Question about fuel cells

Bullwinkle · 2011-10-01T12:50:32+00:00

Hi,i'm studying fuel cells and i haven't a really clear idea in what canbe found in production and what is at research stage. For example, i'minterested in solutions for ups or something similar (max 3kW): fuelcells should work at ambient temperature, so PEM cell is aninteresting commercial solution. But, how can i give hydrogen to fuelcell?Do you know any commercial solution for these "low-power"applications?Thanks

Oct 01, 2011 26 Replies

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Martin Brown 14 years ago

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I expect it depends on how pure the methanol is. Catalyst poisoning seems to be their Achilles heal in practical applications. Clearly that one is intended for cost no object military use although off hand I cannot for the life of me think of an application where a simple common or garden battery would not be orders of magnitude better.

Be OK provided it wasn't on standby.

Undoubtedly and since it has all gone quiet on that front I presume it died after a few years of operation by catalysts poisoning.

To give fuel cells their due they are great for space missions if you already have copious amounts of LH2 sloshing around in a tank somewhere.

Regards, Martin Brown

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Michael A. Terrell 14 years ago

'Achilles heel'.

You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

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Spehro Pefhany 14 years ago

'Achilles' would be a good name for a dog.

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Jim Thompson 14 years ago

Sno-o-o-ort ;-) ...Jim Thompson

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| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

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Michael A. Terrell 14 years ago

Only if it will heel on command. :)

You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

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dagmargoodboat 14 years ago

There was a big fanfare when Ballard, a Canadian heayweight, made it to 1,000 hours (claimed) operating life, but that was more than ten years ago, when fuel cells were still ten years away.

Nowadays they claim "up to 20,000 hours" in fixed applications:

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Sweet--that's almost 2-1/2 years.

Their financials feature a section titled: "the path to profitability."

Nice carry-on to carrion converter, too.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

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Paul Hovnanian P.E. 14 years ago

Google found these:

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-- Paul Hovnanian mailto: snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com

------------------------------------------------------------------ The only difference in the game of love over the last few thousand years is that they've changed trumps from clubs to diamonds.

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