The Environmental Engineering Hub

"The Australian Government is interested in developing a hydrogen export industry to export our abundant renewable energy," said Professor O'Mullane from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty. "In principle, hydrogen offers a way to store clean energy at a scale that is required to make the rollout of large-scale solar and wind farms as well as the export of green energy viable. "However, current methods that use carbon sources to produce hydrogen emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that mitigates the benefits of using renewable energy from the sun and wind. "Electrochemical water splitting driven by electricity sourced from renewable energy technology has been identified as one of the most sustainable methods of producing high-purity hydrogen." Professor O'Mullane said the new composite material he and PhD student Ummul Sultana had developed enabled electrochemical water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen using chea

A new source of platinum demand is gaining traction in China as the government throws its financial might behind the development of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles, potentially creating a market  for 500,000oz of the metal and offsetting declines in antipollution devices in diesel engines. China’s government set out a target of 2-million new electric vehicles (NEV), including hydrogen-powered vehicles on its roads by 2020, a figure that Benny Oeyen, the new head of marketing at Anglo American Platinum and former senior manager in various car companies, extrapolated to use up to 500,000oz of platinum in the systems converting hydrogen into electricity. The question raised by analysts is the offset of platinum used in autocatalyst systems on diesel engines to scrub noxious gases from exhaust systems and whether the new environmentally friendly trucks and buses will cannibalise the long-standing source of platinum demand over the longer term. A visit to majo

The California Energy Commission has voted to approve an $8 million grant for the development of a high-capacity hydrogen fueling station. In a statement Wednesday the Commission said the fueling station, at the Port of Long Beach, would be used to service and promote the expansion of zero-emission fuel cell electric Class 8 drayage trucks. Drayage trucks are used to take freight from ports to warehouses and other locations, the Commission said. The Commission added that the promotion of zero-emission vehicles would help to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution at the nation's second busiest container port." The station, according to the Commission, will source its hydrogen "from 100 percent renewable biogas." Hydrogen is becoming an attractive fuel source for many types of transport. A fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses is currently in operation in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. In September, European railway manufacturer Alst

Norwegian Sintef Ocean and ABB Marine will use two 30kW hydrogen fuel cells, set up in laboratory to model the operation and control of a complete marine power system in a megawatt-scale propulsion plant. "ABB and Sintef Ocean are undertaking groundbreaking research to test the viability of fuel cells as an energy source for main ship propulsion. The new research project seeks to provide the answers required for fuel cell technology to be delivered at the scale needed to power commercial and passenger ships," said a press release. The testing methodology, to be developed at Sintef Ocean’s Trondheim-based laboratory, will use two 30kW fuel cells, set up to model the operation and control of a complete marine power system in a megawatt-scale propulsion plant. ABB’s own software together with Sintef Oceans vessel simulator capabilities will imitate and play back different load profiles and diesel/battery/fuel cell combinations, and tested in a scaled down

While Nissan and Tesla have put their money on electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries, Toyota has bet on hydrogen fuel cell technology and plug-in hybrid vehicles. In fact, Toyota plans to ramp up production of hydrogen vehicles while cutting production costs. The Toyota Mirai was introduced in 2014 and was the first commercially available, mass-produced sedan to run exclusively on hydrogen fuel. In May, Toyota announced plans to increase ten-fold its production of the Mirai from 3,000 in 2017 to at least 30,000 by 2020. Unfortunately, the car has high production costs and starts at $60,000. Due to limited production, the car is made by hand, adding costs. Hydrogen vehicles also contain platinum, a precious metal nearly 56,000 times more expensive than steel. Toyota plans to reduce the platinum in the hydrogen fuel stack to save money. Toyota began to invest in hydrogen technology in the 1990s instead of battery-powered electric vehicles. “Toyota is c

Porous and electrically conductive material is the kind of material that is used for gas diffusion backings. Usually, the gas diffusion layer is single or composite, and the last means that there is a junction with a micro-porous layer. Water management and electrical properties can be improved with a treatment composed of fluoropolymer and carbon black . Diffusion of the reactant gases to the membrane/electrode assembly are improved with these material types. The structure is made it so that it spreads out the gas to maximize the contact surface area of the catalyst layer membrane. Carbon cloth and carbon paper are the most usually used GDL materials. The purpose of the GDL is to limit the amount of water that reaches the membrane/electrode assembly. Additionally, it helps with the removal of liquid water from the cathode side to prevent excess flooding. One required characteristic for this layer is that it has to be water-proofed so that the layer does not get clogged with wat

Conduction is the process which dictates the transport of charges through the fuel cell layers, except for the membrane. That means that the lack of adequate contact between the diffusion layer, bipolar plates and cooling plates is the cause of most of the ohmic losses outside of the membrane. There is where most of the overall ohmic loss occur. To help solving that problem, either the membrane needs to be made thinner, or its material needs to be more conductive. History and tests given that, have told us that making the membrane thinner is easier than the alternative. The challenge with making the membrane material more conductive balancing that property with its thermal and chemical stability.  The image below describes the relationship between membrane thickness and local conductivity: Source: SPIEGEL, Colleen.  PEM Fuel Cell Modeling and Simulation Using MATLAB ® .  Burlington, MA, USA: Academic Press, 2008. 440 p.

