fuel cell tagged posts

Like batteries, fuel cells produce energy through an electrochemical process. Unlike batteries, they don’t run down or require recharging. However, the potential advantages of fuel cells are offset by challenges that include cost, performance and durability.

Michigan Technological University researcher Yun Hang ...

The energy output of the new fuel cell design produces about 20 percent of what is possible in hydrogen fuel cells currently on the market, but the system is about 100 times more effective than biofuel cells that use related organic shuttles.
Credit: Matt Wisniewski

Fuel cells have long been viewed as a promising power source. These devices, invented in the 1830s, generate electricity directly from chemicals, such as hydrogen and oxygen, and produce only water vapor as emissions. But most fuel cells are too expensive, inefficient, or both. In a new approach, inspired by biology, a University of Wisconsin-Madison team has designed a fuel cell using cheaper materials and an organic compound that shuttles electrons and protons.

In a traditional fuel cell, the electrons and protons from hydroge...

Scientists have created porous ‘egg-box’ structured nanofibers using seaweed extract. Credit: American Chemical Society

Seaweed, the edible algae with a long history in some Asian cuisines, and which has also become part of the Western foodie culture, could turn out to be an essential ingredient in another trend: the development of more sustainable ways to power our devices. Researchers have made a seaweed-derived material to help boost the performance of superconductors, lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.

“Carbon-based materials are the most versatile materials used in the field of energy storage and conversion,” Dongjiang Yang, Ph.D., says. “We wanted to produce carbon-based materials via a really ‘green’ pathway...

Basic concept of self-humidifying nanovalved membrane. A hydrophobic coating layer provides a self-controlled mechanism for water conservation using nanometre-sized cracks (nanocracks) tuned by membrane swelling behaviour in response to external humidity conditions, which act as nanovalves. Credit: Chi Hoon Park et al. Nature (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nature17634 

Inspired by the humble cactus, a new type of membrane has the potential to significantly boost the performance of fuel cells and transform the electric vehicle industry. In hot conditions the membrane, which features a water repellent skin, can improve the efficiency of fuel cells by a factor of 4...