SFC Energy

SFC Energy AG (formerly Smart Fuel Cell) is a world leader in developing DMFC systems as battery chargers for various applications. It has achieved sales of more than 25,000 units, which is one of the world s highest fuel cell sales figmes. Its product portfolio includes the EFOY 600, 900, 1200, 1600,... 

The DMFC systems developed by SFC Energy bear great similarities. The specifications of the EFOY Pro DMFC systems are listed in Table 7.6. These systems are used to charge 12 or 24 V Pb-acid batteries. The nominal... 

Picture of EFOY 1600 DMFC system. Courtesy of SFC Energy. 

Source Adapted from SFC Energy website. Data Sheet EFOY Pro Series Fuel Cells USA/ CAN, http //www.efoy-pro.com/sites/default/files/110512 data sheet mdustry efoy pro us.pdf. 

SFC Energy AG (formerly Smart Fuel Cells) A world leader in developing and manufacturing DMFC systems as battery chargers for various apphcations. SFC Energy AG was foimded by Dr. Manfred Stefener in 2000 with headquarters located in Germany. Company website http //www.sfc.com. 

In the light traction sector, the only marketable products in Germany are also manufactured by SFC Energy. They are based on the DMFC EFOY Pro Series. These devices are referred to as range extenders, internal chargers for the batteries of electric scooters or small electric cars with a maximum electric power of 90 W, which make the range of these vehicles greater. 

SFC Energy AG verkauft 20.000 EFOY-Brennstoffzell. Press Release, 18 January 2011, http //www. investor-fc.de/de/pm.php type=pmSjid 224e[year=2011el ang=de (last accessed 18 January 2012). 

The best fuel-ceU stacks and systems today currently achieve lifetimes of at least 3000 h. SFC Energy, for example, guarantees an operating Hfe of 3000 h within 36 months for its commercial DMFC systems. However, these systems only have a maximum power of 65 W, and the guaranteed 3000 h can also involve replacement of a stack [104], The Danish company IRD Fuel Cell Technology markets an 800 W DM FC system which also has a Hfetime of 3000 h [105]. 

Fig. 9.18 JENNY fuel cell by SFC energy (Courtesy of Google)...

The Self-Consistent (SfC) (G)RECP version [23, 19, 24, 27] allows one to minimize errors for energies of transitions with the change of the occupation numbers for the OuterMost Core (OMC) shells without extension of space of explicitly treated electrons. It allows one to take account of relaxation of those core shells, which are explicitly excluded from the GRECP calculations, thus going beyond the frozen core approximation. This method is most optimal for studying compounds of transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides. Features of constructing the self-consistent GRECP are ... 

In testing the SFC specimens, acoustic emission (AE) was monitored while the specimens were strained, by counting AE events and recording the energy associated with the events. In combination with optical microscopy, it was of interest to identify the correspondence between AE events and fiber fragmentation. The first results along these lines are also reported. 

In addition to the direct observation of fiber fragmentation through the optical microscope, acoustic emission accompanying fiber fracture was also monitored by a piezoelectric transducer positioned at the center of the SFC specimen. Both the number of acoustic events and the energy of the pulses were measured. Thus, the correspondence between fiber fracture, observed microscopically, and the AE events accompanying it could be established as shown in Fig. 10. 

Figure 11. AE energy distribution of fiber fracture in SFC specimens (1) untreated, and (2) A0750 (APS), (3) PS076.5, and (4) PS076 treated fibers.

Supercritical fluid chromatography-thermal energy analyser Supercritical fluids are produced by heating a gas above its critical temperature or compressing a liquid above its critical pressure. In SFC, the sample is carried through a separating column by a supercritical fluid (typically C02) that is used as mobile... 

Two other types of element-specific detector for nitrogen currently in use coupled to SFCs are the nitrogen phosphorus detector (NPD) and the thermal energy analyzer (TEA). The NPD uses a hot, catalytically active solid surface immersed in a layer of dissociated H2 and O2 to form electronegative N and P ions which are detected on a nearby electrode [2]. NPD has been shown to have broad application in SFC, especially in the agrochemical industry [3]. The TEA, as described by Fine et al. [4], uses low-temperature pyrolysis, followed by ozone-induced chemiluminescence, for the detection of compounds containing NO2 groups. The TEA has been used for the determination of tobacco-specific nitrosamines and explosives [5]. Both of these detectors require spedlic standards of the analytes of interest for quantitation... 

All SFC processes operate at above the critical temperature (Tc) of supercritical fluids. Temperature is a critical controlling variable of the SFC process based on both thermodynamic and kinetic considerations. First, solubility is a function of temperature, and this will determine the supersaturation ratio or the driving force for the crystallization of individual polymorphs. Second, the kinetics of polymorphic transformation is governed by the Arrhenius law and is also temperature dependent. The rate constant of the conversion is related to the activation energy and the mass transfer process involved (i.e., diffusion, evaporation, or mixing in supercritical fluids). 

The surface free energies of adsorption ( AGa) of MSX, SFC-pro-cessed SX-I, and SX-II for both the nonpolar and polar probes were... 

At the end of the SFC separation, the mobile phase is broken down into two phases one mostly gas and the other mostly polar modifier. Polar solutes tend to be nonvolatile and stay with the polar modifier. The gaseous phase can usually be vented. If the mobile phase consists of 5% or 10% modifier, 90-95% can be vented without significant effort. In semiprep chromatography, this is a huge practical advantage over HPLC. The time and the energy saved can be enormous, and in some instances, it makes previously impractical separations practical. 

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