Portable Hydrogen Energy Systems: Fuel Cells and Storage Fundamentals and Applications

Portable Hydrogen Energy Systems: Fuel Cells and Storage Fundamentals and Applications covers the basics of portable fuel cells, their types, possibilities for fuel storage, in particular for hydrogen as fuel, and their potential application. The book explores electrochemistry, types, and materials and components, but also includes a chapter on the particularities of their use in portable devices, with a focus on proton exchange membrane (PEM) type. Topics cover fuel storage for these cells, in particular hydrogen storage and an analysis of current possibilities. In addition, portable fuel cell systems are examined, covering auxiliary elements required for operation and possibilities for their miniaturization.

Engineers and developers of portable applications and electricity will find this book to provide fundamental information on the possibilities of portable hydrogen fuel cells, including costs and market information, for their planning, modeling, development and deployment. Graduate students and lecturers will find this to be a complementary resource in general hydrogen and fuel cell courses or in specialized courses covering portable systems.

• Presents a current view of the fundamentals and possibilities of portable hydrogen fuel cells, also comparing them with other market solutions, such as batteries
• Examines the applications where portable hydrogen fuel cell technology is a viable solution
• Explores future trends and needs in terms of materials, components and systems to improve the possibilities to make hydrogen fuel cells competitive and reliable for future portable applications

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Aug 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9780128131299

Book preview

Portable Hydrogen Energy Systems

Fuel Cells and Storage Fundamentals and Applications

First Edition

Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio

Antonio M. Chaparro

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Contributors

Preface

1: Why portable electricity with hydrogen fuel cells?

Abstract

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Batteries: Characteristics and limitations as portable power sources

1.3 Hydrogen fuel cells as portable power sources

1.4 Some fundamental issues concerning portability of power with hydrogen fuel cells

1.5 Conclusions

2: Fundamentals and components of portable hydrogen fuel-cell systems

Abstract

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Catalysts and gas diffusion electrodes

2.3 Air-breathing cathode configuration in cells

2.4 Thermal and water management: The effect of ambient conditions

2.5 Materials and fabrication procedures

2.6 Hydrogen supply

2.7 Cells configuration

2.8 Stacks configuration

2.9 Conclusions

3: Hydrogen storage options for portable fuel-cell systems

Abstract

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Options for portable hydrogen storage

3.3 H2 storage systems for metal hydrides: Container designs

3.4 Conclusions

4: Modeling of portable fuel cells

Abstract

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Literature review

4.3 Governing equations

4.4 Case study

4.5 Summary

5: Metal hydrides: Modeling of metal hydrides to be operated in a fuel cell

Abstract

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Hydrogen storage technologies

5.3 Thermodynamic analysis of the metal hydride formation

5.4 Numerical analysis of the operation of metal hydrides

5.5 Conclusions

6: Development and applications of portable systems based on conventional PEM fuel cells

Abstract

Acknowledgments

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Schematic layouts of PEMFCs and their configuration

6.3 Power electronic interfaces for portable PEMFC systems

6.4 Water and heat

6.5 Modeling

6.6 Performance and durability

6.7 Portable power prototype devices

7: Micro fuel cells based on silicon materials

Abstract

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Micro-machined silicon-based micro fuel cells

7.3 Porous silicon technology for micro fuel cells

7.4 Conclusion

8: Membraneless micro-fuel-cell designs for portable applications

Abstract

8.1 Introduction

8.2 The micro fuel cells

8.3 Conclusions

9: Starch: A high-density chemical hydrogen storage compound for PEM fuel cells

Abstract

Acknowledgment

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Basic concept of starch-powered water splitting for in vitro hydrogen production

9.3 Recent advances

9.4 Portable electricity generation with starch and hydrogen fuel cells (future challenges and development)

9.5 Conclusions

10: Technology indicators of portable power based on hydrogen-fed fuel cells

Abstract

10.1 Challenges for portable power

10.2 Industry research activities in the last decades

10.3 End-user interests and target audience

10.4 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks

10.5 Conclusions

11: Research trends

Abstract

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Properties of portable fuel cell power generation with hydrogen

