FUEL CELLS
MEE1013 – F1 + TF1
DA - 2
NAME : NAMIT JAIN
REGISTER NUMBER : 18BEM0069
FACULTY : Gayathri V
Q1. Develop policy and safety measures for hydrogen storage
system.
Ans. Since hydrogen is a small molecule:
• It has a tendency to escape through small openings more easily than
other fuels. Hydrogen can leak through holes or joints of low-pressure
fuel lines 1 to 2 times faster than natural gas.
Since hydrogen is lighter and more diffusive than gasoline, propane, or
natural gas:
• It disperses much more quickly. If an explosion occurred, hydrogen has
the lowest explosive energy per unit of stored fuel.
Liquid hydrogen has a different set of safety issues. If liquid hydrogen
spills, it could cause burns. A liquid hydrogen spill is similar to an oil
spill, however, it dissipates much more rapidly.
Required basic knowledge to implement these policies:
Hydrogen is one of the most resilient sources providing opportunity to
mould the energy economics as it provides more flexibility by providing
multiple services and feedstocks which differentiates HES from other
sources.
Three important aspects while designing policies are:
➢ Criteria for evaluation and difficulties/ challenges or the barriers
to deployment.
➢ Future steps required for HES technology.
➢ Issues referring to deployment and economics, if the
idea is feasible economically.
These are some of the possible models which can be
considered in implementation and working on the
policies depending on their feasibility accordingly.
Safety measures to be emphasized:
❖ The setup should be kept away from electrical sparks.
❖ Installation of leak detectors to prevent blasts or serious
problems to the surrounding areas.
❖ Installation of multiple valves to avoid excess pressure.
2.Discuss in detail about the development of eco-friendly catalyst for
fuel cells
Ans. Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are a green alternative to internal
combustion engines because they produce power through electrochemical
reactions, leaving no pollution behind. Materials called catalysts spur these
electrochemical reactions.
1. PLATINUM: It is the most common catalyst in the fuel cells used in
vehicles. However, platinum is expensive and it is not possible to use
it.
2. TUNGSTEN-CARBIDE NANOPARTICLES: The researchers
incorporated the tungsten-carbide nanoparticles into the membrane of
a fuel cell. Automotive fuel cells, known as proton exchange membrane
fuel cells (PEMFCs), contain a polymeric membrane.
This membrane separates the cathode from the anode, which splits
hydrogen (H2) into ions (protons) and delivers them to the cathode that
puts out current.
The plastic-like membrane wears down over time, especially if it
undergoes too many wet/dry cycles. This can happen easily, because
water and heat are produced during the electrochemical reactions in
fuel cells.
The tungsten-carbide catalyst improves the water management of fuel
cells and reduces the burden of the humidification system.
The tungsten carbide captures damaging free radicals before they can
degrade the fuel-cell membrane. As a result, membranes with
tungsten-carbide nanoparticles will last longer than traditional versions.
The low-cost catalyst developed can be incorporated within the
membrane to improve performance and power density. As a result, the
physical size of the fuel-cell stack can be reduced for the same power,
making it lighter and cheaper.
Q3. Design advanced poly-generation fuel cell system with economics
Poly-generation system based on fuel cell.
Ans. Figure below illustrates a schematic of a solid oxide fuel cell poly-
generation system to meet the heating and cooling demands of users.
This system consists of:
1. Solid oxide fuel cell system
2. Absorption refrigeration system
3. Several heat exchangers.
The Poly-generation system designed so that it meets user cooling
and domestic hot water demands in hot season while provides space
heating and domestic hot water in cold season.
A planar, low‐temperature, solid‐oxide fuel cell based on
nanocomposite materials is developed by cost‐effective tape casting
and hot‐pressing methods.
❖ Cell Number = Single cell
❖ Active area = 6 × 6 cm2 was manufactured and tested to
determine the cell performance.
❖ Power density = 0.4 and 0.7 W cm−2 (At stable open‐circuit voltages)
❖ Operating temperature = 550°C (using the syngas and hydrogen,
respectively i.e syngas gave 0.4 W cm−2 power density and hydrogen gave
0.7 W cm−2 power density).
Based on these experimental results, a 5‐kW low‐temperature, solid‐oxide
fuel cell poly-generation system is designed and analysed.
