FuelCellsWorks

Brunnthal/Munich–SFC Energy AG, technology and market leader in mobile and off-grid power solutions based on fuel-cell technology, will be giving a first assessment of the successful launch of the new generation of EFOY COMFORT fuel cells at this year’s Caravan Salon in Duesseldorf.

The EFOY COMFORT fuel cells, which were introduced on 26 May, will be offered by a current total of 20 motor home manufacturers at Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf. The manufacturers will be offering a version of their vehicles already equipped with an EFOY fuel cell (‘EFOY Inside’) as well as an ‘EFOY Ready’ variant, i.e. motor homes in which owners only have to connect and switch on an EFOY fuel cell.

SFC has established a pan-European network of authorised EFOY dealers in order to support customers better and even more efficiently with information on the numerous benefits and possibilities of EFOY COMFORT fuel cells. Certified dealers have comprehensive knowledge of EFOY technology and applications and are committed to maintaining a stock of EFOY fuel cell cartridges and units for EFOY users at all times.

With the EFOY COMFORT, an SFC product is once again the only standard fuel cell available on the market to be integrated into the “Green Caravaning” motor home of the CIVD industry association. Each year the association presents its green motor home featuring only environmentally sound caravaning products.

The new EFOY COMFORT series consists of three models with a charging capacity of 80, 140 or 210 Ah per day for ultimate flexibility in power supplies. The new product line is characterised by 15 per cent higher performance, by up to 15 per cent higher cost-effectiveness and by even quieter operation thanks to the intelligent use of vibration-absorbing cushioning elements used in the automotive industry. In addition to improved ease of use, the new EFOY COMFORT models for the first time come with an expert mode that allows individual settings to be made such as adjustments to switching thresholds.

Visitors wishing to learn more can experience the new EFOY COMFORT fuel cells live in Düsseldorf at the EFOY booth, A36, in Hall 13.

More information is available at www.efoy.com and www.sfc.com.

About SFC Energy AG
SFC Energy AG (www.sfc.com) is market leader in fuel cell technologies for mobile and off-grid power applications serving the leisure, industrial and defense markets. As one of Germany’s technology pioneers, SFC has won numerous innovation awards. SFC has alliances with leading companies in a wide range of industries.  Unlike most other fuel cell manufacturers, who are in the research and development phase or run subsidized demonstration projects, SFC has shipped more than 21,000 fully commercial products to industrial and private end users for more than six years, and has created a convenient fuel cartridge supply infrastructure. SFC is DIN ISO 9001:2008 certified. SFC is based in Brunnthal, Germany, and has a sales and technical service office in the U.S. SFC Energy AG is listed in the Prime Standard on the German stock exchange (WKN 756857).

Particles of pure magnesium (left) can only collect a limited amount of hydrogen on their outer surfaces, and the process is slow. But when the magnesium is doped with iron (right), far more hydrogen is delivered through the iron layers, which also results in much faster charging. Credit: NIST

With a nod to biology, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a new approach to the problem of safely storing hydrogen in future fuel-cell-powered cars. Their idea: molecular scale “veins” of iron permeating grains of magnesium like a network of capillaries. The iron veins may transform magnesium from a promising candidate for hydrogen storage into a real-world winner.

Hydrogen has been touted as a clean and efficient alternative to gasoline, but it has one big drawback: the lack of a safe, fast way to store it onboard a vehicle. According to NIST materials scientist Leo Bendersky, iron-veined magnesium could overcome this hurdle. The combination of lightweight magnesium laced with iron could rapidly absorb—and just as importantly, rapidly release—sufficient quantities of hydrogen so that grains made from the two metals could form the fuel tank for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

“Powder grains made of iron-doped magnesium can get saturated with hydrogen within 60 seconds,” says Bendersky, “and they can do so at only 150 degrees Celsius and fairly low pressure, which are key factors for safety in commercial vehicles.”

Grains of pure magnesium are reasonably effective at absorbing hydrogen gas, but only at unacceptably high temperatures and pressures can they store enough hydrogen to power a car for a few hundred kilometers—the minimum distance needed between fill-ups. A practical material would need to hold at least 6 percent of its own weight in hydrogen gas and be able to be charged safely with hydrogen in the same amount of time as required to fill a car with gasoline today.