California dominates the scene when it comes to having hydrogen fuel cell refueling stations in the United States. In 2013, the New York Times reported 10 stations in the country, with one located in Columbia, SC, eight in Southern California and one in Emeryville. In 2016, that number increased to 31 stations in the US, with California having the most of them (28). Iceland used to have a refueling station for three buses for the public transport of Reykjavik, which operated from 2003 to 2007.  The station had the capacity of generating its own hydrogen through a electrolyzing unit. Japan is one of the countries with the greatest number of hydrogen fuel cell refueling stations. Up May 2017, they had 91 stations. Sources:  Berman, Bradley. "Fuel Cells at Center Stage" , New York Times, 24 November 2013, p. AU1.   Alternative Fueling Station Counts by State , Alternative Fuels Data Center, accessed December 2, 2016.   ECTOS 2003-7" , Icelandic New Energy, acces

For a fuel cell to run efficiently, there needs to be proper control of its temperature and heat generation. Some fuel cells work well in room temperature, but others require temperatures as high as 1000 ºC, and any value outside of the accepted range results in lowered efficiency of the device. Higher temperatures lead to faster kinetics and voltage, and lower temperatures cause shorter warm-up times, lower thermodynamical stresses and retardation of corrosion and other temperature-dependent processes. For fuel cells, higher temperatures also mean greater vaporization of the liquid water and, as a result, more of the waste heat becomes the latent vaporization heat.  The temperature profile in a fuel cell is ever-changing, even when the flow rate of the gases is constant. That happens because of the transfer of heat and phase change of some reactants. The accurate prediction of the temperature and heat distribution is essential to determine temperature-dependent parameters and r

The main objective when design flow fields is balancing the pressure drop and the amount of gas that is distributed to the GDL and catalyst layers. Parallel, serpentine and interdigitated designs are the most popular for fuel cell channels. In relatively small fuel cells, the serpentine design is usually used because the hydrogen reaction is not rate limiting and water blockage in the humidified anode can happen. In the image below, you can see a serpentine flow field design. The flow path is continuous and relatively efficient in distributing gas across the fuel cell. However, since the path is longer than in other designs, pressure loss might be a problem. One advantage of the design if that a block in the path does not compromise activity downstream. A disadvantage is that more gas needs to be input into the fuel cell because the design favors the depletion of the components. Another disadvantage is the build up of water in the cathode during extended periods of operation of

Although fuel cells were not investigated much during the 1800s and 1900s, the credit for the invention of the first fuel cells goes to William Grove. Intensive research on the topic began in the 1960s with NASA and only recently has commercialization of the technology begun to be conceivable. The image below is a summary of the history of the fuel cells. Before William Grove had invented the first fuel cell in 1839, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlislie came up with the process of using electricity of break water into hydrogen and oxygen in 1800. Willian, then, based his first fuel cell on their discovery. The device, called the gas battery or "Grove cell", was a combination of " electrodes in a series circuit, with separate platinum electrodes in oxygen and hydrogen submerged in a dilute sulfuric acid electrolyte solution" and it generated 12 amps of current at about 1.8 volts.  NASA began research on fuel cells for Project Gemini, which employed th

It's not always that you will see an intentional oil spill, but that's exactly what happened in Ontario, Canada. In the beginning of June, scientists spilled bitum - a viscous liquid that is extracted from sand in some regions of the country and transported in ducts - in a limited surface of the Experimental Lakes from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD-ELA). The objective of the study was to help protect future freshwater ecosystems from oil spills. In a large test tube, installed in the lake where the research station was constructed, the scientists are studying the physical, chemical, biological and toxicological impacts from bitum in freshwater organisms - from the plankton to the frogs and fishes. Until recently, this type of experiment had been made only in laboratories, where it wasn't possible to imitate the real world. It's the first study of its kind made in Canada - an opportunity to answer questions that can help to

Usually, society's power come from fossil fuels, which have many disadvantages: production of pollutants in large quantities, limited availability and being the cause of conflicts around the world. Fuel cells have the ability to power cellphones, cars and even houses. Their advantages are specially important for applications that are energy limited. A good example is the power for portable devices, which is limited and needs constant recharging. Studies have shown that fuel cell systems are capable of providing the same amount of energy as batteries with a smaller system weight and volume, which is a great advantage for portable power systems. Future markets for the fuel cells could be the transportation, portable and stationary sectors. Each market could make use of fuel cells for different reasons. The portable sector needs fuel cells to power devices for longer periods of time. Convergence of devices is the current trend in electronics, and the amount of power require

Among the essential items for nutritionist Fernanda Bezerra, 29 years of age, which she always carries is her wallet, cellphone and a stainless steel straw. The metal utensil is a gift given to her by a friend after she vented out about the pollution in the ocean when she visited the Philippines. "It shocked me". Attitudes like Fernanda's are getting more common and can become the norm. In Rio, the city hall started last week the inspection of a law that forces stores and shops to offer paper straws and prohibits the plastic version. Similar laws could become the reality in other cities in Brazil. In social media, images showing animals affected by the pollution are getting the attention from everyone. One of the most watched videos is that of a straw being removed from the nose of a turtle. "I love animals. I have been following this topic and watching that sort of thing on the Internet, looking for alternatives", says 25 years old lawyer Georgia M