Table of Contents Hydrogen Fuel Cell Efficiency Test Introduction Problem Hypothesis Safety Materials Procedure Data and

Results Sources of Error Conclusion Applications Bibliography 2 5 6 7 8 9 12 15 16 17 19

Introduction A Hydrogen Future In todays world with rising gas prices and growing dependence on foreign oil hydrogen seems to be the perfect solution as a clean alternative fuel. When stored as an element, hydrogen would be a good fuel to power vehicles with fuel cells or by internal combustion. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and it is pollutantfree (since the only emission is water). However, there is one problem with hydrogen; that is it can only be used as a way to store energy. There are no places on the earth to mine hydrogen for use; energy has to be invested to produce the hydrogen. Therefore hydrogen, if used as fuel, would be a way to redistribute energy from power plants for use with vehicles. However, in order to know the economical benefits of hydrogen, the efficiency of hydrogen needs to be calculated. Fuel cells are an efficient way of using hydrogen without the need for combustion. A fuel cell use combines both hydrogen and oxygen them back into water and create energy. A hydrogen fuel cell is made up of two plates, two electrodes, and a MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly). Hydrogen is fed into the fuel cell on the anode side of the fuel cell where the hydrogen flows past the electrodes and the MEA. On the other side of the MEA, pure oxygen or oxygen from the air is flowing over the MEA, depending on the fuel cell type. The MEA works, because of a platinum electro catalyst and in the PEM membrane, which acts as a solid

proton (ionized Hydrogen atom) conductor. The platinum electro catalyst is created by a carbon mat laced with tiny platinum pieces; this mat is then pressed onto to both sides of the membrane made of nafion. These pieces of platinum facilitate the ionization of the hydrogen atom. The electrons can not travel through the PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) due to their negative charge and are forced to go around in a circuit. This flow of electrons produces electrical energy. The ionized hydrogen atoms and electrons can then chemically combine with oxygen to form water and a small amount of heat. The use of pure oxygen compared to the use of air poses a question on how to maximize the output of a fuel cell. Since air is composed of only about 20% oxygen would pure oxygen make the fuel cell run more efficiently? The process of producing hydrogen in this experiment will be done by a reverse PEM fuel cell electrolyzer. The reverse PEM fuel cell electrolyzer does the exact same process as a fuel cell, but in reverse. As a electrical current is forced through the fuel cell hydrogen atoms attach to the platinum catalyst release their electrons and flow across the nafion layer to negatively charged platinum catalysts on the other side. On the other side

hydrogen atoms regain an electron and combine with each other. This in result produces hydrogen on one side of the fuel cell and oxygen on the other side. The overall purpose of this project is to investigate which method of using hydrogen will maximize the efficiency hydrogen. The experiment will also try to answer how big the differences in efficiencies of using a pure oxygen fueled fuel cell compared to an air fueled fuel cell. If the efficiency of oxygen fueled is much greater than air fueled would it still be worth it to store the pure oxygen on an hydrogen powered car or for other purposes. As this experiment is carried out it should be remembered that hydrogen is only a way to store energy, and therefore the question will also be asked, Is it even worth it at all to use hydrogen as a means of energy distribution? In conducting this experiment, we hope to find the most efficient way to use hydrogen.

Problem How efficient is hydrogen in storing and releasing electrical energy? The method of producing hydrogen will be reverse fuel cell electrolysis. Two methods of extracting the chemically stored energy in hydrogen, by means of a fuel cell, involve using the hydrogen with pure oxygen (generated during electrolysis) or oxygen extracted from air. Which fuel cell will be the most efficient at extracting energy from hydrogen, and would it be worth it in a hydrogen economy to store pure oxygen?

Hypothesis When producing hydrogen from water with electrical energy, the methods of a reverse fuel cell electrolyzer will be tested. As the hydrogen is converted from potential chemical energy to electrical energy, two fuel cells will be tested; one using pure oxygen, the other using oxygen from air. The efficiency of a fuel cell fed by pure oxygen should have the greatest efficiency over the air fed fuel cell.

