Researchers Develop Method to Make Fuel Cells More Efficient, Less Expensive
The
pain at the pump might be short-lived as research from the University
of Houston (UH) may eliminate one of the biggest hurdles to the
wide-scale production of fuel cell-powered vehicles.
Peter Strasser, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular
engineering, led the research team in discovering a method to make a
fuel cell more efficient and less expensive. The initiative is one of
four ongoing fuel cell projects in development at the Cullen College of
Engineering at UH.
The key to making a fuel cell work is a catalyst, which facilitates
the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The most common, but expensive,
catalyst is platinum. Currently, the amount of platinum catalyst
required per kilowatt to power a fuel cell engine is about 0.5 grams to
0.8 grams, or .018 ounces to .028 ounces. At a cost of about $1,500 per
ounce, the platinum catalyst alone would cost between $2,300 to $3,700
to operate a small, 100-kilowatt two- or four-door vehicle -- a
significant cost given that an entire 100-kilowatt gasoline combustion
engine costs about $3,000, the researchers said. To make the transition
to fuel cell-powered vehicles possible, the automobile industry wants
something better and cheaper.
"The automobile companies have been asking for a platinum-based
catalyst that is four times more efficient, and, therefore, four times
cheaper, than what is currently available," Strasser said. "That's the
magic number."
Strasser and his team, which includes Ratndeep Srivastava, a
graduate student, Prasanna Mani, a postdoctoral researcher, and Nathan
Hahn, a 2007 UH graduate, have met and, seemingly, exceeded this "magic
number." The team created a catalyst that uses less platinum, making it
at least four times -- and up to six times -- more efficient and
cheaper than existing catalysts at comparable power levels.
"We have found a low platinum alloy that we pre-treat in a special
way to make it very active for the reaction of oxygen to water on the
surface of our catalyst," Strasser said. "A more active catalyst means
that we get more electricity, or energy, for the amount of platinum
used and the time it's used for. With a material four to six times more
efficient, the cost of the catalyst has reached an important target set
by industrial fuel cell developers and the U.S. Department of Energy."
Although more testing of how the durability of this new catalyst
compares to pure platinum is necessary, the preliminary results look
promising, the researchers said.
"The initial results show that durability is improved over pure platinum, but only longer-term testing can tell," Strasser said.
Strasser's preliminary results and research have been published in the October issues of Angewandte Chemie International Edition and Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Peter Strasser: http://www.chee.uh.edu/faculty/strasser