Passive electrochemical hydrogen recombiner for hydrogen safety systems:prospects

This paper presents the concept of a passive electrochemical hydrogen recombiner(PEHR).The reaction energy of the recombination of hydrogen and oxygen is used as a source of electrical energy according to the operating principle for hydrogen fuel cells to establish forced circulation of the hydrogen mixture as an alternative to natural circulation(as is not utilized in conventional passive autocatalytic hydrogen recombiners currently used in nuclear power plants(NPPs)).The proposed concept of applying the physical operation principles of a PEHR based on a fuel cell simultaneously increases both productivity in terms of recombined hydrogen and the concentration threshold of flameless operation(the‘ignition’limit).Thus,it is possible to reliably ensure the hydrogen explosion safety of NPPs under all conditions,including beyond-design accidents.An experimental setup was assembled to test a laboratory sample of a membrane electrode assembly(MEA)at various hydrogen concentrations near the catalytic surfaces of the electrodes,and the corresponding current–voltage characteristics were recorded.The simplest MEA based on the Advent P1100W PBI membrane demonstrated stable performance(delivery of electrical power)over a wide range of hydrogen concentrations.

Analysis of the Influence of Geometrical Parameters on the Performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

A suitable channel structure can lead to efficient gas distribution and significantly improve the power density of fuel cells.In this study,the influence of two channel design parameters is investigated,namely,the ratio of the channel width to the bipolar plate ridge width(i.e.,the channel ridge ratio)and the channel depth.The impact of these parameters is evaluated with respect to the flow pattern,the gas composition distribution,the temperature field and the fuel cell output capability.The results show that a decrease in the channel ridge ratio and an increase in the channel depth can effectively make the distributions of velocity,temperature and concentration more uniform in each channel and improve the output capability of the fuel cell.An increase in the channel ridge ratio and depth obviously reduces the flow resistance and improves the flow characteristics.

Hydrogen Storage Alloy Pair as a Bus Air Conditioner

A new hydrogen storage alloy pair, La0.6Ml0.4Ni4.7 Cr0.3-La0.2Mm0.8Ni4.35Fe0.65, was developed to serve as a bus hydride air conditioner, which utilizes the waste heat of exhaust gases of a bus as the high temperature source. Under the operating temperature of 150-250 °C/35-40°C/15-20°C, the maximum working hydrogen capacity and the theoretical value of COPc are 4.5 and 0.74 H/mol M respectively, which can meet the practical requirements.

The Use of Hydrogen as a Fuel for Inland Waterway Units

Escalating apprehension about the harmful effects of widespread use of conventional fossil fuels in the marine field and in internal combustion engines in general, has led to a vast amount of efforts and the directing of large capital investment towards research and development of sustainable alternative energy sources. One of the most promising and abundant of these sources is hydrogen. Firstly, the use of current fossil fuels is. discussed focusing on the emissions and economic sides to emphasize the need for a new, cleaner and renewable fuel with particular reference to hydrogen as a suitable possible alternative. Hydrogen properties, production and storage methods are then reviewed along with its suitability from the economical point of view. Finally, a cost analysis for the use of hydrogen in internal combustion engines is carried out to illustrate the benefits of its use as a replacement for diesel. The outcome of this cost analysis shows that 98% of the capital expenditure is consumed by the equipment, and 68.3% of the total cost of the equipment is spent on the solar photovoltaic cells. The hydrogen plant is classified as a large investment project because of its high initial cost which is about 1 billion US$; but this is justified because hydrogen is produced in a totally green way. When hydrogen is used as a fuel, no harmful emissions are obtained.

Preparation and Optimization of Porous Membrane Electrodes via Gradient Coating in Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Fuel cells are considered to be one of the ideal alternatives to traditional fossil energy conversion devices.Membrane electrodes are the core components in the hydrogen fuel cells.Our work reported the synthesis of the Pt/C catalysts with different Pt loading,and by changing the Nafion content,hot pressing temperature and hot pressing pressure,the catalyst coated membrane(CCM)spraying process was optimized.Moreover,the three-dimensional structure model of the single battery membrane electrode was studied quantitatively,and the porous membrane electrode with gradient distribution was fabricated under optimized processing conditions,with excellent electrical performance.

