Hi All,

I've been mulling this over as i'm still in the planning phase with my Stan M WFC replication. I am not really interested in powering vehicles at the moment but am looking at getting a WFC powering a homemade Alkali Hydrogen Fuel cell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cQg0Ur9Cko&NR=1) I was wondering... Couldn't you feed the mixed gasses into the H2 inlet port, loop the H2 outlet port over to the O2 inlet. Basically you have a single H2 and O2 in and a water vapour out?

I understand you guys will probably say i'll get reverse reactions canceling any potential out... but if you add a diode between the cell and the load, wouldn't the first part of the reaction (H2 <--> 2H+ + 2e-) fail to occur in the O2 side of the cell because the diode is blocking the electron flow?

If it works the cell would start up a little slow as the majority of H2 would be making it into the O2 side of the cell and being wasted, if it's fed only from a WFC there would be no CO2 to poison the Alkali HFC. When the cell is starting to crank and going to peak, i'm guessing  90% of the H2 will be absorbed in the H2 side leaving 80% O2 running to the O2 side of the cell. Almost like running on bottled gas. 

Just need to work on a way to separate the potassium hydroxide from the output and feed it back into the cell.

Chris

i see a problem with pressure for this type of "homemade" cell.

if you try to run it in reverse with 2 pressurized gasses:::

1) it will leak
and
2) your electrolyte will be spewed out through the outlett ports with the H2O

you can do a simple modification to the screws and make it pressure-resistant, but without a membrane the electrolyte won't las tlong under this type of operation.

Sorry,

I didn't really describe how the flow through the cell worked...

This design is based on holes in the Perspex plates, gaskets and filters lining up to create paths of flow ("fuel lines"). This is a stackable modification based on the on the following design http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cQg0Ur9Cko&NR=1

The only differences between an Anode and a Cathode in the stack are the orientation of the rubber gasket (Drawings attached, Determines the "fuel line" and "drain line" in the stack) and the orientation of the wire mesh so that the anodes and cathodes exit in different places and cannot touch.

The 12 1/4" holes around the cell are for bolting it together and the larger 1/2 inch holes line up between layers and allow the flow of gas between cells in the stack.

The Cell is intended to run below 80 Degrees C but the hotter it gets the less water will condense in the cell (I will probably be installing this in my solar heated hot water tank if it works well

Using this http://www.fctec.com/fctec_types_afc.asp as a guide this is how the cell works:

1) Viewing the cell from the front, H2 and O2 mixed gas from a Meyer fuel cell enters the inlet port on the front and pressurizes the Anode "fuel line" it then flows across the cell in the gap allowed by the gasket from right to left across the anodes of every cell in the stack from Anode "fuel line" to Anode "drain line" because of the gasket orientation. During this it looses H2 by 2 H2 + 4 OH- => 4 H2O + 4 e- which is permitted via a single high current diode between the cell and the load.

2) The Anode "drain line" flows out of the rear of the stack and valves permitting reenters the stack at the topmost Cathode "fuel line".

3) It then flows from top to bottom, from Cathode "fuel line" to Cathode "drain line" across the Cathodes loosing O2 in O2 + 2 H2O + 4 e- => 4 OH-, excess gas and water vapor then exit via the drain line.

If there is H2 gas present in the Cathode it will try to react in reverse and severely affect the cells efficiency, This I think will be blocked from occurring by the addition of a high current diode between the cell and any load. This prevents the electron loss in the reaction 2 H2 + 4 OH- => 4 H2O + 4 e-

Thanks,

Chris


 

perhaps you could substitute this platinum coating, with one of titanium nitride (TiN).

this would give you the same desired effect, but without the electrolytic reaction with the hydrogen metal. (boom!)