Berkeley Fuel Cell Work

I am a long way from been much ofa fan of fuel cells having watched the technology limp along now for sixtyyears or so with no breakthrough that made it useful in the mass market.

However this is a good surveyarticle and allows us to catch up on the present status of the industry.

What the industry is looking foris and effective way to produce hydrogen. That done and then the fuel cell becomes way more interesting ashydrogen provides a convenient way to store energy until needed.

We have also seen real progressin that field, so all is not lost and the great days of the fuel cell industrymay well be ahead of us.

Berkeley Lab Research Helps Fuel Cells Meet theirPotential

by Mark Wilson

Berkeley CA(SPX) May 26, 2011

Schematic view of a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).

http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Berkeley_Lab_Research_Helps_Fuel_Cells_Meet_their_Potential_999.html

Fuel cells as a power generator simply look too good to be true. They're quiet,they don't produce criteria pollutants, and they're efficient electricityproducers. They can be placed right next to a building without adding miles oftransmission lines, and they won't bother passers-by any more than a firehydrant or a dumpster-less than a dumpster.

But they're not the perfect power source, not yet. They cost too muchfor some applications, lifetime issues still need to be resolved, and someunits are too large for their desired applications. So although thetechnologies have powered buildings and busses for years (even lighting theAcademy Awards last year), there are challenges to meet before they fulfilltheir potential.

That's where Lawrence BerkeleyNational Laboratory's (BerkeleyLab's) Fuel Cell program comes in. Located in the Environmental EnergyTechnologies Division, Berkley Lab's fuel-cellresearchers work with the U.S.Department of Energy and industry partners to address fuel-cell challenges.

Adam Weber, program manager and one of the two primary principleinvestigators for Berkeley Lab's fuel-cell work, is confident that they willplay a strong role in providing energy in the twenty-first century.

"Performance is getting better, and there are viable devices for alot of applications," he says. "There is a rich market out theretoday for fuel cells in fleet and industrial applications, and many moreopportunities in the future."

Some prominent corporations tend to agree. Google, Staples, FedEx, andeBay are all using fuel cells to power facilities. In 2011, healthcare leaderKaiser Permanente plans to install fuel cells at seven of their facilitiesaround California,amounting to a total of 4 MW of capacity.

Weber's program has expanded over the past four years. While much ofthe research is funded by the Office of Fuel Cell Technologies ofthe U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and RenewableEnergy, some of the funding increase is the result of partnerships withcommercial enterprises interested in improving fuel-cell performance to meettheir products' needs.

"We've established a number of successful partnerships withcompanies such as Toyota,3M, and Ballard," says Weber. "It's interesting work."

Berkeley Lab Fuel Cell Projects

Fuel-cell research at BerkeleyLab is divided into roughly two areas. Weber's area concentrates on performanceand diagnostics issues, using such techniques as mathematical modeling toexamine transport within cells, and on establishing diagnostics to evaluateperformance. John Kerr heads the other group, which studies membrane synthesisand new materials development for non-precious metal catalysts.

Collaborations are an essential part of Berkeley Lab's fuel-cell work. Both groupscollaborate extensively with outside national laboratories, industry, andacademia, as well as with internal collaborators from the Earth Science,Materials Science, and Chemical Science Divisions.

Although a variety of fuel cell technologies exist,most fuel cell research atBerkeley Lab focuses on proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), with somework also being done on solid-oxide fuel cells(SOFCs). Berkeley Lab researcher Michael Tucker heads the SOFC work, which hebrought over from the Material Sciences Division.

Currently, seven projects are underway, and others are being developed,to help solve practical fuel-cell issues. For example, fuel-cell performance isreduced at low temperatures, especially with the nanostructured thin-filmcatalysts that are an order of magnitude thinner than traditional catalystlayers.

These thin-film catalysts perform as well as traditional ones, butallow the fuel cell to require less platinum. However, at subzero temperatures,there is a possibility of ice formation.

This complicates the already complex water and thermal managementissues of keeping the membrane hydrated and conductive without flooding the catalyticreaction sites with water. Researchers are evaluating PEMFC performance at lowand sub-zero temperatures with the goal of finding solutions to this criticalbarrier.

In another two projects, Berkeley Lab isworking with Los Alamos National Laboratory(LANL) to understand fundamental PEMFC degradation mechanisms. One issue theyare examining is the fundamental nature of the proton exchange membrane, PEM,which is the heart of the fuel cell.