Comparative study on pressure swing adsorption system for industrial hydrogen and fuel cell hydrogen

In order to improve the design of PSA system for fuel cell hydrogen production,a non-isothermal model of eight-bed PSA hydrogen process with five-component(H_(2)/N_(2)/CH_(4)/CO/CO_(2)=74.59%/0.01%/4.2%/2.5%/18.7%(vol))four-stage pressure equalization was developed in this article.The model adopts a composite adsorption bed of activated carbon and zeolite 5 A.In this article,pressure variation,temperature field and separation performance are stimulated,and also effect of providing purge(PP)differential pressure and the ratio of activated carbon to zeolite 5 A on separation performance in the process of producing industrial hydrogen(CO content in hydrogen is 10μl·L^(-1))and fuel cell hydrogen(CO content is 0.2μl·L^(-1))are compared.The results show that Run 3,when the CO content in hydrogen is 10μl·L^(-1),the hydrogen recovery is 89.8%,and the average flow rate of feed gas is 0.529 mol·s^(-1);When the CO content in hydrogen is 0.2μl·L^(-1),the hydrogen recovery is 85.2%,and the average flow rate of feed gas is 0.43 mol·s^(-1).With the increase of PP differential pressure,hydrogen recovery first increases and then decreases,reaching the maximum when PP differential pressure is 0.263 MPa;With the decrease of the ratio of activated carbon to zeolite 5 A,the hydrogen recovery increases gradually.When the CO content in hydrogen is 0.2μl·L^(-1) the hydrogen recovery increases more obviously,from 83.96%to 86.37%,until the ratio of activated carbon to zeolite 5 A decreases to 1.At the end of PP step,no large amount of CO_(2) in gas or solid phase enters the zeolite 5 A adsorption bed,while when the CO content in hydrogen is 10μl·L^(-1),and the ratio of carbon to zeolite 5 A is less than 1.4,more CO_(2) will enter the zeolite 5 A bed.

Design and Key Technology of Oil-Free Centrifugal Air Compressor for Hydrogen Fuel Cell

For a 120 kW hydrogen fuel cell system,a centrifugal air compressor with fixed power of 22 kW fuel cell is designed.Firstly,the theoretical calculation is carried out for the aerodynamic characteristics of a ultra-high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor,an air compressor,and an aerodynamic foil bearing.Then,a prototype is trial-produced and a related test bench is built for test verification.Finally,both the simulation and test results indicate that the designed centrifugal air compressor meets the overall requirements of the hydrogen fuel cell system,and the relevant conclusions provide both theoretical and experimental references for the subsequent series development and design of the centrifugal air compressor.

Amine axial ligand-coordinated cobalt phthalocyanine-based catalyst for flow-type membraneless hydrogen peroxide fuel cell or enzymatic biofuel cell

In this study,an amine-coordinated cobalt phthalocyanine(CoPc)-based anodic catalyst was fabricated by a facile process,to enhance the performance of hydrogen peroxide fuel cells(HPFCs) and enzymatic biofuel cells(EBCs).For this purpose,polyethyleneimine(PEI) was added onto the reduced graphene oxide and CoPc composite(RGO/CoPc) to create abundant NH2 axial ligand groups,for anchoring the Co core within the CoPc.Owing to the PEI addition,the onset potential of the hydrogen peroxide oxidation reaction was shifted by 0.13 V in the negative direction(0.02 V) and the current density was improved by 1.92 times(1.297 mA cm^(-2)),compared to those for RGO/CoPc(0.15 V and 0.676 mA cm^(-2),respectively),due to the formation of donor-acceptor dyads and the prevention of CoPc from leaching out.The biocatalyst using glucose oxidase(GOx)([RGO/CoPc]/PEI/GOx) showed a better onset potential and catalytic activity(0.15 V and 318.7 μA cm^(-2)) than comparable structures,as well as significantly improved operational durability and long-term stability.This is also attributed to PEI,which created a favorable microenvironment for the enzyme.The maximum power densities(MPDs) and open-circuit voltages(OCVs) obtained for HPFCs and EBCs using the suggested catalyst were 105.2±1.3 μW cm^(-2)(0.317±0.003 V) and 25.4±0.9 μW cm^(-2)(0.283±0.007 V),respectively.This shows that the amine axial ligand effectively improves the performance of the actual driving HPFCs and EBCs.

Gas Chromatography as an Analytical Monitoring Technique for Hydrogen Production from Spirulina maxima 2342

Hydrogen (H2) production from experiments with Spirulina maxima 2342 is reported in this work. The performance of this photosynthetic microorganism for producing H2 was evaluated for the first time under specific experimental conditions (e.g., a biomass concentration of 0.34 ± 0.02 g, a light intensity of 150 μE.s-1.m-2 and reaction times of 19.3 ± 1.2 h). The performance of this photosynthetic microorganism for producing hydrogen was successfully improved by the addition of sodium dithionite (a reducing agent) as an innovative method for increasing the gas production, and as a main contribution of this work. Quantitative gas chromatography (GC) analyses of H2 to verify the production performance were successfully carried out at low concentration levels. GC analyses were performed by means of a conventional thermal conductivity detector coupled to a separation system of a Molecular Sieve column 500 mm × 3175 mm (L × ID). Low detection limits were consistently obtained with the GC system used. The separation of H2 in culture samples was efficiently achieved in average retention times of 1.47 min. The H2 produced in this process was subsequently used for power generation using a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC).

