“COOL” FUEL CELLS COULD REVOLUTIONIZE
EARTH’S ENERGY RESOURCES
UH Researchers Developing Efficient, Practical Power Source Alternatives
HOUSTON, July 22, 2004 – As temperatures soar this summer,
so do electric bills. Researchers at the University of Houston are
striving toward decreasing those costs with the next revolution
in power generation.
Imagine a power source so small, yet so efficient, that it could
make cumbersome power plants virtually obsolete while lowering your
electric bill. A breakthrough in thin film solid oxide fuel cells
(SOFCs) is currently being refined in labs at the University of
Houston, making that dream a reality.
Originating from research at UH’s Texas Center for Superconductivity
and Advanced Materials (TcSAM), these SOFCs of the “thin film”
variety are both efficient and compact. With potential ranging from
use in the government in matters of defense and space travel to
driving forces in the consumer market that include computers and
electricity, this breakthrough carries tremendous impact.
“By using materials science concepts developed in our superconductivity
research and materials processing concepts in our semiconductor
research, we are able to reduce operating temperatures, eliminate
steps and use less expensive materials that will potentially revolutionize
from where we derive electrical energy,” said Alex Ignatiev,
director of TcSAM and distinguished university professor of physics,
chemistry and electrical and computer engineering at UH. “While
there are a number of fuel cell research programs at the university,
ours focuses on the application of thin film science and technology
to gain the benefits of efficiency and low cost.”
Compared to the macroscopic size of traditional fuel cells that
can take up an entire room, thin film SOFCs are one micron thick
– the equivalent of about one-hundredth of a human hair. Putting
this into perspective, the size equivalent of four sugar cubes would
produce 80 watts – more than enough to operate a laptop computer,
eliminating clunky batteries and giving you hours more juice in
your laptop. By the same token, approximately two cans’ worth
of soda would produce more than five kilowatts, enough to power
a typical household.
Keeping in mind that one thin film SOFC is just a fraction of the
size of a human hair with an output of 0.8 to 0.9 Volts, a stack
of 100 to 120 of these fuel cells would generate about 100 volts.
When connected to a homeowner’s natural gas line, the stack
would provide the needed electrical energy to run the household
at an efficiency of approximately 65 percent. This would be a twofold
increase over power plants today, as they operate at 30 to 35 percent
efficiency. Stand-alone household fuel cell units could form the
basis for a new ‘distributed power’ system. In this
concept, energy not used by the household would be fed back into
a main grid, resulting in a credit to the user’s account,
while overages would similarly receive extra energy from that grid
and be charged accordingly.
“The initial applications of our thin film fuel cell would
probably be for governmental entities,” Ignatiev said. “For
instance, once the preliminary data satisfies the Department of
Defense, we could see our fuel cell research in action in the backpacks
of soldiers, replacing heavy batteries to power their computers
and night vision goggles and such.
“NASA also is very interested in this research mainly because
of the weight and size factors,” he said. “Thin film
SOFCs offer light, compact, low mass properties of significant interest
to them. Right now, the shuttle routinely uses fuel cells that require
ultrapure oxygen and hydrogen, use exotic materials and are massive
and large. But the thin film SOFCs we are developing at UH are not
as sensitive to contaminants and are highly efficient in their design
and lightweight size, which is ideal for space applications.”
Inherent to the more efficient design of these “cool”
fuel cells is quite literally the fact that they operate at a much
lower temperature than other solid oxide fuel cells, yet do not
need a catalyst. Despite their 60 to 70 percent efficiency, SOFCs,
in general, operate at 900 to 1,000 degrees Celsius, a very high
temperature that requires exotic structural materials and significant
thermal insulation. However, the thin film solid oxide fuel cell
has an operating temperature of 450 to 500 degrees Celsius, one
half that of current SOFCs. This lower temperature is largely a
result of the drastically decreased thickness of the electrolyte-working
region of these thin film SOFCs and negates the need for exotic
structural materials and extensive insulation. The lower temperature
also eliminates the need for catalysts (known as reformers) for
the fuel cell. All of these features indicate a reduced cost for
the thin film SOFC and positive future impact on the fuel cell market.
Ignatiev anticipates that what he and his colleagues have been
developing in UH’s TcSAM laboratories will advance to the
testing phase within the next six months. The collaborative test
bed for this thin film SOFC testing is the Houston Advanced Research
Center’s Center for Fuel Cell Research and Applications.
SOURCE: Ignatiev 713-743-8215; ignatiev@uh.edu
Web page: http://www.phys.uh.edu/fac_pages/ignatiev/index.htm
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
About the Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced
Materials (TCSAM)
TcSAM, a NASA Research Partnership Center, represents the largest
multidisciplinary university superconductivity and related materials
research effort in the United States, with more than 260 faculty,
postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students. Center
personnel create and develop high temperature superconducting and
advanced materials and further their fundamental understanding,
advance new terrestrial and space applications based on these materials,
and disseminate fundamental and applied knowledge through extensive
education and outreach programs. Strong collaborations with industry
and national laboratories promote the commercialization of TcSAM
research results through the TcSAM Industrial Consortium.
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For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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