Fuel Cells – The Better Batteries? A Conversation With Power & Energy Inc.

Kicking off our segment on hydrogen fuel cells are Noel Leeson and David Kepniss of Power & Energy Inc, a technology company from Ivyland, Pennsylvania. Power & Energy evolved from hydrogen purification into the manufacturing of hydrogen analyzers as well as hydrogen separators and hydrogen generators to provide hydrogen fuel for fuel cells. Most notably, they developed micro-channel palladium membrane technology to improve the quality of the hydrogen fuel that in turn improves the performance and longevity of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Leeson is the company’s president, Kepniss is the director of sales and marketing.

As a preamble, in very simple terms, the PEM fuel cell process has three components: a fuel reformer, a membrane separator to provide the pure H2 fuel and the fuel cell. The reformer breaks down fuel (such as Methanol) into into hydrogen and carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The membrane seporator separates hydrogen (H2) from these materials (called the “reformate”), leaving behind CO, CO2 and water as well as trace amounts of unreformed fuel. Finally the fuel cell splits the hydrogen atom into an electron used to power a device while passing the proton through a membrane, leaving behind nothing but water as residue. Simple enough? If not, Power & Energy have a great animation on their website explaining it all in pictures.

Figure 1: Hydrogen filling valve of a Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell

Thankfully, each step along the way utilizes precious metals and precious metal alloys of the platinum group, as catalysts and membrane materials. How much of it? Alas, a trade secret.

The three process steps may be run in sequence but they don’t have to be. That is why in vehicle applications you will only find the actual fuel cell and a tank of pure hydrogen as the fuel. Hydrogen (H2) is delivered and stored in a vehicle as a highly compressed gas making delivery more complicated. On the upside, this is the only difference to conventional gasoline storage and the two products are sold side by side at a number of gas stations in Europe already. Fueling is easy to do and a pressure valve prevents hazards.

The main markets for Power & Energy’s technology today are auxiliary power units (APUs), large scale power generation systems (anything from a power plant to a residential home) and “mobility”, a market segmented in forklift trucks and other vehicles.

Kepniss explained that law enforcement and the military in particular have a high interest in portable fuel cell technology. Conventional batteries, carried by soldiers and in vehicles to power the various electronic devices, can be extremely heavy and bulky so finding an alternative is important.

More important in volume, however, is the residential housing market. Both Japan and Germany have active programs to promote the use of fuel cells not only for power production but also to generate hot water, which conveniently remains as the process’ residue. David quoted reports from Japan where back in 2009 about 20,000 such units were installed already, with new 50,000 units expected for this year.

Obvious advantages of H2 as a vehical fuel are the smaller room requirement and reduced weight compared to batteries, two-minute fueling times and the absence of gradual power loss all the way to complete exhaustion of the fuel.

Asked about the biggest hurdles of implementing H2 for mobility on a broader scale, Leeson unsurprisingly names “infrastructure” as the top issue. However, he adds that other parts of the world are already much more advanced than North America in creating the necessary infrastructure. Most notably, Japan and Germany are in the process of setting up hundreds of filling stations to be ready when mass-produced passenger cars will hit the market by 2015. Toyota and Mercedes are perceived to be at the forefront by Power & Energy with many others closely behind.

“Don’t look at the U.S.”, urged Leeson. “The U.S. isn’t leading in alternative vehicles. Period”.

Leeson quoted reports from China where cleaning up the environment is climbing rapidly on the agenda; Japan which is shifting its energy paradigms; and Germany where the protection of the environment has always been an item of high importance.

He also pointed out that the term “vehicle” should not be used to describe passenger cars only; it encompasses two-wheelers such as motorcycles and scooters as well as buses and trucks of which the above countries already operate very large numbers.

Higher fuel prices in these regions are tipping the scale in H2’s favor a lot more than in the U.S. where gas is very inexpensive in comparison. And while older studies were showing H2 technology as about twice as expensive as conventional ICEs (internal combustion engines) H2 is quickly closing that gap because of continuously improving H2 production methods.and developments in fuel cell technology. However, fuel cell technology has not been deployed on an optimized car so far. Leeson explained that in essence a fuel cell’s purpose is to replace batteries in an electric vehicle (EV), the basic drivetrain being exactly the same.

Considering all efforts that went into EVs in recent years in terms of lightweight materials and design, the same will apply to future fuel cell powered cars. And while battery powered vehicles were still suffering from high extra weight, range issues and long charging times H2 eliminates all these issues by means of a simple chemical reaction.

“Fuel cells just are the better batteries”, summarized Leesonl.

By Bodo Albrecht
tminsider@eniqma.com