11.3 Future trends

11.4 Summary

Index

Copyright

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Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-12-813128-2

For information on all Academic Press publications visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals

Publisher: Joe Hayton

Acquisition Editor: Raquel Zanol

Editorial Project Manager: Katie Chan

Production Project Manager: Sruthi Satheesh

Cover Designer: Victoria Pearson

Typeset by SPi Global, India

Contributors

N. Alonso-Vante       IC2MP, UMR-CNRS 7285, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

M. Antonia Folgado       Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

Antonio M. Chaparro       Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

S. Citalán-Cigarroa       Chemistry Department, Center for Research and Advances Studies, CINVESTAV-IPN, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico City, Mexico

Julio J. Conde       Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

J.L. Díaz-Bernabé       Chemistry Department, Center for Research and Advances Studies, CINVESTAV-IPN, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico City, Mexico

Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio       Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

Alba M. Fernández-Sotillo       Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

Marco A. Galarza       Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

G. Gautier       INSA-CVL, Université de Tours, UMR CNRS 7347, GREMAN, Research Group in Materials Microelectronics Acoustics and Nanotechnologies, Tours, France

Evangelos I. Gkanas       Hydrogen for Mobility Lab, Institute for Future Transport and Cities, School of Mechanical, Automotive and Aerospace Engineering, Coventry University, Coventry, United Kingdom

D.B. Ingham       Energy 2050, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

M.S. Ismail       Energy 2050, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

J.M. Mora-Hernández       IC2MP, UMR-CNRS 7285, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

M. Pourkashanian       Energy 2050, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

A. Rodríguez-Castellanos       Chemistry Department, Center for Research and Advances Studies, CINVESTAV-IPN, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico City, Mexico

O. Solorza-Feria       Chemistry Department, Center for Research and Advances Studies, CINVESTAV-IPN, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico City, Mexico

Yi Heng Percival Zhang       Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China

Preface

Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio ; Antonio M. Chaparro

The small portable electricity generation is essential for the comfort and pace of today's life. It is present in multitude of personal handheld electronic gadgets and in new unplugged applications such as medical and military equipment, sensors, toys, or unmanned terrestrial and aerial vehicles. Many of these applications are evolving to new functionalities and capabilities that require more power, which users want to be combined with more autonomy and safety. In addition, small portable power generation is having an increasing weight in the global energy consumption that should be increasingly satisfied with decarbonized and renewable energy sources, if the international commitment around clean energy generation to palliate climate change is to be accomplished. It is, therefore, of the highest interest proposing new ways to generate portable electricity that can provide high power, autonomy, and safety and, at the same time, is amenable with the integration of clean energy sources. This book deals with one of these possibilities based on hydrogen and fuel cells, more specifically on low-temperature fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are electrochemical devices, like batteries, but running on a flow of reactants from the outside of the body of the cell, which opens new possibilities for portable electricity generation. For their use as portable power generators, cell configurations and operation modes must be adapted, with respect to those of a conventional fuel cell, in order to increase the specific power and portability. The use of hydrogen fuel improves cell efficiency and integration with clean and renewable energies, although its portable storage in small amounts is a key challenge.