A Hybrid Aluminum/Hydrogen/Air CellmCommon Cathode

Metal/Air batteries are considered to be promising electricity storage devices given their compactness, environmental benignity and affordability. As a commonly available metal, aluminum has received great attention since its first use as an anode in a battery. Its high specific energy （even better volumetric energy density than lithium） makes it ideal for many primary battery applications. However, the development of A1/Air cell with alkaline electrolyte has been lagged behind mainly due to the unfavorable parasitic hydrogen generation. Herein, we designed and constructed a novel A1/H_2/Air tandem fuel cell to turn the adverse parasitic reaction into a useful process. The system consists of two anodes, namely, aluminum and hydrogen, and one common air-breathing cathode. The aluminum acts as both the anode for the A1/Air sub-cell and the source to generate hydrogen for the hydrogen/air sub-cell. The aluminum/air sub-cell has an open circuit voltage of 1.45 V and the H_2/Air sub-cell of 0.95 V. We demonstrated that the maximum power output of aluminum as a fuel was largely enhanced by 31% after incorporating the H_2/Air sub-cell with the tandem concept. In addition, a passive design was utilized in our tandem system to eliminate the dependence on auxiliary pumping sub-systems so that the whole system remained neat and eliminated the dependence of energy consuming pumps or heaters which were typically applied in micro fuel cells.

Atomic-scale engineering of advanced catalytic and energy materials via atomic layer deposition for eco-friendly vehicles

Zero-emission eco-friendly vehicles with partly or fully electric powertrains have exhibited rapidly increased demand for reducing the emissions of air pollutants and improving the energy efficiency. Advanced catalytic and energy materials are essential as the significant portions in the key technologies of eco-friendly vehicles, such as the exhaust emission control system,power lithium ion battery and hydrogen fuel cell. Precise synthesis and surface modification of the functional materials and electrodes are required to satisfy the efficient surface and interface catalysis, as well as rapid electron/ion transport. Atomic layer deposition(ALD), an atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing method, shows unique characteristics of precise thickness control, uniformity and conformality for film deposition, which has emerged as an important technique to design and engineer advanced catalytic and energy materials. This review has summarized recent process of ALD on the controllable preparation and modification of metal and oxide catalysts, as well as lithium ion battery and fuel cell electrodes. The enhanced catalytic and electrochemical performances are discussed with the unique nanostructures prepared by ALD. Recent works on ALD reactors for mass production are highlighted. The challenges involved in the research and development of ALD on the future practical applications are presented, including precursor and deposition process investigation, practical device performance evaluation, large-scale and efficient production, etc.

Effect of Hydrogen-Rich Fuels on Turbulent Combustion of Advanced Gas Turbine

The effect of high hydrogen fuel on turbulent combustion in advanced gas turbine combustor with our newly designed arrayed-vanes premixer was studied by large eddy simulation(LES).The dynamic Smagorinsky model is used to calculate the subgrid stress.Finite-rate chemistry is included using a four steps mechanisms.A thickened flame model was used to deal with the reaction rate.The transport and thermal properties are obtained by CHEMKIN packages.The results show that with the increase of hydrogen content,the wake recirculation zone and central toroidal recirculation zone separate.The turbulent fluctuations of H_(2)/air flame first decreases and then increases.For the response of turbulent flame,the results show that the flame brush is narrow and short with the increase of hydrogen content.When the hydrogen content is low,the syngas/air flame can also propagate in the high-speed flow.Therefore,for different flames,the position of outer propagating flame is almost the same.The results also show that the fluctuation of flame intensity increases with the increase of hydrogen content.Although the increase of hydrogen content shortens the chemical reaction time and suppresses the perturbation of turbulent eddies,the cellular instability may further enhance the fluctuation of flame intensity.