Tests performed to find the:
❖ Effects of fuel utilization factor
❖ Fuel cell operating temperature
❖ Air temperature at cathode inlet on performance of poly-generation
Basic design of polygeneration system:
Thermodynamic and economic analyses are taken as a merit for the design purpose.
After simulation, the outcomes exhibited that the proposed poly-generation system can
produce
Net electricity = 402.2 kW
Cooling load = 96.61 kW
H2 rate = 15 × 105 kg/h
Energetic efficiency = 69.54%
Exergetic efficiency = 54.89%
Overall product cost = 155.7 $/GJ
Exergy destruction rate = 808.9 kW (Among all constituents, the solid oxide fuel cell
stack attributed as the utmost destructive component)
Based on it, it was made a deduction that a higher energetic efficiency is attainable by
raising the turbine 2 inlet pressure and evaporation temperature or by reducing the
fuel cell current density and mass extraction ratio.
From the 2nd law of thermodynamic a higher exergetic efficiency is achieved by
❖ Raising the fuel cell inlet temperature
❖ Mass extraction ratio.
❖ Evaporation temperature.
❖ By decreasing the fuel cell current density.
❖ By decreasing turbine 2 inlet pressure.
From economic standpoint, it is discovered that the overall product cost of the system
can be reduced by
➢ Raising the fuel cell current density
➢ Raising turbine 1 inlet pressure.
➢ Decreasing the mass extraction ratio.
➢ Decreasing turbine 2 inlet pressure.
➢ Decreasing the evaporation temperature.
4. Discuss about powering the autonomous mobility with hydrogen .
Ans. A) Hydrogen Fuel Delivery Subsystem:
Hydrogen is delivered from the storage containers to the fuel cell
stack via a series of:
➢ Piping
➢ Pressure regulators
➢ Filters
➢ Flow meters.
The fundamental purpose of a hydrogen flow control system is to easily
deliver fuel to the fuel cell stack at a specified, stable pressure and
temperature for actual fuel cell operation over the full range of vehicle
operating conditions.
Fuel must be delivered at a specified rate, even as the pressure in the fuel
containers drop or the ambient temperature changes.
The fuel system delivery specifications are determined by the initial
container storage pressure, the vehicle, and the vehicle duty cycle. Since
sections of the piping system will see container pressures of up to 10,000
psig (70 MPa) standards intend to ensure they are designed and tested to
maintain this pressure safely without leakage or rupture throughout their
service life.
B) Fuel Cell Subsystem
The fuel cell provides the electricity needed to operate the drive
motors and charge vehicle batteries and capacitors. There are several
kinds of fuel cells available in market, but Polymer Electrolyte Membrane
(PEM) also known as Proton Exchange Membranes - fuel cells are the
type typically used in automobiles at this time. The PEM fuel cell consists
of a stack of hundreds of cells in which hydrogen and oxygen combine
electrochemically to generate electrical power. Fuel cells are capable of
continuous electrical generation when supplied with pure hydrogen and
oxygen, simultaneously generating electricity and water, with no carbon
dioxide or other harmful emissions typical of gasoline-powered internal
combustion engines.
C) Hydrogen Fueling and Fuel Storage Subsystem
At present, the most common method of storing and delivering
hydrogen fuel on board is in compressed gas form. Hydrogen is typically
stored on current developmental vehicles at 5,000 psi (34.5 MPa).
Compressed- hydrogen systems operating at 10,000 psi (70 MPa) are
also in development. The hydrogen fuel from the storage containers is
supplied to the fuel cell by pressure piping with two or three stages of
regulation that reduce the pressure to approximately 5 psi (.034 MPa)
before entering the fuel cell stack. For this report, fuel storage and
delivery are discussed separately. The primary components within the
hydrogen fueling and fuel storage subsystem are the compressed-
hydrogen fuel containers. Because the hydrogen fuel has a low energy
density per unit volume, storage containers must be designed to supply
an adequate amount of hydrogen to achieve realistic vehicle driving
ranges. Hydrogen fuel containers and fuel cell stacks also add weight and
cost to the vehicle that compounds the
challenge of achieving desirable driving ranges. To overcome these
limitations, hydrogen fuel containers are being designed to take up as little
space as possible using lightweight composite materials. In addition, these
fuel containers are specially designed to allow the storage of hydrogen at
very high pressures to overcome the low energy density
D) Electric Propulsion and Power Management Subsystem
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are powered by electric motors in which
the electrical energy provided by the fuel cell is converted to the
mechanical energy necessary to drive the wheels of the vehicle. The
electric drive system has similarities to electric vehicles. It may also use
batteries and ultra-capacitors similar to those used in hybrid vehicles.