The book comprises 11 chapters, starting with an introductory with grounding motivations about the topic of hydrogen portable fuel cells (Chapter 1 Introduction: why portable electricity with hydrogen fuel cells? A.M. Chaparro and P. Ferreira-Aparicio). Then, the fundamentals of this kind of fuel cells are described (Chapter 2 Fundamentals and components of fuel cells for portable applications Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio, Julio J. Conde, and A.M. Chaparro) and of different portable hydrogen storage options (Chapter 3 Hydrogen storage options for portable fuel cell systems Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio, Julio J. Conde, and A.M. Chaparro). The following chapters tackle specific features of portable power generation with fuel cells. Modeling of portable fuel cells and portable hydrogen storage is treated in two chapters: Chapter 4 shows the efforts around air-breathing fuel cells, which is the most common configuration for portable fuel cells (Chapter 4 Modeling of portable fuel cells M.S. Ismail, D.B. Ingham, and M. Pourkashanian). In Chapter 5, the modeling work on portable hydrogen storage in metal hydrides systems is analyzed (Chapter 5 Modeling of portable hydrogen storage in metal hydrides Evangelos I. Gkanas). The conventional fuel cell configuration, that is, a serial stack of cells with bipolar plates and forced air convection, can also be used for portable generation, as shown in Chapter 6 (Chapter 6 Development and applications of portable hydrogen based on conventional PEMFC systems A. Rodríguez-Castellanos, J.L. Díaz-Bernabé, S. Citalán-Cigarroa, and O. Solorza-Feria). More specific portable fuel cell developments are treated in the following three chapters. In Chapter 7, the micro-fuel cells based on silicon technology are described (Chapter 7 Micro-fuel cells based on silicon materials G. Gautier); Chapter 8 deals with fuel cells that have no membrane electrolyte, so they work in a stream of liquid serving as electrolyte and electrode separator (Chapter 8 Membraneless micro-fuel cell designs for portable applications J.M. Mora-Hernández and N. Alonso-Vante); in Chapter 9, a new form of hydrogen storage with possible portable application is described based on the use of starch (Chapter 9 Starch: a high-density chemical hydrogen storage compound for PEM fuel cells Y.H.P. Zhang). The book ends with two chapters: One is an overview on the industrial initiatives dealing with portable fuel cells (Chapter 10 Technology indicators of portable power based on hydrogen-fed fuel cells Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio), and the other one summarizes present and future research trends about fuel cell portability (Chapter 11 New trends Antonio M. Chaparro, Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio, M. Antonia Folgado, Marco A. Galarza, Julio J. Conde, and Alba M. Fernández-Sotillo).

Portable Hydrogen Energy Systems is primarily intended for engineers and scientists in industry and academy, who are involved in fuel cell and electronic product development and manufacture. It is also of interest to private and public administrations, funding organisms, and in general to anyone engaged with the fostering and social consciousness of clean energy technologies. In the last decades, there has been a great expectation for small portable fuel-cell-powered devices, which is still to be fulfilled and satisfied. This book compiles the most recent advances on this subject, providing an overview of the current state of the art and general background to better understand the operation of these electrochemical systems and their particularities with regard to larger fuel-cell-powered devices. Invited researchers of internationally acknowledged scientific excellence with expertise in portable fuel cells and hydrogen storage have collaborated in dedicated chapters.

The editors want to thank all the authors for their contributions and the Elsevier staff involved in this book (Raquel Zanol, Katie Chan, and Sruthi Satheesh) for their continuous support and care in its preparation. The editors have prepared this book in the research framework of the E-LIG-E Project (ENE2015-70417-P), financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain, which is devoted to the design and fabrication of new portable energy generators of 1–100 W power, based on fuel cell and stored hydrogen.

It is the great beauty of our science, chemistry, that advancement in it, whether in a degree great or small, instead of exhausting the subjects of research, opens the doors to further and more abundant knowledge, overflowing with beauty and utility.

Michael Faraday—Experimental Researches in Electricity, volume 2 (1834).

1

Why portable electricity with hydrogen fuel cells?

Antonio M. Chaparro; Paloma Ferreira-Aparicio    Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology—CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

Reasons for the application of hydrogen and fuel cell in portable power systems are given. The fuel-cell energy generation concept has fundamental properties that may improve and complement current portable energy generators, mostly batteries, in many consumer applications. Fuel cells may become a solution to improve performance, autonomy, and safety of future portable devices. By analyzing the fundamental properties of batteries and fuel cells, it is concluded that both electrochemical devices may have a complementary role in future portable electronics. Batteries will be more appropriate for low-power applications (< 1–10 W), incompatible with small amounts of water emission. Upon increasing power requirements, the use of fuel cells becomes increasingly profitable and safer. Fuel cell systems may require the use of auxiliary power sources (batteries or supercapacitors) to cope with their high sensitivity to surrounding conditions and for the start-up power generation. Hydrogen and fuel-cell system will be also more appropriate for portable application requiring long-term energy storage.