Overview of Past, Present and Future Marine Power Plants

In efforts to overcome an foreseeable energy crisis predicated on limited oil and gas supplies, reserves; economic variations facing the world, and of course the environmental side effects of fossil fuels, an urgent need for energy sources that provide sustainable, safe and economic supplies for the world is imperative. The current fossil fuel energy system must be improved to ensure a better and cleaner transportation future for the world. Despite the fact that the marine transportation sector consumes only 5% of global petroleum production; it is responsible for 15% of the world NOx and SOx emissions. These figures must be the engine that powers the scientific research worldwide to develop new solutions for a very old energy problem. In this paper, the most effective types of marine power plants were discussed. The history of the development of each type was presented first and the technical aspects were discussed second. Also, the fuel ceils as a new type of power plants used in marine sector were briefed to give a complete overview of the past, present and future of the marine power plants development. Based on the increased worldwide concerns regarding harmful emissions, many researchers have introduced solutions to this problem, including the adoption of new cleaner fuels. This paper was guided using the same trend and by implementing the hydrogen as fuel for marine internal combustion engine, gas turbines, and fuel cells.

Doped graphene/carbon black hybrid catalyst giving enhanced oxygen reduction reaction activity with high resistance to corrosion in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Nitrogen doping of the carbon is an important method to improve the performance and durability of catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells by platinum–nitrogen and carbon–nitrogen bonds. This study shows that p-phenyl groups and graphitic N acting bridges linking platinum and the graphene/carbon black(the ratio graphene/carbon black = 2/3) hybrid support materials achieved the average size of platinum nanoparticles with(4.88 ± 1.79) nm. It improved the performance of the lower-temperature hydrogen fuel cell up to 0.934 W cm^(-2) at 0.60 V, which is 1.55 times greater than that of commercial Pt/C. Doping also enhanced the interaction between Pt and the support materials, and the resistance to corrosion, thus improving the durability of the low-temperature hydrogen fuel cell with a much lower decay of 10 mV at 0.80 A cm^(-2) after 30 k cycles of an in-situ accelerated stress test of catalyst degradation than that of 92 mV in Pt/C, which achieves the target of Department of Energy(<30 mV). Meanwhile,Pt/Nr EGO_(2)-CB_(3) remains 78% of initial power density at 1.5 A cm^(-2) after 5 k cycles of in-situ accelerated stress test of carbon corrosion, which is more stable than the power density of commercial Pt/C, keeping only 54% after accelerated stress test.

PtCu subnanoclusters epitaxial on octahedral PtCu/Pt skin matrix as ultrahigh stable cathode electrocatalysts for room-temperature hydrogen fuel cells

Achieving stable surface structures of metal catalysts is an extreme challenge for obtaining long-term durability and meeting industrial application requirements.We report a new class of metal catalyst,Pt-rich PtCu heteroatom subnanoclusters epitaxially grown on an octahedral PtCu alloy/Pt skin matrix(PtCu1.60),for the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)in an acid electrolyte.The PtCu1.60/C exhibits an 8.9-fold enhanced mass activity(1.42 A·mgPt^(−1))over that of commercial Pt/C(0.16 A·mgPt^(−1)).The PtCu1.60/C exhibits 140,000 cycles durability without activity decline and surface PtCu cluster stability owing to unique structure derived from the matrix and epitaxial growth pattern,which effectively prevents the agglomeration of clusters and loss of near-surface active sites.Structure characterization and theoretical calculations confirm that Pt-rich PtCu clusters favor ORR activity and thermodynamic stability.In room-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells,the PtCu1.60/C shows enhanced performance and delivers a power density of 154.1/318.8 mW·cm^(−2)and 100 h/50 h durability without current density decay in an air/O_(2)feedstock.

System integration of China's first PEMFC locomotive

In the face of growing environmental pollution, developing a fuel-cell-driven shunting locomotive is a great challenge in China for environmental protection and energy saving, which combines the environmental advantages of an electric locomotive with the lower infrastructure costs of a diesel-electric locomotive. In this paper, the investigation status and the development trend of the fuel-cell-driven shunting locomotive were introduced. Through innovation of the power system using fuel cells, an experiment prototype of a fuel-cell shunting locomotive was developed, which would reduce the effects on the environment of the existing locomotives. This was the first locomotive to use a proton exchange membrane fuel-cell （PEMFC） power plant in China. From October 2012, we started to test the fuel-cell power plant and further test runs on the test rail-line in Chengdu, Sichuan. The achieved encouraging results can provide fundamental data for the modification of the current individual fuel cell locomotives or further development of the fuel-cell hybrid ones in China.

