Fuel Cells

[DrDoggy]

Just started reading about these, seems there has been recent activity from a company called Bloom , who is able to host a fuel cell that costs $8000 per kw, Another company has made claim that they are able to do 1000$ per kw, but according to the review nothing has come out of production yet.

 

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/518516/an-inexpensive-fuel-cell-generator/
.....also they do not answer their phone, not what i look for in my first choice.

 

I am looking for something in the 10kw range and will be feeding it natural gas.

So , i wonder , is it possible to get a fuel cell for myself, without being a corporation? and what type of cell do i need? , any suggestions of where i can get one? and what i should get?

 

I am assuming that when they talk about electrolyte, they mean more than a salt bridge, and this would be way too difficult to make my own...

Edited July 21, 2015 by DrDoggy

[Enthalpy]

Car manufacturers put 100kW fuel cells in their products, so they const less than 8$/kW. But they run on hydrogen, not methane.

[DrDoggy]

ok i get it, DMFC's need reduction to hydrogen to work, also i get that there is corrosion if we don't use platinum electrodes, I heard someone came out with a "black paint" that makes for solid electrodes, but i wonder what is the property that makes platinum durable?

 

More curious to me is the membrane, or any membrane for that matter, what are the properties that define a good material for proton exchange? ie, what is it that allows H+ to pass through but nothing else?

 

also I dont understand how salt bridges work, i guess these are a little different, could be considered electron exchange membranes?

[DrP]

Pt is very stable... it is highly unreactive - it won't oxidise that readily... if you had an iron electrode, for example, then all that O2 will rust it in no time. Pt won't.