Keywords

Fuel cell; Hydrogen; Portable power; Portable application; Battery; Proton exchange membrane

Chapter Outline

1.1Introduction

1.2Batteries: Characteristics and limitations as portable power sources

1.2.1A brief history of portable power devices

1.2.2The battery operation concept

1.3Hydrogen fuel cells as portable power sources

1.4Some fundamental issues concerning portability of power with hydrogen fuel cells

1.5Conclusions

References

1.1 Introduction

It is accepted that hydrogen and fuel cells are key links for a future energy supply that must be clean, secure, and safe. They will be part of a new energy system to alleviate the problems faced by the modern society around energy: expensive and unforeseeable primary sources, inefficiencies in transport and conversion, ambient pollution, and climate change (IEA, 2015). All these benefits must foster the use of hydrogen and fuel cells in industry, buildings, and transport applications that account for the larger amount of energy consumption in the world. Consumer applications, like small portable and mobile, tackled in this book, with power consumptions from a few watts of portable handheld applications to 100–200 W of small vehicle and unmanned aerial applications, are having increasing impact on total energy demand. The latest estimations assigned about 6% of the global electricity consumption in 2011 to information and computing technologies, including data centers, desktop devices, and portable devices, of which portable devices, laptops (20–40 W), and mobile phones (1–3 W) accounted for 10% (Somavat and Namboodiri, 2011). More recent analyses foresee for the next years an important growth in electricity consumption by consumer portable and rechargeable electronics, around 1.5%/year until 2040 (US Energy Information Administration, 2016). Consumer application will be characterized by a decreasing consumption by more efficient units but offset by the growth in the number of units (except for the obsolete technologies) (US Department of Energy, 2017).

Portable devices appear to be, therefore, a relatively minor niche for future clean energies and decarbonization initiatives, compared with industry, transportation, and buildings consumptions. Introducing hydrogen and fuel cells as portable power sources could be increasingly profitable on this ground, however it would have a minor impact; in addition, present portable power generators, that is, batteries, are also compatible with clean energy generation if their recharging is carried out with renewable energies. So, is there really a need for using this new and complex technology in the portable power sector?

Indeed, the use of hydrogen and fuel cells for portable electricity has different, compelling motivations. Portable electronic applications, like laptops, mobile phones, tablets, small chargers, and other electronic gadgets (toys, medical and military appliances, and small unmanned vehicles), have expanded in recent years to become unavoidable tools of the modern life. Their expansion has been accompanied by improvements in miniaturization and functionality, so portable power sources, mostly batteries, have had to evolve to higher energy and power densities. However, the autonomy of portable devices has not increased at the same pace. In a short-to-medium future, the advent of highly integrated nanotechnologies is foreseen (Shulaker et al., 2017), including embedded sensors and devices, personal wearable, and implantable applications that will require more integrated and powerful portable power sources. Such sources should be light, flexible, and safe and, in some cases, compatible with living tissues or with a programmed durability. New requirements will increase performance pressure over present batteries, that are already close to their physical capabilities. New portable power generation must be envisaged, based either on new materials and battery concepts or on different portable energy types.

Hydrogen and fuel cells may overcome the power requirements of such new applications. Fuel cells have received increasing interest in the portable power sector, although first commercial initiatives have not had so far a fully successful experience, except for some auxiliary power, and military applications (Curtin and Gangi, 2016; E4Tech, 2016) (see also Chapter 10). The basic reasons are probably a highly competitive market entirely coped by batteries, compared with a new energy conversion concept based on a less matured technology, still with a high cost, low durability, and low reliability. The successful pace that portable electronics has had until now requires a strong effort in fundamental and applied research to provide the energy for the new requirements.

But why and how may hydrogen and fuel cells be the adequate future portable energy? A comparative analysis of fundamental characteristics will help to compare possibilities and drawbacks of different portable power sources, based on batteries and on hydrogen and fuel cells.

