Posted on 06/13/2008 12:02:30 PM PDT by Red Badger
120W fuel cell system
Internal portion of the 120W fuel cell stack
300W generation system mounted in a luggage room (left)
Genepax Co Ltd explained the technologies used in its new fuel cell system "Water Energy System (WES)," which uses water as a fuel and does not emit CO2.
The system can generate power just by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes, respectively, the company said at the press conference, which took place June 12, 2008, at the Osaka Assembly Hall.
The basic power generation mechanism of the new system is similar to that of a normal fuel cell, which uses hydrogen as a fuel. According to Genepax, the main feature of the new system is that it uses the company's membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which contains a material capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction.
Though the company did not reveal the details, it "succeeded in adopting a well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA," said Hirasawa Kiyoshi, the company's president. This process is allegedly similar to the mechanism that produces hydrogen by a reaction of metal hydride and water. But compared with the existing method, the new process is expected to produce hydrogen from water for longer time, the company said.
With the new process, the cell needs only water and air, eliminating the need for a hydrogen reformer and high-pressure hydrogen tank. Moreover, the MEA requires no special catalysts, and the required amount of rare metals such as platinum is almost the same as that of existing systems, Genepax said.
Unlike the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), which uses methanol as a fuel, the new system does not emit CO2. In addition, it is expected to have a longer life because catalyst degradation (poisoning) caused by CO does not occur on the fuel electrode side. As it has only been slightly more than a year since the company completed the prototype, it plans to collect more data on the product life.
At the conference, Genepax unveiled a fuel cell stack with a rated output of 120W and a fuel cell system with a rated output of 300W. In the demonstration, the 120W fuel cell stack was first supplied with water by using a dry-cell battery operated pump. After power was generated, it was operated as a passive system with the pump turned off.
This time, the voltage of the fuel cell stack was 25-30V. Because the stack is composed of 40 cells connected in series, it is expected that the output per cell is 3W or higher, the voltage is about 0.5-0.7V, and the current is about 6-7A. The power density is likely to be not less than 30mW/cm2 because the reaction area of the cell is 10 x 10 cm.
Meanwhile, the 300W fuel cell system is an active system, which supplies water and air with a pump. In the demonstration, Genepax powered the TV and the lighting equipment with a lead-acid battery charged by using the system. In addition, the 300W system was mounted in the luggage room of a compact electric vehicle "Reva" manufactured by Takeoka Mini Car Products Co Ltd, and the vehicle was actually driven by the system.
Genepax initially planned to develop a 500W system, but failed to procure the materials for MEA in time and ended up in making a 300W system.
For the future, the company intends to provide 1kw-class generation systems for use in electric vehicles and houses. Instead of driving electric vehicles with this system alone, the company expects to use it as a generator to charge the secondary battery used in electric vehicles.
Although the production cost is currently about ¥2,000,000 (US$18,522), it can be reduced to ¥500,000 or lower if Genepax succeeds in mass production. The company believes that its fuel cell system can compete with residential solar cell systems if the cost can be reduced to this level.
Unfortunately, since the system is Japanese, it attracts monsters bent upon destroying Tokyo whenever it’s turned on. It’s a good idea, in theory, but falls short in actual application.
Well it didn’t explictly say we couldn’t fly but it certainly intoned it... lol
From the picture, it appears that a one cubic foot power device generates 120 watts.
120 watts = 0.16 HP.
A one cubic foot gasoline engine, if you don't include all the air filters, exhaust piping, etc. probably could generate 15-25 HP. Like a "typical" riding lawnmower engine.
So then, the energy density as compared to a gasoline engine is, broadly - about a ratio of 100:1.
So to buy a car with a 200 HP engine of this type would take an engine 100 TIMES LARGER than your current gasoline engine.
Get back with me when this can be mass produced AND they can also shrink it by about a factor of 50. That might actually be possible some day. Right now, it's a laboratory anomaly that they appear to be using to power a golf cart.
I didn't even know that Newton's Laws could sing.
“300W generation system mounted in a luggage room “
That won’t even power the subwoofers.
When? Gravity just means that you have to work hard to fly and it took quite a while before the amount of work you could do and the amound you needed to get in to the air matched.
I've heard similar things about people thinking the speed of sound couldn't be broken before Chuck Yeager. Rifle bullets could do it easily, but it took a while to get an engine powerful enough to get the speed and wings strong enough to not snap off the plane. But it was never a physical law.
Uh oh. Stand back...
>>Why didn’t somebody tell me that the Second Law of Thermodynamics had been repealed?
You beat me to it.
There are some words of wisdom at the link (requires sound):
lmao!
Don’t miss the link in my previous post.
As Slings and Arrows points out, the energy comes from the electrode assembly material, which is used as consumable fuel. Water is not the energy source here. It is thermodynamically impossible to break water into hydrogen and oxygen and then get a net energy gain by reacting the hydrogen with oxygen in the air.
Knowing about the book and having actually read it shows that those who have would have seen the humor in my comment. Those who have not wouldn’t know about the bumper stickers “Who Is John Galt”... It is available on Amazon.com chum... Now where did I put that Reardon Metal thingy???
Someone should find a way to harness the hot air that comes out of Washington.
Don’t get your panties in a bunch sonny I’m only kidding...
ROTFLMAO! Ganked for future use.
746 watts = 1 horsepower
300W is then .4 Hp
A 300 hp truck would then need 750 of these systems
A 150 hp van / car would need 375 of these systems
That might get a tad expensive.
Oh, ye of little faith!..................
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