All-in-one portable electric power plant using proton exchange membrane fuel cells for mobile applications

Abstract

A portable electric power plant is developed using a NaBH4 (sodium borohydride)-based proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack. The power plant consists of a NaBH4-based hydrogen generator, a fuel cell stack, a DC-DC converter, a micro-processed controller and a data monitoring device. The hydrogen generator can produce 5.9 L/min pure hydrogen gas using catalytic hydrolysis of 20 wt% NaBH4 to feed a 500-W scale fuel cell stack. Thus, the Co/γ-Al2O3 and Co-P/Ni foam catalysts in the hydrogen generator play significant roles in promoting hydrogen production rates that are as fast as necessary by enhancing the slow response that is intrinsic to using only Co-P/Ni foam catalysts. Moreover, different hydrogen production rates can easily be achieved during the operation by controlling NaBH4 solution rates using a fuel pump so that the hydrogen storage efficiency can be improved by supplying required hydrogen gas in accordance with load demands. The specific energy density of the electric power plant was measured 211 Wh/kg. Therefore, the power plant described here can be a power source for mobile applications, such as cars and UAVs, as well as a stationary power supplier when electric energy is required.