1. fuel cell Technology Samuel Simon Araya Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University ssa@iet.aau.dk Supervisor: Søren Knudsen Kær Co-supervisor: Søren Juhl Andreasen

2. Outline Introduction to Fuel Cells HT-PEM fuel cells Conclusions

3. Introduction ”Imagine driving home in a fuel cell car with nothing but pure water dripping from the tailpipe. Imagine a laptop computer that runs for 30 hours on a single charge. Imagine a world where you plug your house into your car and power lines are a distant memory.” -Fuel cell Fundamentals by O’Hayre et al.

4. What is a Fuel cell? Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that continuously convert the internal energy of gases directly into electricity, Figure source: http://ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/nilssongroup/nilsson_projects.html (15/ 02/2010)

5. The History 1800 – W. Nicholson and A. Carlisle first described electrolysis 1836 – William Grove fuel cell Demonstration 1889 – three separate teams performed various fuel cell experiments 1960’s – T. Grubb and L. Neidrach Invented PEMFC technology at GE 1990’s to the present – worldwide research on all types of fuel cells

6. Advantages More efficient They can be all solid parts – potential for reliability and durability No moving parts – Silent NOx, SOx and Particulate emissions virtually zero

8. Power density

9. Susceptibility to environmental poisons

13. Stationary and semi- stationary power supplies

14. Cogeneration – MicroCHP

16. Stationary - 40 000 hoursBackground photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputern/3462874340/ (15/02/2010) Data source: U.S department of Energy (DOE)

17. Conclusions We are halfway to tackle both the cost and durability challenges for fuel cells to be commercially competitive and the trend is faster than ever HT-PEM fuel cells are very promising but Material degradation remains the main issue

18. Thank you for you attention