Studies in Weber's lab and at BerkeleyLab's Advanced Light Source are revealing insights into PEM water-sorptionbehavior and combined mechanical and chemical durability. The activities withLANL also include analyzing the efficacy and real-world applicability ofaccelerated lifetime tests.

Researchers are gathering fuel cell data from buses in field serviceand linking that information with lab data to see how well the protocolsevaluate lifetime performance.

Manufacturing costs can make or break an energy technology'smarketability, and fuel cells are no exception. In collaboration with theNational Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Berkeley Lab is examining PEMFC manufacturingto develop ways to detect defects such as pinholes in membranes andplatinum-loading variations. The project is working to develop onlinediagnostics and to better understand how these defects affect performance.

Department of Energy-funded fuel cell research has traditionallyfocused on transportation applications, and much of Berkeley Lab's fuel-cell work has shared thatfocus. However, DOE is expanding that vision to include industrial equipmentsuch as forklifts, and the Lab is a big part of this research.

In collaboration with Nuvera Fuel Cells, Berkeley Lab is conducting a project toimprove PEMFCs for both the automobile and forklift markets. The concept isthat one can reduce cost if fuel cells can be operated at higher currentdensities and slightly lower efficiency from smaller cell size. However, thereare implications for heat and thermal management.

They include membrane dehydration and too much self-heating. Toevaluate those issues, Weber's group is developing submodels of membrane andcatalyst layers that work with a model developed at the Universityof Tennessee, Knoxville.

Modeling has shown that the thin coating of membrane in the catalystlayer can result in unexpected mass-transport limitations, where reactantoxygen gas cannot reach the reaction site, an effect that is especiallyapparent with lower platinum loadings,.

The study has also shown that extrapolating from high-loading tolow-loading situations does not produce accurate performance measurements;performance is fundamentally different at high and low loads.

"The primary application of most of the work istransportation," says Weber. "But if it works for transportation, itcan work in stationary applications as well."

While most of BerkeleyLab's fuel cell projects address current challenges faced by the fuel-cellindustry, some look at more basic science. For example, the Lab is currentlyengaged in a project with Sandia National Laboratory to model how water exits aPEMFC gas-diffusion layer. The research team is developing an experimentaltechnique to quantify the energy required for a droplet to leave the surface,with the aim of optimizing water removal and increasing fuel-cell performance.

Fuel Cell Vehicles

A hydrogen fueling station is slated to open in Emeryville,California (near Berkeley) soon, and once it does, Weber'sgroup is in talks to get a fuel-cell vehicle from Mercedes Benz for technicalvalidation and to evaluate its real-world response under daily drivingconditions. "Once we get the vehicle, I'm interested in having peopledrive it as much as possible, to give fuel cell vehicles more visibility in thecommunity," says Weber. "These vehicles show great performance andgood long-term durability, and when mass-produced in high volumes, the stacksare expected to cost in the range of $50/kW."

Fuel Cell-Like Systems

In addition to the primary PEMFC and SOFC systems, Berkeley Lab is also working on very similarsystems that use essentially the same framework (and sometimes materials) asthose of fuel cells. Examples include work now ongoing on hydrogen/bromine flowbatteries for grid-level energy storage. This work is funded by DOE's AdvancedResearch Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), which seeks innovative andgame-changing research ideas.

"The hydrogen/bromine flow battery is essentially a reversiblefuel cell, with many of the same components but different issues," saysWeber.

Another system similar to a fuel cell is a design being considered inthe Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), one of DOE's EnergyInnovation Hubs, led by CalTech in association with Berkeley Lab and otherCalifornia research institutes. The produced hydrogen from the artificialphotosynthesis can be used in typical PEMFCs, and the actual cell design issimilar, except that the electricity is generated internally within themembrane from solar irradiation.

Worldwide Interest in Fuel Cells

Competition in the fuel cell market has increased, with worldwide fuel cellshipments now surpassing those of the United States.In recent years, Japan, China, Korea,and Germanyhave all increased production of fuel cells and their underlying hydrogen infrastructure.In Japan,they are even selling fuel cells for residential use. Called ENE-FARM, they aremarketed as a natural-gas-fueled home cogeneration that produces electricityand hot water.

"There are so many applications for fuel cells-in transportation,industry, appliances, and buildings. Their potential growth is immense as aclean energy conversion technology," says Weber. "Our work here isfundamental in supporting that growth by helping to diagnose and eliminateperformance and durability problems."