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Tag: Fuel Cells

  • Using fuel cells with underground coal gasification

    Using fuel cells with underground coal gasification

    Fuel Cells, Apr  23  2010 (The Hydrogen Journal)

    – Sir David King, a former chief scientific advisor to the British government and now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, says he sees an important application for alkaline fuel cells with underground coal gasification, making previously uneconomic coal mines economic, and keeping the carbon dioxide underground.

    The idea is that coal is gasified underground to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide, by blowing oxygen and hot steam through it. The hydrogen can be directly used to make electricity in a fuel cell, and the carbon monoxide reacted again with water to form carbon dioxide, and put back underground.

    “I think the alkaline fuel cell is virtually there and there’s an immediate niche which is coal gasification,” Sir David said during a recent visit to AFC Energy, a UK manufacturer of alkaline fuel cells.

    “In North Wales and Leicestershire there are coal mines that are have been closed down that are inefficient for coal mining but all that coal is still there to be gasified.”

    “The biggest single challenge we’re faced with globally is to move from a fossil fuel-based economy to fossil fuel less-society,” Sir David said during his visit. “To me, this challenge is the most wonderful technology, innovation, wealth creation possibility. What I’ve just seen at AFC is an exciting example of this. The alkaline fuel cell has the possibility to create power stations with megawatts of electricity.”

    The UK could access an estimated 17 billion additional tons of coal using this process.

    AFC Energy has an agreement with Linc Energy of Australia, to use the technology in Linc’s global UCG projects.

    Following the visit, Sir David invited AFC Energy to join leading global figures from the policy, business and academic communities at the 2010 World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, run jointly with The Times newspaper.

    AFC Energy

     Source:http://www.h2journal.com/displaynews.php?NewsID=416&PHPSESSID=o4et91fh79c02kijhor99drd40

  • First piloted aircraft just on fuel cells takes off

    First piloted aircraft just on fuel cells takes off

    a8Fuel Cells, July  21  2009 (The Hydrogen Journal)

    – In another first for Hamburg’s hydrogen fuel cell industry, the first piloted aircraft able to take off just using fuel cell power, has been demonstrated at Hamburg airport on July 7 2009.

     

     

    The aircraft, Antares DLR-H2, was developed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).

     

    The propulsion system was developed by DLR Institute for Technical Thermodynamics (Institut für Technische Thermodynamik – Stuttgart) in collaboration with its project partners, Lange Aviation, BASF Fuel Cells and Serenergy (Denmark)

     

    To date, fuel cells have been tested on aircraft to provide auxiliary power (eg cabin lighting), and they have been used to fly unmmaned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but this is the first manned aircraft just using fuel cell power for main propulsion and take-off.

     

    “We have improved the performance capabilities and efficiency of the fuel cell to such an extent that a piloted aircraft is now able to take off using it,” stated Prof. Dr-Ing Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the Executive Board at DLR.

     

    The aircraft has a wing span of 20m, and was constructed by Lange Aviation. It has a cruising range of 750km, or flying time of 5 hours.

     

    The fuel cell is hung under the left wing and the hydrogen tank under the right wing – the hydrogen tank has a capacity of either 2 or 4.9kg.

     

    The total additional weight under the aircraft wings is 100kg – the wings had to be made out of new materials to ensure that it could be safely carried.

     

    The aircraft can fly at up to 300 km/h without any wing flutter, although the current propulsion system only allows 170 km/h speeds.

     

    The fuel cell can provide 25 kW of electrical power, but only needs 10kW to fly in a straight line.

     

    The total efficiency from tank to powertrain (including propeller) is around 44 per cent, compared to 18 to 25 per cent for systems powered by kerosene or diesel.

     

    The fuel cell was developed by DLR Institute for Technical Thermodynamics in collaboration with BASF Fuel Cells (electrolytic membrane and catalysts) and Serenergy A/S (stack subsystem).

     

    In the future, DLR hopes to improve efficiency, extend service life, and optimise cooling systems, fuel cell architecture and components. “”At this stage, we have only tapped into a fraction of the performance capabilities of this technology for aerospace applications,” says Project Manager Dr-Ing. Josef Kallo.

     

    DLR is aiming to demonstrate that fuel cells could be a reliable source of on-board power for commercial aircraft.

     

     

    DLR article

     

    The Hydrogen Journal