Alan J. Cisar

Development and testing of small fuel cells for low power applications

Several designs were developed and tested for small fuel cells with a goal of developing an inexpensive light weight system operating on low pressure hydrogen and ambient, or near ambient, pressure air for low power (10-100W) applications. Since system simplicity was one of the goals, humidification was limited to at most the fuel gas stream, with air supplied at ambient humidity. Results to date have been promising, with power densities as high as 240 mw/cm2 achieved for a system with no moving parts. In keeping with the idea of an inexpensive system design work has been focused on systems which can be inexpensively manufactured from low priced materials. While these simple systems have advantages in many applications, they also have limitations. Both the advantages and the limitations are discussed.