1.2 Batteries: Characteristics and limitations as portable power sources

1.2.1 A brief history of portable power devices

Electrochemical batteries cope at present with most of portable electricity requirements, but its history shows a lengthy development throughout almost two centuries, which ended with a sudden explosion in the last 20 years. Their invention, published in 1800 by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), had at the beginning a high impact on the development of science and technology (Rand, 2011). The first batteries were bulky and difficult to transport but became essential devices in laboratories dedicated to the study of matter and isolation of elements and studies of electricity and magnetism (Rand, 2011; Buchmann, 2011; Bagotsky, 2006). The first practical source of electricity was the Daniel cell (1839) that could be used for applications like telegraph networks. The application of batteries as portable power sources was not possible until the invention of the first dry-cell battery in 1896 by the National Carbon Company (later Eveready and at present Energizer), which used a paste electrolyte instead of a liquid so it could work on any position without leakage, very appropriate for a portable application. The first electric portable application that came shortly later was the flashlight, invented by David Misell in 1898, using three Zn-carbon batteries in a tube that also served as handle to power an electric light bulb. The invention was manufactured and marketed by Conrad Hubert from Eveready (1899) (flashlight because it could not throw light constantly for too long due to batteries unable to give constant power, so it had to be switched off to rest them from time to time (see http://www.historyoflighting.net/)).

The first portable military applications were powered with mercury batteries, including munition, metal detectors, and walkie talkies, during World War II. It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that new portable power devices were commercialized. Miniature batteries for hearing aids were introduced by Eveready in 1955. In 1957, the first electric wristwatch based on a balance wheel powered with a battery was produced by Hamilton Company. In the same year, the first battery-operated wearable pacemaker was produced by E. E. Bakken, using a miniature 9.4 V mercury battery housed within the box. The first implantable pacemaker came shortly later, in 1959 (A. Senning and R. Elmqvist), using silicon transistors of low power consumption and NiCd rechargeable batteries.

Probably, the most important event for portable power was the invention of the integrated circuit in the late 1950s, which made possible the development of microelectronics and microprocessors, and, with it, the appearance of low-power CMOS and later, from the 1980s, of PC computers, networks, and Internet. From 1974, quartz watches with the new solid-state digital electronics became among the most popular portable electric devices, followed by the electronic calculator with a general porpoise microcontroller developed by Texas Instruments. From then, there has been fast deployment of handheld consumer microelectronic devices, most notably cell phones, of which today exist about 4000 million in the world (Buchmann, 2011).

Such successful history was only possible by the parallel development of batteries able to provide sufficient autonomy and power (Pike Research, 2011; Blomgren, 2017; Scrosati and Garche, 2010). Modern lithium-ion batteries, introduced by Sony 25 years ago, are considered the real responsible for the widespread commercialization of mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. Some of the most relevant events concerning batteries and portable power applications are summarized in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1

1.2.2 The battery operation concept

The operation concept of a battery explains its successful history and also its limitations as a portable power source. The battery stores chemical energy in the form of solid reactants (active materials) of an exothermic electrochemical reaction, conveniently placed in the electrodes (anode and cathode) and separated by a thin ionic conducting medium. Chemical energy in a battery is converted directly into electricity just by connecting externally the two electrodes to allow for the transfer of electrons from the anode to cathode forced by the free energy of the exothermic reaction. As a result, an electric dc current passes through the external circuit while enough reactants remain in the electrodes. Different electrochemical reactions can give rise to a battery (Table 1.2). In lithium-ion batteries, at present with the highest revenue rates among battery types (37%; see http://batteryuniversity.com/), the two reactants consist of metal lithium intercalated in a carbon matrix (LixCy) in the anode and a metal oxide with available vacancy for Li ions (Li(1 − x)MO2) in the cathode; the reaction under discharge consists of the formation of a LiMO2-type compound (Scrosati and Garche, 2010):

   (1.1)

Table 1.2