Deuterium Retention and Physical Sputtering of Low Activation Ferritic Steel

Low activation materials have to be developed toward fusion demonstrationreactors. Ferritic steel, vanadium alloy and SiC/SiC composite are candidate materials of the firstwall, vacuum vessel and blanket components, respectively. Although changes of mechanical-thermalproperties owing to neutron irradiation have been investigated so far, there is little data for theplasma material interactions, such as fuel hydrogen retention and erosion. In the present study,deuterium retention and physical sputtering of low activation ferritic steel, F82H, wereinvestigated by using deuterium ion irradiation apparatus. After a ferritic steel sample wasirradiated by 1.7 keV D^+ ions, the weight loss was measured to obtain the physical sputteringyield. The sputtering yield was 0.04, comparable to that of stainless steel. In order to obtain theretained amount of deuterium, technique of thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) was employed to theirradiated sample. The retained deuterium desorbed at temperature ranging from 450 K to 700 K, inthe forms of DHO, D_2, D_2O and hydrocarbons. Hence, the deuterium retained can be reduced by bakingwith a relatively low temperature. The fluence dependence of retained amount of deuterium wasmeasured by changing the ion fluence. In the ferritic steel without mechanical polish, the retainedamount was large even when the fluence was low. In such a case, a large amount of deuterium wastrapped in the surface oxide layer containing O and C. When the fluence was large, the thickness ofsurface oxide layer was reduced by the ion sputtering, and then the retained amount in the oxidelayer decreased. In the case of a high fluence, the retained amount of deuterium became comparableto that of ferritic steel with mechanical polish or SS 316 L, and one order of magnitude smallerthan that of graphite. When the ferritic steel is used, it is required to remove the surface oxidelayer for reduction of fuel hydrogen retention. Ferritic steel sample was exposed to the environmentof JFT-2M tokamak in JAERI and after thatthe deuterium retention was examined. The result wasroughly the same as the case of deuterium ion irradiation experiment.

Atomic layer deposition of ultrathin layered TiO_2 on Pt/C cathode catalyst for extended durability in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

This study shows the preparation of a TiO2 coated Pt/C（TiO2/Pt/C） by atomic layer deposition（ALD）,and the examination of the possibility for TiO2/Pt/C to be used as a durable cathode catalyst in polymer electrolyte fuel cells（PEFCs）. Cyclic voltammetry results revealed that TiO2/Pt/C catalyst which has 2 nm protective layer showed similar activity for the oxygen reduction reaction compared to Pt/C catalysts and they also had good durability. TiO2/Pt/C prepared by 10 ALD cycles degraded 70% after 2000 Accelerated degradation test, while Pt/C corroded 92% in the same conditions. TiO2 ultrathin layer by ALD is able to achieve a good balance between the durability and activity, leading to TiO2/Pt/C as a promising cathode catalyst for PEFCs. The mechanism of the TiO2 protective layer used to prevent the degradation of Pt/C is discussed.

Integration of cryogenic trap to gas chromatography-sulfur chemiluminescent detection for online analysis of hydrogen gas for volatile sulfur compounds

Hydrogen fuel cells are among the promising energy sources worldwide,which could accomplish cyclic production of energy and avoid the emission of green-house or contaminative byproducts.However,sulfur compounds(SCs)even at trace level(nmol/mol)are usually involved in cell construction and further H_(2)production,which would cause degradation of the catalysts and shorten the lifetime of the fuel cells.Moreover,the highly reactive SCs could cause varied species and concentrations of them in complex matrices,so online rather than offline analysis of SCs in H_(2)would be preferred.In this context,we developed a new system combining online cryogenic preconcentration of nine SCs and subsequent determination by GC-SCD(sulfur chemiluminescent detector),with the correlation coefficients of the calibration curves higher than 0.999,calculated limits of detection no higher than 0.050 nmol/mol,analytical time around 30 min per sample,and satisfactory precision and accuracy(RSD<5%and SD<15%).The analytical performance was much better than or at least comparable to the previously reported and the developed system was successfully applied for real sample analysis.

Hydrogen technologies and developments in Japan

The successful development of hydrogen-energy technologies has several advantages and benefits.Hydrogen-energy development could prevent global warming as well as ensure energy security for countries without adequate energy resources.The successful development of hydrogen would provide energy for transportation and electric power.It is a unique energy carrier,as it can be produced from various energy sources such as wind,fossil fuels and biomass and,when it is combusted,it emits no CO_(2)emissions.The other advantage is the wide distribution of resources globally that can be used to produce hydrogen.In Japan,the Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry(METI)published a‘Strategic Roadmap for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells’in 2014,with a revised update published in March 2016.The goal of the roadmap is to achieve a hydrogen society.The roadmap aims to resolve technical problems and secure economic efficiency.The roadmap has been organized into the following three phases:Phase 1-Installation of fuel cells;Phase 2-Hydrogen power plant/mass supply chain;Phase 3-CO_(2)-free hydrogen.This paper reports on the current status of fuel cells and fuel-cell vehicles in Japan and gives a description and status of the R&D programmes along with the results of global energy model study towards 2050.