Safety Hazardous Materials Hydrogen is highly flammable and can combust easily if exposed to a flame or extreme high temperatures. Hydrogen if pure without any chance to disperse into the air is poisonous. First of all I will be under the supervision of a parent. Second to prevent leaks, I will double check all of my equipment with water. In addition, in the event of a small leak, hydrogen disperses into the air easily; it will not be a major explosive hazard. To keep safe the amount of hydrogen being produced will be kept under the maximum of 10 milliliters in this lab and will not be nearly enough to cause a powerful explosive ignition that would cause harm or bodily injury. During its first test, the electrolyzer and fuel cell will be observed from a safe distance for extra precaution.

Materials Tools Exacto Knives Package of Q-tips Hand Drill Wire Cutters Crimp Tool Drill Bits- 7/64 and 3/16 inch bits Pliers Hole Punch 3/16 inch from Mc Master Metal File

Materials 12 x 12 inch Graphite Foil from Mc Master, part #9571K63 4 x 1 inch Nickel alloy foil from Mc Master, part #8912K241 12 x 12 inch thin gauge silicone rubber sheet .02 inch thick from Mc Master, part #86435K63 2 Insulated binding posts with Banana Jacks from Radio Shack, part #274-661 a Crimp on Ring Terminals (not spade) to fit 10 or 12 gauge stranded wire 4 Bolts (plastic) that would properly and tightly fit in a 7/64 inch hole Small plastic nuts (to fit on 7/64 inch bolts) 0.3 mg/cm Membrane Electrode Assembly from fuel cell store, item code 599708 2 Barb splicer hose connectors 1/8 x 1/8 inch Battery Terminals (hook up to power supply 1/8 inch Plastic Tubing 10 or 12 gauge wire Underwater Repair Epoxy Putty 2 voltammeters 2 current probes Lab pro Computer with logger pro software 4 C-clamps Cell phone charger rated at 3.7 volts 6 alligator clips to fit 10 or 12 gauge wire Syringe Barbed splicers Hydrogen Starter Kit (comes with oxygen feed PEM fuel cell and PEM electrolyzer) from fuel cell store, item code 535608

Procedure Building the Fuel Cell 1. Cut out 2 pieces from the Nickel alloy foil with the cutting tools as shown in template #1 show to make the anode and # 5 cathode 2. Be extremely cautious and be gently when drilling a hole in the anode and cathode make sure holes will match 3. Smooth and flatten the boards after drilling 4. Next, cut out 1 piece of graphite like template #2, smooth the edges, and engrave with a pencil the graphite, then drill the holes in the graphite and smooth it out. This piece will direct hydrogen flow over the MEA 5. Cut out the other graphite plate according to template #4. This piece directs air past the oxygen side of the MEA and allows water to drain from oxygen side. 6. Insert the 1/8 barbed splicer hose connector and insert the connector through connector both end plate and graphite plate. Place a splicer in both hydrogen in and out ports 7. Prepare a very some of the underwater epoxy putty and seal the outside of the bard splicer at the points where it will be contacting the plate, then let the underwater epoxy putty dry. 8. Cut out and punch the 2 Mylar surrounds according to the template #3. Place the MEA between the Mylar surrounds. 9. Place plastic screws through holes drilled in templates starting with template # 1 and in increasing order with the # 5 template on the bottom 10. Seal and make air tight with extra pieces of silicon rubber if necessary, tighten bolts and fasten c-clamps on two the fuel cell. Check to see if air tight by flowing water through fuel cell.

Testing Procedure 1. Using Labpro amp meters, voltmeters, the power source, an electrolyzer, a fuel cell, and the electrical load, construct the following experimental set up:

2. When testing, be sure to keep the environment of the test site constant. This includes average temperature, light exposure, etc of the experimental setup. Before running the electrolyzer, make sure the valves on the oxygen and hydrogen pipes are closed. Also, make sure that the storage tanks and all pipe segments are filled with water and that no gas is present in the system. For each trial, produce 5 milliliters of hydrogen and store it in the storage tanks as seen in the above diagram. 3. While producing the hydrogen with the electrolyzer, record the input amperes and voltage from the Labpro probes installed in the above configuration. Set the Labpro software, LoggerPro, to record data every .1 seconds. Disconnect the power supply from the electrolyzer after 5 milliliters have been produced and save the LoggerPro data file. 4. After 5 milliliters of hydrogen have been produced and stored in the tanks (allowing the input energy to produce hydrogen and amount of hydrogen used in each experiment to be a control), prepare the LoggerPro equipment and open the valves on the hydrogen and oxygen pipes connecting the storage tanks to the fuel 10

