Researchers Tout Gore-Tex Coating for Fuel-Cell Breakthrough

[T-Type]

By Alan Harman
WardsAuto.com, Aug 15, 2008 9:52 AM

Scientists in Australia are helping to bring hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles closer to the masses through a revolutionary new design that eliminates the need for expensive platinum in fuel-cell catalysts.

The breakthrough at Victoria-based Monash University, seen as potentially making FCVs more reliable and cheaper to build, revolves around an electrode design that employs the special plastic coating used to give Gore-Tex high-performance outdoor clothing its unique, water-resistant properties.

Just as Gore-Tex has revolutionized the outdoor clothing industry, it could hold similar promise for motorists, Monash University’s Bjorn Winther-Jensen says in a statement.

Key to the development is the creation of what the university calls an air-electrode, in which a breathable fabric is coated with a fine layer – just 0.4 microns, or about 100 times thinner than a human hair – of highly conductive plastic that acts as both the fuel-cell electrode and catalyst.

“The same way as waste (water) vapor is drawn out of this material to make hikers more comfortable and less prone to hypothermia, so it is able to ‘breathe’ oxygen into our fuel cell and into contact with the conductive plastic,” Winther-Jensen says.

Monash University Professor Doug MacFarlane, from the Australian Center for Electromaterials Sciences (ACES), says the discovery is probably the most important development in fuel-cell technology in the last 20 years, in that the new design removes the need for exotic platinum, which acts as the catalyst and currently is central to fuel-cell manufacturing.

“Our reliance on platinum is making the likelihood of using fuel cells in everyday passenger cars increasingly improbable,” he says. “The cost of the platinum component, alone, in current fuel cells for a small car with a 134-hp electric engine is more than the total cost of a 134-hp gasoline engine.”

http://wardsauto.com/ar/goretex_fuel_cell_080815/

[packardlust]

The future is here, we just don't which future out of the current possibilities it will turn out to be.

[johnstarnes]

That is great news, thanks!

[BigAls87Z28]

That is pretty cool, no pun intented.
Sometimes the easiest answer is right in front of you in the form of active outerwear.

[windvale]

Sounds good !

Now if someone can just figure out where we get the hydrogen from...

[edsuski]

Originally Posted by windvale

Sounds good !

Now if someone can just figure out where we get the hydrogen from...

Using less energy than it would take to simply charge a battery.

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by windvale

...

Now if someone can just figure out where we get the hydrogen from...

They have this stuff called water. Perhaps, you've heard of it?

In places where they don't have water, hydrogen can also be reformed from natural gas.

[tholland]

That does sound like a major discovery... lets hope it brings the cost of raw materials and construction down significantly.

[johnstarnes]

Originally Posted by windvale

Sounds good !

Now if someone can just figure out where we get the hydrogen from...

Check out www.spacedaily.com and see the breakthrough in using sunlight to split water. Plus bacteria are now being used to do it too.

[johnny smallblock]

Plus I heard that instead of expensive lithium batteries, the Volt may generate power through the use of mittens!

[CaptainDan]

Originally Posted by edsuski

Using less energy than it would take to simply charge a battery.

Putting the charge in a battery isn't the problem, that's easy enough. The challenge is in designing a battery big enough to hold the charge needed, without it being so heavy that it is using most of that charge to carry the battery around.

[FBODYRULES]

I hope the volt can easily be updated each model year for new battery technologies etc

[edsuski]

Originally Posted by CaptainDan

Putting the charge in a battery isn't the problem, that's easy enough. The challenge is in designing a battery big enough to hold the charge needed, without it being so heavy that it is using most of that charge to carry the battery around.

First of all - keep in mind that Hydrogen Fuel cells do not deliver high currents so they are typically paired with a Li Ion battery. Usually 200 lbs for fuel cell applications vs. 400 lbs for a plug-in electric (such as the Volt). So from a difference in weight stand point we are talking about 200 Lbs minus the weight of the fuel cell and Hydrogen tank.

Data suggests that 78% of Americans drive less than 40 miles per day to and from work. That means that 78% of us will not need any gasoline. For the fraction of the 22% who a plug-in electric would still make sense (remember - plug-in electric vehicles are not for everyone or every application) they can still depend on the ICE to run the generator and burn a flex fuel including plain old gasoline. In both of these cases - the needed infrastructure to recharge and occasionally fuel the ICE - are 100% deployed today. ZERO investment needed to make this happen from an infrastructure point of view.

Conversely, hydrogen fuel cell deployment would require Billions of dollars of infrastructure investment and, by conservative estimates, take 10 - 15 years to complete. The DOT estimates that it will take until 2025.

Most importantly - the physics does not seem to work. You can simply drive further on the energy it takes to make hydrogen (independent of the power source), compress it to 5000 psi or 10,000 psi (depending on the design) and cool - if you charge a battery.

The "right" solution does not have to work for every single user - it simply needs to work for the vast majority. Batteries make more sense in my opinion.

Why hydrogen?

[edsuski]

[quote=MisterMe;1488978]They have this stuff called water. Perhaps, you've heard of it?

The energy needed to strip hydrogen molecules from water is much greater than that needed to drive the same distance using a battery. No one is saying that hydrogen can not be made to work - but why would we want to use hydrogen in view of the fact that it will take over ten years and billions of dollars to implement the needed infrastructure and it requires more energy input than a battery?

[XP300]

Damn it! Now Al Gore is going to take credit for that too!