Micro Fuel Cells

[Casey]

Here is a quote from DK from a tour of his facilities that gives one reason for the Stirling problem.

quote:“Nobody here planned to invent new ball bearings, but in order to make this engine practical we have to develop a bearing technology that doesn’t exist,” he adds, as Levesque readies the machine to mold another bearing piece.

It is from an interesting demo tour available on this site. Click on Deans picture to take the tour.

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/demo1002.asp

[don c.]

I'd say the company in the below article is well on the way to prime time:

http://www.powerco.com/Power/hpu/index.html

OCEAN POWER SIGNS $38MM PURCHASE AGREEMENT FOR HOME POWER UNITS

El Dorado Hills, CA, May 2, 2002: "Ocean Power Corporation (OTC BB Symbol: PWRE), Ocean Power Corporation is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement establishing the conditions for sale of 10,000 3-kilowatt, Home Power Units (HPU), with a private real estate management company currently operating a portfolio of approximately 15,000 apartments. The HPU, which utilizes a Stirling engine is designed for use in multi-family apartment complexes and will be used to generate electricity, hot water and HVAC on-site. Ocean Power's HPU will provide environmental benefits by utilizing the (waste) heat from the unit to significantly increase overall system efficiency.

The systems will be installed in apartments during the normal rehabilitation process. The systems are sized so that after fulfilling tenants' needs they will provide excess electricity that will be available for sale to the grid. Ocean Power will participate with the management company in the on-going profits generated from the power sale, thereby building a recurring revenue base.

The average sale price for the first 10,000 units will be approximately $3,800 per unit. Delivery of the units will begin upon completion by Ocean Power of performance and code compliance certification, and installation is planned for completion by the end of 2005.

In addition to this order, the management company has entered into negotiations with Ocean Power for the exclusive marketing and distribution rights for multi-family dwellings in the United States. The U.S. multi-family dwelling market totals more than 20 million units.

"Clearly, the move toward decentralized power generation is the wave of the present", said Ocean Power's President Joseph Maceda. “Our Stirling HPU will be a commercially viable distributed generation product. The introduction of this product into the marketplace is a major step for Ocean Power in particular and distributed generation in general”.

Ocean Power is currently in discussions with other firms for the sale of the HPUs into the single family home market in the US and the single and multi-family markets in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America."


Don't get me wrong, I am as interested in the outcome of Dean Kamen's Stirling as anyone (well, maybe not Brent VanArsdell or Darryl Phillips). I wouldn't be here otherwise. If he along with the engineering talent at DEKA Research produces a Stirling that has greatly improved energy efficiency, ease of use, and lowered manufacturing costs, that would be great. But I hardly think that the other players in the Stirling field, with products on the market, contracts in hand, and R&D efforts continuing, rank as "unfit".

[Casey]

That's what I'm waiting to filter down to Home Depot, Lowes etc for those of us ready to get into our own power generating. This holds an excitement for me that Segway doesn't. It's a truly practical and atmosphere friendly way to get rid of those horrendous power lines with their huge losses before the electricity even reaches it's destination.

I haven't gone to their site, but am interested to see if it is multi-fueled.

[don c.]

Some interesting stuff from Ocean Power's question and anwer page:

http://www.powerco.com/Power/hpu/hpufaq.html

Question 6: Are your engines of a proprietary design?

Answer. Yes, we do have advanced proprietary designs to boost engine efficiency and we are applying for patents. But more important is to win in the power marketplace with low-cost, high efficiency systems, because our competition is NOT other Stirling systems, nor fuel cells, nor other new sources of power. Our competition is the existing power infrastructure, and we intend to be cost-competitive within the current infrastructure; hence our focus on HPUs.

Question 7: Do you have patents similar to what DEKA has announced recently about their approach to high-speed manufacturing of advanced Stirling engine designs?

Answer. Yes. Our engines are covered under a number of patents and patents pending. These relate to both the engine itself and unique "hot end" technology dealing with combustion and heat transfer devices. These particular patents pending relate to a method of integrating multiple discrete components into a single monolithic structure that can be manufactured at extremely low cost. However, our approach to this issue is different from DEKA in that he is only dealing with heat transfer while we are integrating combustion functions as well. (Note: not sure this is true any longer, I believe Kamen has patents now pertaining specifically with combustion control)

Question 8: Could we have access to your engine for other applications besides home power? We accept that your ongoing negotiations may limit accessibility to your Stirling engines for the home power market, but given the low projected capital costs of your units, could we have access to your engine for other applications besides home power?

Answer. Yes. For further information regarding other applications of our advanced Stirling designs, please contact Joe Maceda.

Question 9: Does the $3,800 price holds for a system, which provides for cooling or refrigeration? A clarification: $3,800 is a very good price for a 3 kW electricity power output device with additional useful waste heat. As HPUs, are you implying that the $3,800 price holds for a system, which provides for cooling or refrigeration?

Answer. We project that the $3,800 average price is for a system with heat and electrical outputs. Additional costs would be incurred for a system to convert the waste heat for use in cooling or refrigeration.

[kamatahri_08]

hi! I'm a college student here in the Philippines and i'm really interested in this topic. i would just like to ask some questions regarding micro fuel cells for my research paper on alcohol micro fuel cells. here are some of my questions:

1. how do micro fuel cells recharge? do we need to supply or refil the alcohol manually? or they dont need refiling?
2. how do you measure energy generation of the alcohol in a micro fuel cell?

i hope someone here could help me in my research ASAP. thanks!


>>FaLL3n_AnG3L<<

[citivolus]

quote:1. how do micro fuel cells recharge? do we need to supply or refil the alcohol manually? or they dont need refiling?

They need to be refilled. All fuel cells work the same way. The alcohol is a means of storing protons effeciently. Storing the hydrogen as a gas would require very high pressures and it is much more compact as a liquid.

quote:2. how do you measure energy generation of the alcohol in a micro fuel cell?

I'm not sure what you mean. Fuel cells don't generate energy, they transform chemical energy into electrical energy. You would measure the power output directly in watts and the energy in joules or watt-hours. This should give you an overview.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm

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swiftly flying

[kamatahri_08]

thanks for the reply!

how much alcohol should be put for it to last for about 20 mins? and does anyone have an idea on what statistical method is appropriate in testing which alcohol is better if i have 2 alcohols that i would want to test? does the power output decrease linearly with time?

thanks again!

>>FaLL3n_AnG3L<<

[citivolus]

quote:Originally posted by kamatahri_08
how much alcohol should be put for it to last for about 20 mins?

That would depend on the power output. Wood alcohol has an energy density of about 16 megajoules per liter (MJ/l) and a regular engine at 20% conversion effeciency would be able to extract 3.2 MJ/l. If the liter is consumed in 20 min the best possible power output would be 2.67 kW or 3.6 horsepower. Now consider the efficiency of the fuel cell and adjust accordingly. If you can double your efficiency you use half the fuel, triple it and use one third.

quote:and does anyone have an idea on what statistical method is appropriate in testing which alcohol is better if i have 2 alcohols that i would want to test? does the power output decrease linearly with time?

I'm not sure what you mean by better. It will depend on what you are most interested in. Is it fuel consumption, cost, emissions, a list of other variables as long as the Nile river? Decreasing power output will depend on the fuel cell and its failure mode. I would think it would be possible to design it so that power drop was nearly linear as it ran out of fuel.

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swiftly flying