Fuel Cells

Basics

• These are devices like batteries, but with oxygen and/or air as the oxydizer and a fuel (Usually gas or liquid excluding magnesium and zinc fuel cells)
• More Efficient Converters Than ICE's and ECE's
• Do not Produce Carbon Monoxide and other Byproducts due to lack of combustion
• Do produce waste heat (amount varys based on design) (This heat can also be harvsted via something like a turbine (such as a steam one) or a Stirling Engine to improve efficiency further

Specifications

• 40% is generally considered as the highest efficiency of hydrogen generation to usage with PEM fuel cells and electrolyzers. [1]
  • Solution: distribute research worldwide and solve this by collaborative design.
• PEM - 2kW/kg of weight [2]
• PEM - $45/kw when manufactured on million-scale volume . [Ibid.]
• Comparison to batteries - So, 145 kg total for tanks + FC system + 5 kg hydrogen, delivering an EPA estimated range of 312 miles. That compares to 540 kg for the battery pack in a Tesla Model S with a rated range of 265 miles. [Ibid.]

Prices

• As low as $1.4/watt [3]
• 2.5 kW costs $15k above

Types

• Alkaline Fuel Cell
• Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell
  • Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
  • Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell
  • Direct Dimethyl Ether Fuel Cell
• Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
• Flame Assisted Fuel Cell / Direct Flame Fuel Cell
• Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell
• Laminar Flow Fuel Cell
• Microbial Fuel Cell

Internal Links

• Zinc Air Battery
• Flow Battery
• Reversible Fuel Cell-Flow Battery
• Microbial Electrolysis Cell / Microbial Electrosynthesis

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Fuel Cells
• A subset of the Wikipedia Page on Fuel Cells with a great infographic
• Good overview statement on the technology and challenges - http://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fuel-cells
• A 2014 Paper Titled "High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells and Organic Fuels"
  • Mentions the use of DME in page 12 (or 35 in pdf) to 15 (38 in pdf)
  • Pg 53 (76): "High temperature direct DME PEM fuel cells -A way to completely mitigate the phase separation problem and simultaneously harvest the benefit of increased performance due to higher temperature would be to use a PBI-based PEM fuel cell system...This method has been proposed very recently and only 4 papers and a patent are available on the topic to date, with 3 of the 5 mentioned being from the authors group"