Fuel third generation

As of 1995, there were no nuclear fuel reprocessing plants operating in the United States. Other nuclear nations have constmcted second- or third-generation reprocessing faciUties. These nations have signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and the faciUties are under the purview of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

None of these second- or third-generation processes has been commercialized, largely because of the relatively low price of available Hquid and gaseous fuels. 

Hyundai introduced its new i-Blue Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. The i-Blue platform incorporates Hyundai s third-generation fuel cell technology and is powered by a 100-kW electrical engine and fuel cell stack. It is fueled with compressed hydrogen at 700 bar stored in a 115 liter tank. The i-Blue is capable of running more than 600-km per refueling stop and has a maximum speed of 165-km/h. 

XAS has been successfully employed in the characterization of a number of catalysts used in low temperature fuel cells. Analysis of the XANES region has enabled determination of the oxidation state of metal atoms in the catalyst or, in the case of Pt, the d band vacancy per atom, while analysis of the EXAFS has proved to be a valuable structural tool. However, the principal advantage of XAS is that it can be used in situ, in a flooded half-cell or true fuel cell environment. While the number of publications has been limited thus far, the increased availability of synchrotron radiation sources, improvements in beam lines brought about by the development of third generation sources, and the development of more readily used analysis software should increase the accessibility of the method. It is hoped that this review will enable the nonexpert to understand both the power and limitations of XAS in characterizing fuel cell electrocatalysts. 

Fuel Cell Vehicle Demonstration. This project will demonstrate the third generation Ford fuel cell Focus. Five vehicles will operate in Vancouver, beginning in 2004. The project is managed by Fuel Cells Canada and funded by Natural Resources Canada, the government of British Columbia and the National Research Council. Results ofthe demonstration project will be used to influence future technology development. The budget is C 5.8 million over three years. 

Daimler-Benz unveiled a third-generation PEM-fuel-cell vehicle the experimental NECAR HI, powered by a 50-kilowatt Ballard fuel cell running on methanol. 

M. Fuchs, F. Barbir and M. Nadal, Performance of Third Generation Fuel Cell Powered Utility Vehicle 2 with Metal Hydride Fuel Storage , presented at the 2001 European Pol5uner Electrolyte Fuel Cell Forum, Lucerne, Switzerland, July 2001... 

Fuji Electric Advanced Technology of Japan is working on developing similar sized 1 kW residential PEM fuel cell power units. "Its third generation units have an electrical efficiency of 31%, heat recovery efficiency of 42% and an operating life of 10 000 h whilst its pre-production unit, currently under development, will have an electrical efficiency of 32%, heat recovery efficiency of 42% and a targeted 20 000 h lifetime," notes Adamson (2005). Fuji has run several small demonstrations of its fuel cell systems and hopes to commercialize them by 2008 at 12000-16000 each, but with a goal of 2500-4000 by 2015 (Adamson 2005). 

In Japan, the experimental fast reactor "Joyo started operation in 1975 following the criticality test equipment called fast critical assembly (FCA). Joyo has run irradiation tests for domestic fuel material and increased the core thermal output as well. At the beginning of operation, the thermal output of the core was 100 MW. Currently, it employs a third-generation core, called the MK-in, with 140 MW thermal output. 

Figure 5.62 Third generation fuel processor/fuel cell system as designed by Aoki et al. [447], It was composed ofa microchannel coupled reformer/afterburner and an air-cooled medium temperature...

A third generation system, as shown in Figure 5.62. It was composed of a microchannel oxidative steam reformer, which was supplied with water and air from the cathode off-gas. It was operated at a S/Cratio 1.9andanO/Cratioof0.15. The microchannel reformer was internally coupled to a catalytic burner, which was supplied with residual hydrogen from the fuel cell anode and cooling air from the cathode. The medium temperature fuel cell (operated between 400 and 600 °C) was cooled by air and worked with a metallic membrane. The membrane had the additional function of an anode electrode. BaCeo.g03 served as the cathode electrolyte. 

The start-up time demand of the third generation system could be reduced drastically to 1 min according to the calculations. The fuel processor efficiency was increased to 80% and the overall system effidency reached 48% because of the utilisation of the cathode air in the reformer and the simplifications which became possible by application of the high temperature fuel cell. 

This development work was performed in several stages 2- and 10-kW systems [402] were built before the final size of 25 kW was achieved with the third generation prototype. The size of the 10-kW second generation methanol fuel processor was still fairly bulky at more than 860 L [402]. However, the efficiency of about 82% was relatively high already for membrane separation. The membrane separation modules have been described in Section 7.4. Figure 9.14 shows the gas flows and gas compositions for the 10-kWei system. About 95% methanol conversion was achieved and the reformate contained 3 vol.% carbon monoxide. The system had a high startup time demand of between 30 and 60 min. The response to the load changes required between 2 and 3 min [402]. 

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