Portable fuel cell uses

Table 6.4 Properties of Various Methanol Alternatives Being Considered for Portable Fuel Cell Use... 

D arrigo G, Spinella C, Arena G, Lorenti S (2003) Fabrication of miniaturised Si-based electrocatalytic membranes. Mater Sci Eng C 23 13-18 Deplobain S, Gautier G (2008) Cell holder for fuel cell. US Patent 12/679,266 Desplobain S, Gautier G, Ventura L, Bouillon P (2009) Macroporous silicon hydrogen diffusion layers for micro-fuel cells. Phys Stat Solid (a) 206 1282-1285 Dyer CK (2002) Fuel cells for portable applications. J Power Sources 106 31-34 Dzhafarov T, Yuksel SA (2011) Nano-porous silicon-bases mini hydrogen fuel cells. Intech, Rejka Croatia... 

The development of portable fuel cells had been underpinned by US space and military programs. Though good number of companies have brought out their prototype and demonstration model, commercial production for consumer electronic application is way off due to high cost and bulkiness of the state of the art product. Details of inicrofuel cells developed by some of the organizations are described as follows. 

Prior to this appointment. Dr. Wilkinson was the director, and then vice president of research and development at Ballard Power Systems and involved with the research, development, and application of fuel cell technology for transportation, stationary power, and portable applications. Until 2003, Dr. Wilkinson was the leading all-time fuel cell inventor by number of issued US. patents. Dr. Wilkinson s main research interest is in electrochemical power sources and processes to create clean and sustainable energy. He is an active member of the Electrochemical Society, the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Chemical Institute of Canada, and the American Chemical Society. 

The high price paid for Li ion batteries today (except for power users, the cost may be some 15-25 euro or US per kWh for typical average operational use of cameras and laptops over an assumed 4-year lifetime of the battery) makes portable applications an inviting niche market for new technologies such as fuel cells. 

The use of methanol and a PEM fuel cell in combination with a miniature reformer has been contemplated in a US army project (Palo et al, 2002). For a 15-W, 1-kg portable power device, an energy density of 2.6 MJ kg was found. An auxiliary battery is stiU required in order to start the reformer system up. 

Darnell Group Inc. 2003 Euel cells for portable power Markets, manufacture and cost. Revised final report (4) for Breakthrough Technologies and US Fuel Cell Council, submitted 13 January 2003, Corona, CA. 

Regarding costs, Neburchilov et al. [3] pointed out that the contribution of the membrane to a PEM stack should be lower than US 10 per kW, although this limit could be much higher for mini or micro DAFC, taking into account that the cost of small fuel cells for portable applications would be in the order of US 17AV [13]. 

The PEMFC system has seen such an important development in the last ten years that it would be impossible to describe in few lines the extent of its application. The transport area is surely the most challenging. After fluctuating periods, serious advances have been made on the cost and efficiency levels. Daimler is announcing a well-planned market entry for a fuel cell vehicle in 2014. US and Japanese developers are also ready. Already there are several buses fleet in many European, American and Asian cities. Light portable applications have their niche markets and numerous PEMFC units are already in use for residential applications, most particularly in Japan. In Canada, the first commercial benefits from PEMFC systems have been registered in the three last years. Moreover, the intense research activity on membranes and the opportunities offered by higher operating temperatures and relatively low humidity open an important field of development. 

Since the begirming of the invention of fuel cells, hydrogen has primarily been considered as the fuel. The difficulty in safe storage and transportation of hydrogen has limited its wide applications in automobiles and portable electronics. Under the motivation of US department of Defense in 1960s, the earliest work to develop fuel cells that could operate... 

Within the US Army s Communications - Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC), the Army Power Division (ATO) is devoted to testing and demonstrating potential portable soldier power solutions. The ATO s most recent areas of interest in fuel cells are shown in Table 37.1. 

Edlund, D. (2005) Development of a compact 250w portable power supply for commercial and military markets, presentation at the Fuel Cell Conference (November 15-17), Palm Springs, California, US,... 

Payne, T. 2009. DOE fuel cell R D activities Transportation, stationary, and portable power applications, in Fuel Cells Durability Performance. US Brookline The Knowledge Press Inc. 

The first commercial application for high volume MEA production will be for small portable electronics, which is driven by ever increasing power requirements and for longer duration energy sources. The US Fuel Cell Council, which has over 115 corporate members, has forecasted that the fuel cell market for small portable electronics will be 2 billion by 2011 with the potential of a 70% market penetration into the lithium ion battery market by 2007. To get a better understanding of this market size it is also forecasted that there will be 1.6 billion cell phone subscribers in 2007 worldwide, 76 million laptop shipments in 2007 and 37 million shipments of PDAs (personal digital assistants) in 2007. 

The Portable power supply to electronic equipment from DAFC (direct alcohol fuel cell) and DAAFC (direct alcohol alkaline fuel cell) should have minimum recharging interval of 10-12 hours. Recharging means changing of methanol and ethanol fuel cartridges. Cost targets are (a) stack cost US 150-200/kW, (b) fuel cost US 1-1.5/kg. Fuel Efficiency is 30-40%. 

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