What Does A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Look Like?

Dr Michael Whiteley posted in Drift Community
4y ago
4.8K
- This is my simple, 7 cell hydrogen fuel cell stack. It's called a stack because 7 individual cells are 'stacked' to create more power than individual cells.
- This type of fuel cell uses graphite separating plates which have the structural properties of dry biscuits. So a fine-scaled torque wrench must be used to assemble and disassemble the stack. Similar to removing and installing a cylinder head.
- Take off an end plate and you see an insulating screen so that the electricity you make doesn't travel to the end plates themselves.
- Remove this and you find the current collectors. These can be made from a variety of materials, but mine are gold. They are gold so that they can resist the high temperatures, acidity and corrosive environment of a fuel cell.
- Then we get to the bipolar plates (separating plates). These have the difficult task of delivering gasses, coolant and transferring electric load to the end plates.
- Then there is the fuel cell itself.
- The fuel cell looks like a rectangle of cling film, but it's actually made from modified polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Then a platinum catalyst and carbon paper are stuck to each side.
- These are all clamped together by steel studs; insulated of course.
- Each cell sells for around 170-200 GBP
- I built the cooling system in my test rig from automotive parts. An oil cooler and two 12v fans are paired with a windscreen washer pump to circulate coolant around the fuel cell.
- The hot air is then exhausted out of the fume cupboard.
- Thermocouples in each cell let me know the temperature of each cell, for diagnostic purposes.
- I had some trouble heating the cell up to optimum temperature, so a wallpaper remover blown through the radiator heated it up in next to no time.
- Fully insulated and ready to get some data!
- The rig by the end of my PhD.
- Chuffed with what I built.

We are seeing more and more of this 'wonder' technology in recent years. But what does one actually look like? Find out here..

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