cell assembly. Set LoggerPro to record data every .2 seconds and record the amperage and voltage of the output until all of the hydrogen in the storage tank has been exhausted. 5. Perform steps 2 through 4 for the both fuel cells. For the air fed PEM fuel cell, disconnect the oxygen storage tank and release all produced oxygen. 6. Experimentation will include two sets of experiments. These experiments will test the pure oxygen fuel cell and air fed full cell. The experiments are designed to find the most efficient fuel cell. 7. After collecting the data, using LoggerPro software, plot the data in graphs of output and input voltage and amperage. Using the softwares integral function and statistics function, find the integral of the amperage (amp-seconds or coulombs) and the mean amperage and voltage. To calculate the amount of joules of energy used, multiply the integral of the amperage by the voltage (amp-seconds times voltage). Finally, calculate the percent efficiency by dividing the output joules by the input joules. Record these pieces of data in a table similar to the following.

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Results

Air fed Fuel Cell

Trial # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Input Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output Coulombs 45.97 25.59 41.96 22.89 37.87 23.19 51.10 31.37 42.14 24.58 40.20 22.66 39.26 23.71 48.91 26.47 43.09 23.17 39.23 22.33 Time Running (sec) 104.6 1384 91.10 2021 84.70 2025 115.0 2748 97.27 2194 92.00 1987 92.19 2073 105.0 2326 99.79 2009 97.11 1891 Average Voltage 1.755 0.5564 1.769 0.5659 1.732 0.5464 1.728 0.5622 1.731 0.5486 1.715 0.5178 1.763 0.5464 1.536 0.5586 1.722 0.5583 1.696 0.5596 Average Amperage 0.4392 0.01115 0.4608 0.01133 0.4472 0.01145 0.4445 0.01142 0.4333 0.01121 0.4372 0.01140 0.4261 0.01144 0.4657 0.01138 0.4320 0.009116 0.4041 0.01181 Average Watts 0.7708 0.006204 0.8152 0.006412 1.775 0.006256 0.7681 0.006420 0.7500 0.006150 0.7498 0.005903 0.7512 0.006251 0.7153 0.006129 0.7440 0.005089 0.6854 0.006609 Joules 80.68 14.24 74.23 12.95 65.59 12.67 88.30 17.73 72.94 12.48 68.94 11.73 69.22 12.96 75.13 14.26 74.20 12.94 66.53 12.49 Average Efficiency 17.65 % 17.45 % 19.32 % 19.97 % 18.49 % 17.02 % 18.72 % 18.98 % 17.43 % 18.77 % 18.38 %

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Oxygen fed Fuel Cell

Trial # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Input Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output Coulombs 40.55 19.98 36.50 16.75 42.41 20.81 29.29 14.65 39.73 19.81 34.32 16.58 41.13 20.86 39.05 18.96 49.08 25.96 44.56 23.58 Time Running (sec) 90.93 1791 84.19 1484 92.38 1847 70.39 1246 90.48 1668 82.12 1386 91.14 1713 90.00 1581 96.86 2004 91.63 2010 Average Voltage 1.704 0.8836 1.696 0.8607 1.704 0.8498 1.701 0.8401 1.729 0.8472 1.746 0.8832 1.715 0.8563 1.760 0.8637 1.710 0.8517 1.758 0.8648 Average Amperage 0.4459 0.01115 0.4340 0.01129 0.4591 0.01126 0.4161 0.01176 0.4391 0.01187 0.4178 0.01196 0.4513 0.01218 0.4339 0.01199 0.5067 0.01295 0.4863 0.01173 Average Watts 0.7598 0.009852 0.7361 0.009717 0.7823 0.009569 0.7078 0.009880 0.7592 0.01006 0.7297 0.01056 0.7740 0.01043 0.7637 0.01036 0.8665 0.01103 0.8549 0.01015 Total Joules 69.10 17.65 61.90 14.42 72.27 17.68 49.82 12.31 68.69 16.78 59.92 14.64 70.54 17.86 68.73 16.38 83.93 22.11 78.34 20.39 Average Efficiency 25.55 % 23.29 % 24.47 % 24.70 % 24.43% 24.44 % 25.32 % 23.83 % 26.34 % 26.03 % 24.84 %

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Air Fed vs. Oxygen Fed Fuel Cell Efficiency

