Fuel cells

As a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea, the mission of Korea Institute of Materials and Science KIMS is to comprehensively facilitate R&D, test, evaluate and provide technical support in order to promote innovative technology and industrial development. Important research achievements related to climate technology include Plasma-Treated Albaca fiber reinforced composites for industrial application.

Artelys is an independent company specialised in optimization, decision support and modeling. The company supports an effective planning and implementation of the energy transition using state-of-art quantitative techniques including cost-benefit assessment, impact assessment, scenario building and development of a city-level energy/climate master plan.

Please refer to the following link https://www.artelys.com/reports/ for Aterlys reports and publications. 

The Global Environment Centre Foundation (GEC) is an entity that supports the UNEP’s International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), based in Japan. GEC is dedicated to the transfer of environmentally sound technologies, in both developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The foundation aims to contribute to Japan’s international efforts on the environment, sharing project collaborations as well as promoting Japan’s rich conservation knowledge and experience in developing nations.

Prior solutions require maintaining fuel flow while shutting down the air from first to the fuel cell during shutdown. This leads to a loss of fuel during shutdown of the fuel cell operation. During the shutdown air flowing into the combustion chamber can flow into the anode of the fuel cell. A simple way of preventing this is to place check valve between the SOFC anode and the combustion chamber. This check valve will prevent flow of air from the combustion chamber into the anode side of the SOFC. Applications: Fuel cells

The purpose of this patented invention is to improve the viability of fuel cell devices in miniature scale while simultaneously taking advantage of surface-to-volume scaling relationships to enhance performance. One example manifestation would include a polymer electrolyte material molded with integral flow channels and coated with a suitable catalyst to distribute the necessary reactants for the electrochemical production of electric current.

The University of Florida is seeking companies interested in commercializing fuel-cell technology with improved range of use. Fuel cells combine oxygen and fuel to chemically generate electricity without combustion. The domestic market for this innovative energy source could grow to $975 million by the year 2012 according to some studies. Of the many existing fuel-cell technologies solid-oxide fuel cells have the distinct advantage of being able to use fuels other than hydrogen allowing for greater flexibility.

Background: Currently there is a surge in interest in fuel cell research as companies across the globe race to take advantage of the high energy capacity that fuel cells provide in comparison to other portable electrochemical systems. Many approaches to fuel cell technology use strong acid electrolytes. Such systems suffer from corrosion problems which limit their functional life. Despite significant research in the area there remains a need for higher-performance proton carriers for use in fuel cells.

Current biofuel cells have major limitations as they often suffer from poor electron transfer efficiency and insufficient power output. Researchers from the School of Chemistry have developed a hybrid biofeul cell which uses light absorbing molecules on nanostructured interfaces to create a hybrid device which can overcome these limitations. The present technology includes a nano-structured electrode surface to which light absorbing dyes and redox proteins have been attached.

The technology is a hybrid process that utilizes both sulfur-tolerant and high power density planar solid fuel cell (PSOFC) stacks to produce power at a higher efficiency. The sulfurtolerant PSOFC stack uses anode materials that selectively convert Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) present in fuel streams to non-poisoning sulfur compounds. The remaining gas balances which are nearly free of H2S are used as fuel inlet to the conventional PSOFC stack.

Background: A novel aerosol-assisted approach for the synthesis of a nanostructured bimetallic Platinum-Ruthenium (Pt-Ru) network is demonstrated in which monodisperse silica is used as a template. This approach allows for a simplified synthesis and short synthesis times. The nanostructured Pt-Ru network is characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and BET surface area measurements. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) shows enhanced electrocatalytic activity which is believed to improve mass transfer as a result of the nanostructured morphology.