Fuel Cell Nation

US DOE Electrolyzer Webinar

Its not much advanced warning, but today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it is putting on a webinar on Monday, May 23, 2011, from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. (EDT) titled "Hydrogen Production by PEM Electrolysis—Spotlight on Giner and Proton." The webinar will include a discussion of the importance of electrolysis for renewable hydrogen production with zero carbon footprint (provided you use solar, wind, etc. to generate the electric power.) (The webinar was originally supposed to be at 1:00 p.m., but the DOE personnel had another meeting crop up.)

 Monjid Hamdan of Giner Electrochemical Systems (GES) will be one of the two industry-based presenters at the webinar. I've seen his slides; it should be a good presentation for all, as it involves an emphasis on the technology, and its not just a sales job for GES' commercial products.

One final note: DOE calls it Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) electrolysis, while old-school electrochemists prefer to call it Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysis. Same difference — its all good!

DOE 2011 Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Meeting (Part 2)

In last month's post Daimler/Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cell Claims - Oops!, I mention how Daimler/Mercedes-Benz has tried to take credit for the world's first fuel cell vehicle in 1994, even though General Motors demonstrated a fuel cell vehicle in 1966!

While at the 2011 US DOE Hydrogen and Vehicle Technologies Program Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting, I spoke with a German who was involved with the 1994 Daimler fuel cell demonstration. He confided in me that he had warned Daimler that they were not first, but Daimler made their claim anyway! He said that that was the Daimler way: to paraphrase, "Daimler was the world, and everybody else did not exist."

Oh well...

DOE 2011 Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Meeting (Part 1)

I'm just back from the 2011 US DOE Hydrogen and Vehicle Technologies Program Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting in Crystal City, across the river from Washington DC. It was well attended; I heard there were 1,700 people at the two hotels where it was held.

My favorite presentation was by Avālence LLC CTO Paul Dunn, presenting his project "High-Capacity, High Pressure Electrolysis System with Renewable Power Sources." He mentioned how they had a problem in the lab last year with 6,500 psig alkaline electrolysis of hydrogen and oxygen: they produced oxygen gas with only a 96% purity (or 4% H₂ in O₂.) There's a big problem with operating this way: the lower flammability limit of hydrogen in air, or oxygen, is 4%! It's a wonder that they didn't blow themselves up!

The best part is where he described their plan to reduce the hydrogen content of the oxygen by recirculating their electrolyte on both the anode and cathode sides of the electrolyzer. Guess what - he told us they used a thermosiphon to recirculate electrolyte without a pump, and it reduced their oxygen to 0.3% hydrogen! Guess what my Giner Electrochemical Systems poster presentation discussed last year? A proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer using a thermosiphon to recirculate the catholyte! Just a coincidence? Who knows! I'm just glad I helped minimize his chances of blowing up!!