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Project Goals:
1. Familiarize students with an important upcoming technology that is relevant
to the field of chemical engineering
Undergraduates will obtain hands-on experience with a working
hydrogen fuel cell in the laboratory. This exposure will become
meaningful as fuel cells become more and more prevalent in popular
society.
2. Refresh the students memories on the topics of thermodynamics,
electrolysis, transport, etc.
In order to be adequately prepared for the lab, students will need to
become acquainted with the mechanism by which PEM fuel cells
operate. Due to the nature of the hydrogen fuel cell system, this will
require students to apply their knowledge of multiple chemical
engineering topics to reach a complete understanding.
3. Motivate students to learn more about current fuel cell technology, or in other
related areas.
The intention of the hydrogen fuel cell experiment is ultimately to
interest and intrigue the students in this green energy field. Many
chemical engineers are immediately hired by big oil companies upon
graduation. However, this lab experience may open the students eyes
to job opportunities in other areas that will could be beneficial to the
environment.
Background:
The primary purpose of Unit Operations Laboratory is to provide
undergraduate students with practical knowledge and hands-on experience with
common pieces of chemical processing equipment. However, it is equally important
to expose students to current or emerging technologies within the chemical
engineering field. Many major corporations that hire chemical engineers have vast
teams of engineers working on increasing the feasibility of breakthrough
technologies. Students that have familiarity with these next-gen machines from an
intriguing unit operations lab would be more interested and better prepared to work
for a company that designs these modern technologies. One of the major
technological breakthroughs in renewable energy over the past few decades has
been the development of hydrogen fuel cells. Our generation will almost
undoubtedly see fuel cells incorporated into vehicles in some way over the course of
the next decades. As such, it would be extremely beneficial for our chemical
engineers to have a basic understanding of the operation of a fuel cell and the
problems associated with running one.
One of the most common types of hydrogen fuel cells uses a proton exchange
membrane (PEM). Experiments and calculations performed with a PEM would test
knowledge in many essential chemical engineering topics including
thermodynamics, transport phenomena, molecular kinetics, and electrochemistry.
For many chemical engineering students, electrochemistry is a topic that is
completely neglected and forgotten after completing their core classwork in
chemistry. The fuel cell experiment would help refresh the students memory on
this topic and give them a physical example for them to reference in the future. The
pre-lab for this experiment could focus on forcing students to learn the mechanism
by which PEM fuel cells operate. While the process is relatively easy to grasp, the
students will need to combine their knowledge from multiple previous chemical
engineering courses in order to fully comprehend the operation. The basic process
of PEM fuel cells consists of splitting and recombining molecular hydrogen with
oxygen to form water. This process is facilitated by the semipermeable membrane
separating the cathode and the anode. Due to the properties of this material, the
membrane only allows protons to travel from the anode to the cathode. This action
then forces the generated electrons to travel through a conductor to bypass the
membrane which then gives rise to an electrical current.
Budget:
The price range for any fuel cell experiment will vary widely with the scale of
the desired project. On the lowest side of the spectrum, a crude fuel cell can be
constructed from household materials for virtually no cost. However, a moderately
large and reliable fuel cell could be constructed from easily available parts. The
team at the University of Connecticut has put together a breakdown of the
estimated cost for a fuel cell made by this option. Finally, an instructor-friendly fuel
cell could be purchased online for a reasonable flat rate and would require minimal
assembly. Shown below are rough cost estimates for each of these three routes of
assembly.
Crude Home-made Fuel Cell
Estimate based on
FuellCellstore.com
References
1. Bailey, A., Andrews, L., Khot, A., Rubin, L., Young, J., Allston, T. D., & Takacs, G. A.
(2015). Hydrogen Storage Experiments for an Undergraduate Laboratory
CourseClean Energy: Hydrogen/Fuel Cells. Journal of Chemical Education,
92(4), 688692. http://doi.org/10.1021/ed5006294
2. Jung-Chou Lin, Russel Kunz, James M. Fenton, & Suzanne S. Fenton. (n.d.). The
Fuel Cell - An Ideal Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Experiment.