Posted on 03/10/2008 8:49:33 AM PDT by dangerdoc
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, green high-tech venture VioletTM Fuel Cell SticksTM www.violetfuelcellsticks.com announces it has achieved an extremely high, 15KW/Liter cell density with their Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) StickTM. Previous commercial fuel cells, including both SOFCs and PEMs, have struggled to meet a target of 2KW/Liter; and previous advanced concepts have struggled to achieve 4KW/Liter. The VioletTM StickTM has overcome the most significant hurdles facing fuel cells, and it resolves the technical limitations of existing technologies, such as sealing, cracking and manifolding problems, and poor volumetric density.
StickTM technology, created by VioletTM Fuel Cell SticksTM, offers a fundamental change to the physical structure of SOFCs that enables, for the first time, high density, low cost, mass produced solid state engines. The SOFC StickTM solves decades-old commercialization challenges for SOFC technology. The technology opens the door to mass production for numerous applications, such as: large-scale power generation, small-scale distributed power, auxiliary power units, mobile power generation, automotive, flight and advanced vehicle concepts.
“We believe that this is the highest density, scalable fuel cell in the world, and we are confident that we can quickly go much higher,” said co-founder Alan Devoe.
The development of the VioletTM StickTM is expected to have a significant impact on the US Fuel Cell market, which is estimated to be $1.1 billion US today and expected to grow to as much as $18.6 billion in 2013.
For a full description of the technology, visit www.violetfuelcellsticks.com.
It would be about three times more efficient than gas IC and about twice that of diesel IC. SOFC can burn diesel, gasoline, ethanol, methanol and convert it effiently into electricity.
A real, normal sized car would get about 70 mpg and a real pickup would get about 40 mpg.
Portable generators would weigh about 1/3 as much and generate about 5 times the electricity per gallon of gasoline.
Will it fit into my car’s usb slot?
We'll see, but this would go well beyond the CAFE standards. I guarantee the Democrats and environmentalists would take credit for it, though.
Generators? What do you need a generator for? It’s my understanding that a fuel cell IS A GENERATOR.
I’m waiting for batteries to get practical. THen we can run our cars on electricity from nukes and tell the middle east to go away.
(Or not.)
Unless nanotube batteries are able to be produced in massive quantities I think battery technology is more or less maxed for now. As far as fuel cells being generators, they are except this one generates electricity through carbon based fuels as its source. Normal hydrogen based fuel cells are prohibitively expensive to produce because it takes alot of energy to extract hydrogen, so the trade off as of now isnt worth it.
bump
“Generators? What do you need a generator for? It’s my understanding that a fuel cell IS A GENERATOR.”
????
I use a gasoline generator as emergency backup. I would love to have one of these connected to my propane tank for emergencies.
“When I can buy a drop in at Auto Zone, THAT will be news.”
That’s the whole point, a fuel cell with enough output to run a car now is the size of a car.
This is an easy to manufacture, robust fuel cell that will fit in the engine compartment and run off gasoline.
You do know they make internal combustion engines that run on propane, or even natural gas, right?
I thought that stability was the most important problem with these high energy batteries; i.e. these exploding laptops. Also, these batteries tend to degrade very quickly, i.e. about 2 years for most laptops.
An unstable high energy battery would go up a lot like a 4th of July firework. It would put a Pinto to shame, but might make rush hour more colorful.
I’m going to take a guess and say this company is a scam.
To be honest, I don't really know what that power density rating actually means. Specifically, how much energy (power * time) does the number represent? How does one compare it to automotive fuel efficiency?
Yep, about 15% efficient when you factor in power delivered to the wheels.
This should be about 50% efficient power to wheel. A huge improvement and enough to decrease our fuel imports.
A three hundred horse power engine is probably only good for about 100 hp continious duty.
You need the huge engine for peak output which can be accomplished by including a small battery pack and to make up for poor low end torque which all IC engine have.
An IC engine has no torque at zero RPM. An electric motor has maximum torque at zero RPM.
If you have a battery pack, a 30 kw fuel cell would provide all the performance of any sized engine you would want to put into a street legal car and drive in a way that would not get you thrown in jail. 20 kW would probably be enough with an appropriately sized battery pack.
100 kw would provide all of the hauling performance found in a production pickup.
Don’t get confused by rated horsepower on engines. They will not put out that power for sustained duration. A huge farm tractor will only be rated at 120 hp but have the displacement of a Viper. The difference is the farm tractor rating is based on continious duty, the 600 hp viper is based on peak output.
The power rating is based on output. One kilowatt for one hour is a kilowatt hour.
A gasoline engine is about 30% efficient at the optimum RMP. Using suboptimal RPMs and factoring in various loses, modern gasoline cars are 15% effiecient. About one out of seven gallons of gas you put in the car actually move it, the rest just heats the air, tires, and pavement.
A SOFC is about 60% efficient and about 90% of that drives the wheels. The heat given off is mostly high quality heat which could be used for other purposes when used in stationary applications.
This is not a battery pack. Fuel and air are fed into the cell which are “burned”. Instead of producting mechanical energy, the power creates electricity directly.
It would be no more likely to explode that your lawnmower engine.
You are talking about Li-ion batteries, this has nothing in common.
dangerdoc is talking about backup power for a home or office, not a motor vehicle.
Since they are talking about energy density, I’m thinking that they mean the amount of electricity generated for a given volume of fuel cell. IOW, a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm cube (1 liter), will generate 15 kW.
The beauty of SOFC’s are that they are tolerant of impurities in the fuel. Material issues have always been the key hurdle for SOFC’s. When I was involved with fuel cells 20 years ago, SOFCs were made of ceramics, and thus would not work well in an automotive application.
So am I. Jeeze, you people are dense.
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