Environmental safety, fuel cells

What are the uses of batteries and fuel cells How is electrochemical technology used to produce and protect metals How can you assess the environmental and safety issues associated with these technologies ... 

SAE has established a Fuel Cells Standard Forum that is chartered with the establishment of standards and test procedures for fuel cell powered vehicles. The committee was established in 1999. The standards will cover the safety, performance, reliability and recyclability of fuel cell systems in vehicles with emphasis on efficiency and environmental impact. The standards will also establish test procedures for uniformity in test results for the vehicle/systems/components performance, and define interface requirements of the systems to the vehicle. Task Groups have been formed in the areas of safety, performance, reliability, emissions, recyclability, interface and miscellaneous. 

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) constitute one class of the chemical sources. SOFC ensure much more effective electric power production and environmental safety as compared with conventional power generation technologies [1,2,3],... 

A surplus of hydrogen and oxygen has to supply to the fuel cell to maintain the chemical potential between anode and cathode. The excess of hydrogen downstream of the fuel cell has to be converted due to safety reasons. It is not allowed to release unbumed compounds into the environment. The after burner in a fuel-cell heating appliances ensures that no unbumed substances will be released into the environmental. The heat of combustion of the after burner will be used in fuel-cell heating appliances to supply heat to endothermic reaction and/or supply heat to the heating system of the household. The after burner could be also used to heat up the fuel-cell system during start-up. 

To date, lithium-ion battery is the gold standard for miniaturized power supply. However, it has potential safety issues, and it is neither carbon-neutral nor renewable. Almost all other miniaturized power supplies including hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear batteries, Ni-Cd batteries, and lead-acid batteries suffer from either safety or environmental issues. MFC is a potential substitute of miniaturized power supply, for its carbon-neutral, renewable, and environmentally friendly characteristics. By applying microfabrication and microfluidic techniques, the advantages of economical mass production and large surface-area-to-volume ratio will enable MFC, a potential candidate in the miniaturized power supply. 

The focus in designing a fuel-cell power system is to develop and optimize the system configuration to meet the specifications of its intended appHcation. These specifications could include the following fuel specification, duty cycle, cost (purchase and installation), cycle efficiency, reliability, maintenance, size and weight, environmental interfaces, cogeneration, acoustic noise, power quaUty, and safety. 

Life cycle assessment of SOFC technology is still uncommon due to the relatively early stage in technical development. However, several studies have been performed since the end of the 1990s. Since there is a lack of standard commercial equipment that could serve as a basis and reference point for analysis, LCA studies mostly refer to hypothetical concepts and/or extrapolate from laboratory and early market prototypes to commercial units. While the first studies had only little access to operation data at aU (for the fuel cell system itself but also for production processes), the main effort was set in the assessment of inventory data using assumptions, simplifications, and correlations [79, 80]. The main outcomes of these studies were the identification of weak points and the setting of benchmarks for further development. With more information about fuel cells available today and a simultaneous advancement in LCA methodology, the studies became more reliable and detailed, regarding system description [81] as well as the assessment of environmental impacts coimected with inputs and outputs [82]. Especially the extensive data of these two studies found their way to commercial databases for LCA [83] and thereby became available to LCA practitioners. In 2005, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)... 

The technology maturity comes with acceptable safety and economics. Moreover, the environmental impact of the implementation of fuel cell technology in various sectors determines the sustainability and overall success of the fuel cell technology and application. In this chapter, the various applications of the fuel cell are discussed. The codes and standards required for the use of fuel cells in a number of applications are reviewed. The chapter concludes with overall environmental considerations of the fuel cell technology. 

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