Many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are front-wheel drive, typically with the
electric drive motor and drivetrain located in the engine compartment
mounted transversely over the front axle. This pattern is consistent for
small fuel cell automobiles that are similar in size to existing economy
cars. Some larger SUV-type fuel cell vehicles are all-wheel drive with two
electric motors, one each over the front and rear axle, while other designs
use four compact motors, one at each wheel.
Q5. Design fuel cell systems for aviation
Ans. In order to design fuel cell systems for aviation, the general design
considerations for fuel cells derived from the analysis of a physical model
of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). It can be seen that
the PEMFC can be designed to optimize performance, thus minimizing the
size of the fuel cell, or can be designed to increase efficiency, thus
minimizing fuel consumption and the size of the fuel tank and other system
components like air supply compressors. These design considerations are
then applied to design fuel cell systems for the main energy supply of
passenger transport aircraft.
Starting with simplified models of fuel cell and tank, the design principles .
This analysis employs a PEMFC model that is as simple as possible while
still covering all relevant processes in physically meaningful, macroscopic
parameters. The charm of the model is that Andrei Kulikovsky was able to
obtain an approximate but accurate analytical solution . This has three main
advantages:
(1) the functional relationship between parameters and interesting variables
is directly revealed
(2) the model has no computational limitations and can be included into
larger model hierarchies, e.g., for aircraft design, aircraft fleet models or
future aviation scenario modelling
(3) the effective, physical parameters of the model can be used to estimate
the improvements due to future materials’ development.
In the model, the main losses of the fuel cell stem from the cathode catalyst
layer (CCL). The ohmic losses are combined into one ohmic resistance,
RΩ, which covers membrane, electric, and contact resistances. The anode
losses are considered negligible. For the cathode performance, a well
known model based on pioneering works of Perry, Newman and Cairns as
well as Eikerling and Kornyshev is used. The model consists of governing
equations for the rate of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the cathode
catalyst layer, i.e., electrochemical current generation.
P is the power at which the cell is operated, Pmax is the maximum power of
the cell at the maximum power point (MPP), i.e., Pmax/P is the oversizing
factor of the fuel cell. ρfc is the specific power of the fuel cell system including
peripheral components at maximum net output power in kW/kg.
This way, ρfc implicitly includes the mass of peripheral components (like
compressors, pumps, valves, etc.) and their parasitic power demand. ωH2 is
the specific energy of hydrogen, 33.3 kWh/kg, i.e., Erq/ν is the energy that
needs to be stored in the tank. In a second step, a more detailed tank model
from Winnefeld et al. was substituted. This model uses the equation of state
of Leachman et al. to describe the properties of the stored hydrogen. Modules
for geometrical, mechanical and thermal design are combined with a study
mission. With this, the geometry, wall thickness and insulation thickness can
be dimensioned. For the comparison in this paper, again a spherical geometry
is chosen as a limiting case
References
Question 1 written by me and referred from many places
Question 2 https://www.electronicdesign.com/power-
management/article/21805684/newmaterial-could-be-the-catalyst-to-an-ecofriendly-
fuel-
cell#:~:text=New%20Material%20Could%20be%20the%20Catalyst%20to%20an%20
Eco%2DFriendly, durable%2C%20less%20expensive%20fuel%20cell.
Referred from this link and also from youtube
Question 3 Mahrokh Samavati , Rizwan Raza ,Bin Zhu
First published:16 August 2012 , https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.6
Question 4 https://www.ijltet.org/journal/146639508027.pdf
Question 5 is referred from a research paper :
https://www.mdpi.com/19961073/11/2/375