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Sources of Error The experiment yielded a 24.84% and 18.38% efficiency. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, pure oxygen fed or atmospheric oxygen fed fuel cells typically gets 3560% efficiency. The Department of Energy states that hydrogen PEM fuel cells have a range of 50-60% efficiency. From these two sources, the experiment was low. This may be due to the fact that the Department of Energy tests were fabricated using high quality fuel cells; while the experiment conducted tested a homebuilt fuel cell and a store-bought. There is a possibility since the exact same Membrane Electrode Assembly was used on both fuel cell that it could have a problem or flaw. In addition there are several factors present in the experiment that can be considered possible sources of error. These include leaking hydrogen gas, and resistance in the wiring of the experimental setup. The experimental setup involved using a system of valves that have the potential to leak hydrogen gas. The air fed fuel cell may not have been perfectly air tight even though it was tight enough to avoid leaking water, thereby decreasing the efficiency of the cell. Additionally, a varied amount of resistance in different wire configurations could also have contributed to decreasing the efficiency of the fuel cell. Furthermore, the pressure of the stored hydrogen gas was not monitored. This may have contributed to the varied input and output energy values, because of the possibility of different amounts of hydrogen being produced. This meant that one of the experimental constants, the amount of hydrogen gas produced, may have varied a little from trial to trial. Next time the experiment is run it should be done under a constant pressure, with better wiring, and using higher quality fuel cell.

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Conclusion The oxygen fed fuel cell has the highest efficiency. The overall efficiency on average was 24.84%, and the average efficiency of the air fed fuel cell was 18.38%. The oxygen fed fuel cell has an efficiency that was a 6.46% greater than the air fed fuel cell. This demonstrates that pure oxygen makes the fuel cell can make a fuel cell run more efficiently.

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Applications The two fuel cells yielded different efficiencies. The oxygen fed fuel cell had an efficiency of 24.84% and the air fed fuel cell had an efficiency of 18.38%. Since the differences in their efficiency were only 6.46%, pumping pure oxygen into the fuel cell doe make a noticeably change the efficiency of the fuel cell. It is about a 35% increase in the efficiency of the fuel cell. If PEM fuel cells were to be implemented in vehicles and other products, it would probably still be more economical to use air fed PEM fuel cells over oxygen fed ones because oxygen fed fuel cells require additional systems to store the pure oxygen. Pure oxygen fed fuel cells would need not only a hydrogen storage system but also a pure oxygen storage system, which may end increasing the efficiency by 6.46% from having the fuel cell fed oxygen directly from the atmosphere. However, the same could not be said in industrial situations in which energy could be stored and without a need to move the system and efficiency is the most key part of the operation. In such situations it may be worth the cost to store oxygen. Further experimentation and analysis of hydrogens use as different forms of energy storage will have to be made if hydrogen eventually becomes part of the transportation and energy infrastructure. Further experimentation could be done with higher quality fuel cells and testing could even be done on internal combustion engines which use hydrogen gas rather than gasoline, and its efficiency compared with that of a fuel cell. Overall, the experiment did demonstrate hydrogens capacity to store energy, although the efficiency was low. This was shown in the experiment by the ability of the system to take in energy to make hydrogen gas in less than 100 second and then release its energy over a period longer

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than 2000 seconds, over 20 times longer than it took to produce. This would make it a viable option for use in vehicles or other electronics in the future.

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Bibliography Cook, Brian. "An Introduction to Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Technology." Fuel Cell Store.Com. Dec. 2001. 15 Feb. 2007 <http://www.fuelcellstore.com/products/heliocentris/INTRO.pdf>.

Gillespie, Ronald J., David A. Humphreys, N. C. Baird, and Edward A. Robinson. Chemistry Second Edition. Ed. Elaine Ober. 2nd ed. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon Inc., 1989. 810-811.

"How Does a Fuel Cell Work?" Fuel Cell Store.Com. 15 Feb. 2007 <http://www.fuelcellstore.com/cgi-bin/fuelweb/view=NavPage/cat=1006>.

"How They Work: PEM Fuel Cells." FuelEconomy.Gov. U.S. Department of Energy. 15 Feb. 2007 <http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fcv_PEM.shtml>.

"Types of Fuel Cells." Energy. Rocky Mountain Institute. 20 Mar. 2007 <http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid556.php>.

"Types of Fuel Cells." Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program. US Department of Energy. 22 Mar. 2007 <http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/fuelcells/printable_versions/f c_types.html>.

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