Fuel cell application in the automotive industry and future perspective

The hazardous effects of pollutants from conventional fuel vehicles have caused the scientific world to move towards environmentally friendly energy sources. Though we have various renewable energy sources, the perfect one to use as an energy source for vehicles is hydrogen. Like electricity, hydrogen is an energy carrier that has the ability to deliver incredible amounts of energy. Onboard hydrogen storage in vehicles is an important factor that should be considered when designing fuel cell vehicles. In this study, a recent development in hydrogen fuel cell engines is reviewed to scrutinize the feasibility of using hydrogen as a major fuel in transportation systems. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that can produce electricity by allowing chemical gases and oxidants as reactants. With anodes and electrolytes, the fuel cell splits the cation and the anion in the reactant to produce electricity. Fuel cells use reactants, which are not harmful to the environment and produce water as a product of the chemical reaction. As hydrogen is one of the most efficient energy carriers, the fuel cell can produce direct current (DC) power to run the electric car. By integrating a hydrogen fuel cell with batteries and the control system with strategies, one can produce a sustainable hybrid car.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/11/2296/pdf

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles; Current Status and Future Prospect

Combining nanotechnology with the other science disciplines is necessary to produce various materials with nanoscale structural and functional information, which is nanoarchitectonics as a novel paradigm to create useful materials. One of the basic ideas in the nanoarchitectonics concept is use of molecular-level information to architect functional materials. This kind of strategy is indeed used in some pre-existing science fields and technical methods. For example, molecular imprinting technique provides functional materials possessing molecular information in insides of fabricated materials. Revisiting such known concept with the nanoarchitectonics concept would have great meaning in unification of individual research disciplines into one key concept. In this review, we survey fundamentals and recent trends of the molecular imprinting approaches upon consideration with the nanoarchitectonics. Here, aspects and examples of molecular imprinting are surveyed from fundamentals to advanced applications: (i) ...

Molecular Imprinting: Materials Nanoarchitectonics with Molecular Information

Detection of harmful gases is important to ensure human and environmental health. Industrial waste gases such as CO, NO2, H2S, and NH3 are of typical focus among researchers over the years. Chemiresistive sensors are suitable for detecting these harmful gases. One suitable candidate material for this sensor is the conducting polymer, which offers the advantage of room-temperature operation. This review focuses on the overall development of conducting polymer as chemiresistive sensing materials. Effects of different parameters influencing sensor performance such as response, gas concentration, response time, and recovery time of conducting polymers are explored. Different conducting polymers are compared and their affinities to specific gases are determined. An understanding of pure conducting polymers assists further exploration of these polymers in composite form. A comprehensive understanding based on an overview of literature will facilitate researchers in selecting appropriate conducting polymers for different gas sensing applications and is expected to encourage further progress in this area. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. [DOI: 10.1149/2.0032003JES]

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0032003JES/pdf

Review—Conducting Polymers as Chemiresistive Gas Sensing Materials: A Review

The effects of air pollution on health have been generating attention for years. A large number of pulmonologists have recently expressed concerns about this in an open letter to Dutch Members of Parliament. Air pollution arises mainly in all kinds of combustion processes; in addition, atmospheric chemical reactions play a role in the formation of ozone and particulate matter. Health effects are both acute (increase in daily mortality and morbidity after days with increased concentrations of air pollution) as well as chronic (shortened life span and increased incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in areas with elevated concentrations of air pollution). These effects already occur at concentrations that are clearly lower than those currently observed in the Netherlands.

Air pollution and health

Biomass is of significant interest in the field of advanced energy engineering, including the use of woody biomass as an energy source. However, because cellulose—the major component of wood—is insoluble in most solvents, an excessive amount of energy and special procedures are required to convert woody materials into liquid and gaseous fuel. This report describes a biomass fuel cell that provides power densities on the order of 10 mW cm−2 by direct utilization of wood sawdust and pulp as fuel. The fuel cell is simple, with H3PO4-impregnated raw materials located at the anode, and is operated at temperatures between 75 and 250°C. Cellulose or its decomposition products reacted with H2O to form CO2, where the coulombic yield was approximately 95% at 150°C or higher. Notably, the cell performance was superior to that of fuel cells with fuels (partially oxidized or dehydrated mono- to tetrasaccharides) obtained by an external treatment of cellulose with H3PO4.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0511706jes/pdf

An Intermediate-Temperature Biomass Fuel Cell Using Wood Sawdust and Pulp Directly as Fuel

Cellulosic biomass resources have considerable potential as a renewable energy source that can be used for the cogeneration of electricity and heat. The utilization of these resources generally requires three major systematic processes: gasification, gas processing, and gas utilization. If a power generator could operate using wood resources directly as fuels, then this system could be significantly simplified, thereby reducing initial equipment cost and enhancing application flexibility. An intermediate-temperature fuel cell could possibly realize such an operation; however, the fuel-cell characteristics, especially the catalytic activity of the Pt/C anode, are not sufficient at present. In this study, we attempted to improve the anode activity by alloying Pt with other metals, followed by optimization of the alloy in terms of its atomic ratio and content. The resulting PtFe/C anode yielded higher power densities (37–42 mW cm−2) and energy densities (125–169 Wh kg−1) at 250 °C for fuels composed of cypre...

High Performance Anode for Direct Cellulosic Biomass Fuel Cells Operating at Intermediate Temperatures

NOx Sensing Characteristics of Semiconductor Gas Sensors under Controlled Oxygen Activity Conditions Using a Proton-Conducting Electrolyte

In recent years, exhaust sensors have become increasingly attractive for use in energy and environmental technologies. Important issues regarding practical applications of these sensors, especially for soot measurements, include the further development of ion-conductive electrolytes and active electrode catalysts for meeting performance and durability requirements. Herein, we design a proton conductor with a high breakdown voltage and a sensing electrode with high sensitivity to electrochemical carbon oxidation, enabling continuous soot monitoring with self-regeneration of the sensor. A Si0.97Al0.03HxP2O7-δ layer with an excellent balance between proton conductivity and voltage endurance was grown on the surface of a Si0.97Al0.03O2-δ substrate by reacting it with liquid H3PO4 at 600 °C. Specific reactivity of the electrochemically formed active oxygen toward soot was accomplished by adding a Pt-impregnated Sn0.9In0.1HxP2O7-δ catalyst into a Pt sensing electrode. To make the best use of these optimized materials, a unipolar electrochemical device was fabricated by configuring the sensing and counter electrodes on the same surface of the electrolyte layer. The resulting amperometric mode sensor successfully produced a current signal that corresponded to the quantity of soot.

/pdf/a-self-regenerable-soot-sensor-with-a-proton-conductive-thin-gmn20ucss0.pdf

Peiling Lv

Papers

An Intermediate-Temperature Biomass Fuel Cell Using Wood Sawdust and Pulp Directly as Fuel

High Performance Anode for Direct Cellulosic Biomass Fuel Cells Operating at Intermediate Temperatures

NOx Sensing Characteristics of Semiconductor Gas Sensors under Controlled Oxygen Activity Conditions Using a Proton-Conducting Electrolyte

A self-regenerable soot sensor with a proton-conductive thin electrolyte and a nanostructured platinum sensing electrode