The NIST team used a new measurement technique they devised that uses infrared light to explore what would happen if the magnesium were evaporated and mixed together with small quantities of other metals to form fine-scale mixtures. The team found that iron formed capillary-like channels within the grains, creating passageways for hydrogen transport within the metal grains that allow hydrogen to be drawn inside extremely fast. According to Bendersky, the magnesium-iron grains could hold up to 7 percent hydrogen by weight.

Bendersky adds that the measurement technique could be valuable more generally, as it can reveal details of how a material absorbs hydrogen more effectively than the more commonly employed technique of X-ray diffraction—a method that is limited to analyzing a material’s averaged properties.

* Z. Tan, C. Chiu, E.J. Heilweil and L.A. Bendersky. Thermodynamics, kinetics and microstructural evolution during hydrogenation of iron-doped magnesium this films. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 36 (2011), pp. 9702-9713, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.196

Using advanced theoretical computations, a team of Kentucky scientists has derived a means to “tweak” an inexpensive semiconductor to function as photoelectrochemical catalyst.

Scientists from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville have determined that an inexpensive semiconductor material can be “tweaked” to generate hydrogen from water using sunlight.

The research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, was led by Professors Madhu Menon and R. Michael Sheetz at the UK Center for Computational Sciences, and Professor Mahendra Sunkara and graduate student Chandrashekhar Pendyala at the UofL Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research. Their findings were published Aug. 1 in the Physical Review Journal (Phys Rev B 84, 075304).

The researchers say their findings are a triumph for computational sciences, one that could potentially have profound implications for the future of solar energy.

Using state-of-the-art theoretical computations, the UK-UofL team demonstrated that an alloy formed by a 2 percent substitution of antimony (Sb) in gallium nitride (GaN) has the right electrical properties to enable solar light energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken. The hydrogen can then be collected.

“Previous research on PEC has focused on complex materials,” Menon said. “We decided to go against the conventional wisdom and start with some easy-to-produce materials, even if they lacked the right arrangement of electrons to meet PEC criteria. Our goal was to see if a minimal ‘tweaking’ of the electronic arrangement in these materials would accomplish the desired results.”

Gallium nitride is a semiconductor that has been in widespread use to make bright-light LEDs since the 1990s. Antimony is a metalloid element that has been in increased demand in recent years for applications in microelectronics. The GaN-Sb alloy is the first simple, easy-to-produce material to be considered a candidate for PEC water splitting. The alloy functions as a catalyst in the PEC reaction, meaning that it is not consumed and may be reused indefinitely. UofL and UK researchers are currently working toward producing the alloy and testing its ability to convert solar energy to hydrogen.

Hydrogen has long been touted as a likely key component in the transition to cleaner energy sources. It can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity, burned to produce heat, and utilized in internal-combustion engines to power vehicles. When combusted, hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water vapor as its only waste product. Hydrogen also has wide-ranging applications in science and industry.

Because pure hydrogen gas is not found in free abundance on Earth, it must be manufactured by unlocking it from other compounds. Thus, hydrogen is not considered an energy source, but rather an “energy carrier.” Currently, it takes a large amount of electricity to generate hydrogen by water splitting. As a consequence, most of the hydrogen manufactured today is derived from non-renewable sources such as coal and natural gas.

Sunkara says the GaN-Sb alloy has the potential to convert solar energy into an economical, carbon-free source for hydrogen.

“Hydrogen production now involves a large amount of CO2 emissions,” Sunkara said. “Once this alloy material is widely available, it could conceivably be used to make zero-emissions fuel for powering homes and cars and to heat homes.”

Menon says the research should attract the interest of other scientists across a variety of disciplines.

“Photocatalysis is currently one of the hottest topics in science,” Menon said. “We expect the present work to have a wide appeal in the community spanning chemistry, physics and engineering.”

For more information, please contact Keith Hautala at the University of Kentucky at (859) 323-2396 or keith.hautala@uky.edu. At the University of Louisville, please contact Judy Hughes at (502) 852-6171 or judy.hughes@louisville.edu.