...Introduction A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bioreactor that converts chemical energy in the chemical bonds in organic compounds to electrical energy through catalytic reactions of microorganisms under anaerobic conditions. (Allen and Bennetto, 1993; Gil et al., 2003; Moon et al., 2006; Choi et al., 2003). It MFC structure consist of an anaerobic sections of an anode (negative) electrode and a cathode (positive) electrode which is separated by a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM). It has been recognized for numerous years that it is possible to generate electricity directly by the use of bacteria in the breaking down of organic substrates. There has been a serious interest in MFCs among academic scientists as a method to generate electricity and hydrogen from biomass without the negative net carbon emission into the environment. Applications of MFCs can be used in the breaking down of organic matter at wastewater treatment facilities. They have also been considered in the use as biosensors for biological oxygen demand (BOD) monitoring, electricity generation and Biohydrogen. On the negative side Coulombic efficiency and Power output are considerably affected by the types of microbe in the anodic chamber of the microbial fuel cell, Configuration and operational conditions. Presently, practical applications of MFCs are limited because of its power density level being low of several thousandths mW/m2. Many efforts in improving the performance, reduced construction and operating costs...
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...As time goes on, technological advances need more well-organized sources of power. At the vanguard of research for these power sources are hydrogen fuel cells. This power source takes in the most plentiful element in the universe, Hydrogen, and yields huge power without burning or pollution. The three aspects of this scientific step forward are the fuel cells, hydrogen production, and hydrogen storage. Fuel cells are the devices which convert hydrogen into electricity. The technology uses here much similar to which use in battery, but with a little difference and depend on the type of electrolyte. . According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, like the battery, fuel cells use chemical reactions to generate electricity rather than combustion. Unlike the battery, however, the ingredients for this reaction are not stored within the cell, rather they are taken in from outside, making their potential so much more efficient and giving them a longer time span to power whatever happens to be connected to them[1]. According to the United States Department of Energy, within the fuel cell, two reactions occur. One is an oxidation half-reaction at an anode and the other is a reduction half-reaction at a cathode. Under normal conditions, this process would be very slow. The manufacturers speed this up by adding a catalyst to one side of the anode and cathode each. The most common of these catalysts consists of platinum powder very thinly coated onto a carbon paper or...
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...HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELLS: A COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING May 16, 2007 By John Shears Research Coordinator Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT) rd 1100 Eleventh Street * 3 Floor * Sacramento CA 95814 * (916) 442‐7785 www.ceert.org HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELLS: A COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING INTRODUCTION The world’s leading climate experts have now declared that human activities — predominantly due to our use of fossil fuels 1 — are unequivocally accelerating global warming. They also warn that, in order to avoid the most devastating consequences of climate change, governments have to develop effective 2 policies to combat global warming within the next 1015 years. Some governments have responded with renewed urgency in developing and implementing policies while others are moving 3 more slowly. Electrical power generation and transportation are responsible for the bulk of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of fossil fuels. Transportation accounts for 2530% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions of which 80% are from on 4 road transport. As such, transportation should represent a top priority for policy makers, who will be challenged with determining the best approach for reducing GHG emissions. One approach that is gaining wide acceptance in policy circles is to assign each economic sector responsible for generating GHG emission...
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...importance of the different type of fuel cells, the advantages and disadvantages of consuming fuel cells and appropriate applications to each type of the fuel cells. Statement of the problem: Billions of people in advance, developing and poor countries are dependent in fuels for their living. Millions of people or even billions are travelling each day by boarding a bus, car, ship, rail transport, airplane or riding on a motorcycle powered by internal combustion engines. Millions of people every day are depending on LPG or CNG in preparing their food. Still many of the power plants are using internal combustion engines as prime movers to their electric generation for the consuming public. And there are other few facilities that makes used of liquid fuels as their source of energy. The fuel consumption every passage of time increases and thereby price of fuel increases too as a result of these increasing demands to fuel around the globe. Businessmen, scientists, researchers, and engineers are exerting bountiful knowledge, physical efforts and million dollars in searching for other possible sources of fuel which may bring broader or wider solution to the global need of lesser amount of fuel and have a pollution-free effect to environment. The engineers who worked on these projects discovered recently the new breed of fuel cells as a source of energy to power automobiles. Toyota Car Industry is one of the users of this fuel cell by taking the reverse hydrolysis using...
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...A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent . Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used. Fuel cells are different from batteries in that they require a constant source of fuel and oxygen to run, but they can produce electricity continually for as long as these inputs are supplied. Welsh Physicist William Grove developed the first crude fuel cells in 1839. The first commercial use of fuel cells was in NASA space programs to generate power for probes, satellites and space capsules. Since then, fuel cells have been used in many other applications. Fuel cells are used for primary and backup power for commercial, industrial and residential buildings and in remote or inaccessible areas. They are used to power fuel cell vehicles, including automobiles, buses, forklifts, airplanes, boats, motorcycles and submarines. There are many types of fuel cells, but they all consist of an anode (negative side), a cathode (positive side) and an electrolyte that allows charges to move between the two sides of the fuel cell. Electrons are drawn from the anode to the cathode though an external circuit, producing direct current electricity. As the main difference among fuel cell types is the electrolyte, fuel cells are classified by the type of electrolyte they use. Fuel cells come in a variety of sizes. Individual...
