Steven J. Eickhoff

Self-regulating fiber fuel cell

Advances in lithium primary battery technology, which serves as the gold standard power source for the dismounted soldier, have not kept pace with the ever increasing power and energy requirements of modern military electronic equipment. Fuel cells have long been touted as the solution to the dismounted soldiers power and energy problems, but until recently, have largely failed to live up to that promise. There is still a pressing need for better power sources at the Watt or sub-Watt level, especially in applications requiring nontraditional form factors (thin, prismatic) or those having special requirements like flexibility or conformability, where existing battery technology falls short. To address these needs, Honeywell is developing a Self Regulating Fiber Fuel Cell, which utilizes a novel fuel chemistry and regulation mechanism and micro fabrication techniques to create a flexible, conformal power source with substantially better energy density and specific energy compared to state of the art lithium primary batteries. This paper will cover Honeywells progress on the Fiber Fuel Cell Project.