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The FCDDL
is currently funded by a variety of sponsors from industry and government
sources. Major automotive manufacturers and material suppliers form
the core support of the lab, with additional support from the National
Science Foundation, Department of Energy and various other
sponsors.
Current
Research Initiatives:
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Flow Battery
Diagnosis
The flow battery technology
is a key technology for intermittent power supply and smart-grid
development. FCDDL has ongoing research on design and optimization of flow
battery components and modeling the transport phenomena in the electrolyte.
 
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Freeze/Thaw of PEFCs
The FCDDL began a multi-year
research initiative to visualize, quantify, understand, and model
freeze/thaw phenomena and related degradation in PEFCs. Ongoing
research involves a wide-range of technologies including neutron imaging,
direct visualization, computational modeling, and a multitude of materials
analysis techniques.
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Neutron Imaging of PEFCs
Since 2002, the FCDDL has
been funded from various sources to team with the Neutron Imaging and
Radiation Science and Engineering Center at the Penn State Breazeale Nuclear Reactor to
provide a unique facility to visualize water formation and motion inside
fuel cells from a small, single channel, to a full size 500 cm2
capability. Facilities for 3-D computed tomography to visualize and
quantify liquid and frozen water directly in the diffusion media and flow
channel are under construction, along with expanded temperature control to
enable freeze-thaw testing.
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Direct Visualization of PEFCs
The FCDDL recently began a
multi-year program funded by the NSF to directly visualize and quantify
liquid water fluid dynamics in micro-channels and through the diffusion
media for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell and hydrogen PEFC applications.
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Fuel Cell Dynamics
All diagnostics developed by
the FCDDL have a unique real-time capability. These are being
combined to study the actual current, species, and impedance dynamics of
the PEFC under realistic load cycling, a condition quite different than
typically studied fuel cell statics. Results are being incorporated
into models developed to describe operation under these conditions for fuel
cell online control.
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Low-Humidity Operation
The FCDDL is applying an
array of distributed species, current, temperature, and HFR sensing
diagnostics to study and model low-humidity PEFC operation. Optimized
low humidity operation with minimal degradation is critical to achieve
reasonable system requirements for portable and automotive applications.
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Direct Alcohol and Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
The FCDDL has several years
experience in development of advanced DMFC and DAFC designs for portable
power applications. Research is ongoing.
 
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Thermal and Mass Transport Parameter Characterization
The online species and
temperature diagnostics that have been developed at the FCDDL are being
applied to determine more accurate transport parameters for mass and heat
in the diffusion media.
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Degradation Diagnosis and Prognosis
The FCDDL and is developing
online, in situ
sensors to detect and quantify long-term failure modes (such as catalyst
migration and degradation or pinhole formation) at an early stage so that
mitigation strategies can be applied to prolong life. These sensors utilize
tools of symbolic dynamics and the dynamic response of the fuel cell to
external stimulus to rapidly quantify the long-term degradation
level. This technology has recently been applied to develop a precise
Online Carbon Monoxide Poison Sensor to accurately quantify CO
poisoning to the ppm level. This enables a much more robust fuel cell
system and eliminates expensive CO sensor hardware.
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Continued Development of Advanced Diagnostics
The FCDDL is constantly
developing advanced diagnostics to measure important fuel cell
phenomena. Current examples include MEMS-based thermal sensors and
flow sensing to determine local diffusion media bypass. We are
also always interested in teaming with other partners who seek to apply new
technology to PEFCs.
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