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...2.3 Fuel Cell Stack Leela manohar et al. [13] studied the influences of gas pressure and flow rate parameters on fuel cell performance. The fuel cell was operated at various pressure and flow rates that were regulated by mass flow controllers placed upstream of the stack. In this study, four types of control factors considered were: pressures of the fuel and oxidant and the flow rates of the fuel and oxidant to select optimize condition for fuel cell operation. Each factor has two levels, leading to a full factorial design requiring 24 experiments leading to a 16 experiments and fractional factorial experiments, 24-1, leading to 8 experiments. The experimental data collected were analysed by statistical sensitivity analysis by checking the...
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...accounting for all emissions, starting from the gas or oil well where the source fuel is extracted, all the way to the final consumption of electricity by the car’s motor. When we work through the numbers, we find that the electric car is significantly more efficient and pollutes less than all alternatives.In this paper, we will investigate the Tesla Roadster™, which uses commodity lithium-ion batteries instead of lead-acid batteries or nickel-metal-hydride batteries as most electric cars have used. Not only does this lithium-ion–based car have extremely high well-to-wheel energy efficiency and extremely low well-to-wheel emissions, it also has astonishing performance and superior convenience.Lithium ion batteries are a lot more difficult to use than previous technologies; this is the reason that they have not so far been used in electric cars. Tesla Motors is spending a lot of effort making a safe, light, and durable lithium ion battery system. Over time, Tesla will probably put tens of millions into pack and cell features and optimization. However– as this paper will show, the energy and power density of lithium ion batteries make this effort very worthwhile. Energy Efficiency To compute the well-to-wheel energy efficiency of any car, we start with the energy content of the source fuel (e.g. coal, crude oil or natural gas) as it comes from the ground. We then track the energy content of this fuel as it is converted to...
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...customers had resulted in a total worldwide presence of more than 100 factories in 33 countries. Furthermore, while other auto manufacturers engaged in a frenzy of merger and acquisition activities in the late 1990s, Honda steadfastly maintained its independence. Honda has grown into one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers and has also evolved into one of the most respected global brands. In 1997, Honda Motor Company introduced to Japan a two-door gas/electric hybrid vehicle called the Insight. The Insight's fuel efficiency was rated at 61 miles per gallon in the city, and 68 miles per gallon on the highway, and its battery did not need to be plugged into an electrical outlet for recharging. By 1999, Honda was selling the Insight in the United States, and winning accolades from environmental groups. In 2000 the Sierra Club gave Honda its Award for Excellence in Environmental Engineering, and in 2002 the Environmental Protection Agency rated the Insight the most fuel-efficient vehicle sold in the United States for the 2003 model year. By August 2005, Honda had sold its 100,000th hybrid to retail customers. Developing environmentally friendly automobiles...
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...resulted in a total worldwide presence of more than 100 factories in 33 countries. Furthermore, while other auto manufacturers engaged in a frenzy of merger and acquisition activities in the late 1990s, Honda steadfastly maintained its independence. Honda has grown into one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers and has also evolved into one of the most respected global brands. In 1997, Honda Motor Company introduced to Japan a two-door gas/electric hybrid vehicle called the Insight. The Insight's fuel efficiency was rated at 61 miles per gallon in the city, and 68 miles per gallon on the highway, and its battery did not need to be plugged into an electrical outlet for recharging. By 1999, Honda was selling the Insight in the United States, and winning accolades from environmental groups. In 2000 the Sierra Club gave Honda its Award for Excellence in Environmental Engineering, and in 2002 the Environmental Protection Agency rated the Insight the most fuel-efficient vehicle sold in the United States for the 2003 model year. By August 2005, Honda had sold its 100,000th hybrid to retail customers. Developing environmentally...
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...and where Hydrogen Fuel Cells could be used as an alternative energy resource. The first aspect of this lesson was to captivate the students and motivate them so that they would be engaged throughout the lesson. It “is the teacher’s role to motivate the student by encouraging them to see the value of what they are about to learn, and to believe in their own capacity”( Marzano).This is done by means of a video clip that is played before the lesson topic is introduced. The clip shows our current status in relation to the future crisis of our non-renewable energy resources. This clip leads on to the introduction of the lesson on Hydrogen Fuel Cells (Orientation). The introduction will inform the pupils where this topic lies in relation to previous lessons and to future lessons. A short task at the beginning of the lesson (learning strategy) will be given to the students asking them to name types of non-renewable energy resources used at present. Positive feedback will be given to all their responses as it is shown to increase pupils’ grades by 2 grades (Effect size 1.13). A Hydrogen Fuel Cell will be present in the class for demonstration purposes which will form part of the lesson. This will provide pupils an opportunity to observe how these fuel cells function. This will gain the students attention (motivation). Information on the working principles of the fuel cell will be presented to the pupils orally while they observe the fuel cell operating.The fuel cell will be passed around...
