generally agree that hydrogen is not likely to be the energy storage system for most of our future travel, but there might be a small role for it to play.

Hydrogen might be useful for specialized uses such as agriculture where we need to move a lot of energy to equipment in a hurry and large transmission lines are not an option. Hydrogen tanker trucks (or whatever form hydrogen storage takes) could service a combine in a remote field.

I really doubt hydrogen will ever get cheap enough to compete with electricity and battery storage for personal vehicles, but it might have a cost advantage in some situations.

Of course if batteries greatly improve in storage ability then we can as easily use swapable battery packs.

[kristopher]

11. Absolutely agree.

Although I'm not sure stored hydrogen will prevail over reformed hydrocarbons from biomass. Farms in particular have the potential to be virtually a closed loop system.

[Bob Wallace]

13. Biofuel...

E. coli chomping on switchgrass is likely to be a big competitor for hydrogen.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/11/jbei-20111129.html

Switchgrass has all sorts of nice things going for it. It's perennial which requires almost no fertilizer and little water. It will grow on marginal land which isn't usable for food or fiber production. It has a very extensive root system which improves the soil on which it grows and it fixes a lot of carbon underground via its roots.

It can be grown in swaths between crop fields and used as a water/topsoil/fertilizer trap to keep stuff out of our streams.

It's basically a 'cut it down and bale it' crop. Low energy input.

It's one of the native grasses which once covered the American plains. There is a new variety which doesn't reach seed stage and produces more sugar.

We can burn the fuels in existing engines which are a very mature and affordable technology unlike fuel cells which are still very expensive.

[kristopher]

16. Here we diverge...

The applications where the energy density of biofuels is required especially benefit from the improved efficiency that electrification by fuel cells offer over an ICE.

[Gregorian]

12. I never mentioned hydrogen.

But one thing that I will is natural gas.

We're working on a fuel cell hot water heater. There's a shitload of energy going up water heater vents while people are asleep and at work.

Efficiency isn't even as important as stopping the carbon dioxide pollution. Right now we have billions of "campfires" burning to heat water.

In the long run I'm now of the mind that we're fucked. I mean let's just look at the billion people who just arrived on earth since 1992. Their shoes, medical waste, disposable diapers. But I digress.

I think it's good to work on this stuff, but I think it's over. I'm probably just burned out from 40 years of agonizing over it. I'm worn out.

[kristopher]

15. I was addressing what you said about fuel cells not receiving attention.

The hydrogen economy push was built around fuel cells.

As far as water heaters being wasteful - yes they are. However that isn't a strong argument just for fuel cells as there are quite a number of way's to reduce the fossil load for water heating. Although I prefer approaches oriented around solar, the same argument you are using can be made for combined cycle small turbines. I'm sure a range of solutions will be applied.

[kristopher]

9. deleted duplicate

[JohnWxy]

14. fascinating!