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...pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. The pre-launch phase, also called the planning phase. It seeks to identify the product and the company’s position, and then build awareness through segmentation and target goals. Part one involves a lot of research in situation analysis, goal setting, and creating a marketing program. Part two deals with marketing implementation to gain brand personality. Finally, Part three reviews the results and focus on growth analysis. Each phase has sets of criteria or questions that must be considered or answered; each equally vital to the success of the product or service offered by the company. Part one of this marketing plan will detail the pre-launch phase for ZENN Motor Company and the company’s introduction for Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV). Background ZENN (Zero Emission No Noise) Motor Company Inc. is a small business in Toronto, Canada. Ian Clifford, founder, first incorporated the enterprise as Feel Good Cars, Inc. in late 2000, but later renamed it to ZENN in 2007. The original vision still prevailed to provide energy storage solutions and related technologies to the automatics industry. The...
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...INDUSTRY OVERVIEW Fuel cell principle: Discovered in 1839 by an English physicist, Sir William Grove, the fuel cell principle relies on the simple fact that water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen by sending an electric current through it, a process which is called electrolysis. Therefore, by reversing the procedure you could produce electricity and water. He created a primitive fuel cell and called it a “gas voltaic battery”. After experimenting with his new invention, Grove proved his hypothesis. Fifty years later, scientists Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer invented the term “fuel cell” when they attempted to build a practical model to produce electricity.[i] A fuel cell is an “electrochemical energy conversion device” that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, water, and heat. As opposed to the battery which stores all its chemicals inside, the fuel cell continuously produces electricity, as long as a source of fuel, e.g. chemicals, flows into the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals. Since fuel cells do not burn fuel, they make the process quiet, pollution-free and two to three times more efficient than combustion. A fuel cell system can be a truly zero-emission source of electricity, if the hydrogen is produced from non-polluting sources.[ii] Historical outlook: Space research first put the emphasis on the fuel cell technology. Indeed, in the 60s, the NASA chose that type of power generator to equip the...
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...The days of the old business model with the “lone wolf researcher” are gone, says Alan Taub, executive director of global research and development. “We really are in a team environment for innovation and a global team environment.” That requires a network of research minds both inside the company and from universities and research labs, not only in the United States but all over the world. Today for every two researchers and engineers working inside GM labs, there is one external partner. GM has recruited engineers and scientists from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, China, Taiwan, India, and Korea.1 This global research network enables GM to tap into a vast pool of technological expertise. When GM’s hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles reach the market, the technology will reflect many global influences. The world’s largest auto maker for many decades, GM manufactures vehicles in 32 countries and sells in 200 countries. Changing a business model in such a large organization is a huge undertaking. It’s...
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...current model to be viable for five years means their should be continuous innovation to compete with other companies. GM’s reinvention of automobile and investments in hydrogen fuel cells can be strongly taken into consideration as it was the future in automobile industry. As we believe that each brand will have its own speciality in order to create a niche, GM’s speciality was its invention of fuel cells for hybrid cars. GM’s reinvention of Cadillac sector was one of its biggest risks. This is another reason why it should go ahead with the project. The most representative infotainment system is telemetric, created by the fusion of telecommunication and informatics. Featuring a state-of-the-art communication terminal with built-in GPS that is connected to various other electronic devices in the vehicle, the system offers various useful information to the driver to promote safer driving. Hyundai·Kia Motors became the first company in Korea to offer an integrated telemetric service called Mozen to enhance the comfort and pleasure of driving.Solar cells are a representative form of environmentally-friendly and renewable energy. We are applying solar cells to automobile sunroofs and using the A/C fan operation to reduce the A/C load during summertime while enhancing cooling performance and cooling fuel efficiency. Nano glass (wiper less vehicles) Nano technology is utilized to automatically remove water or dust from the front windshield without the need for wipers. Space holographic...
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...customers had resulted in a total worldwide presence of more than 100 factories in 33 countries. Furthermore, while other auto manufacturers engaged in a frenzy of merger and acquisition activities in the late 1990s, Honda steadfastly maintained its independence. Honda has grown into one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers and has also evolved into one of the most respected global brands. In 1997, Honda Motor Company introduced to Japan a two-door gas/electric hybrid vehicle called the Insight. The Insight's fuel efficiency was rated at 61 miles per gallon in the city, and 68 miles per gallon on the highway, and its battery did not need to be plugged into an electrical outlet for recharging. By 1999, Honda was selling the Insight in the United States, and winning accolades from environmental groups. In 2000 the Sierra Club gave Honda its Award for Excellence in Environmental Engineering, and in 2002 the Environmental Protection Agency rated the Insight the most fuel-efficient vehicle sold in the United States for the 2003 model year. By August 2005, Honda had sold its 100,000th hybrid to retail customers. Developing environmentally friendly automobiles was...
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