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I'm not in the habit of posting every time a major change happens in my life. For anyone that's interested, I quit teaching last June, and went to work for my former employer (Praxair) for the summer. It gave me an opportunity to determine whether I really wanted to go back into industry, and ultimately solidified my position that although I wish I could be one of those "great teachers," that I'm just not suited to be an educator.
I have 3 credits and a comprehensive test left to complete my Masters in Education, but at this point, I see no value in doing so, other than simply to get the piece of paper.
Anyway, I've been looking for a job since September, and last week I accepted a position doing development work on fuel cells. I'll be working with 3 friends (one of whom is my former boss) from Praxair, and although fuel cells aren't exactly combustion technology, it's similar to the work I've done before in combustion. This also fits very well with my interest in developing greener technologies.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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So how do you and your colleagues see the future of fuel cells in cars? Are they feasible, affordable, practical for transportation, or will they be so in the next 10-20 years?
Since you are so close, I would finish up your Masters. That's a valuable piece of paper even if you've given up on teaching.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I'm not really in a position to say whether they're feasible in cars, but I do have high hopes for them. The combined cycle of fuel cell electrical generation and electric motors have a potential for much greater energy efficiency than internal combustion engines. The fuel cells I'll be working on are used for AC power generation. I start Monday, so it's not like I've got a lot of inside information at this point.
Yeah, I plan on finishing the Masters, it just isn't on the front burner right now.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Unless the catalyst poisoning problem is solved, and ideally we find some better catalysts than Pt and PtRh I don't think they have much of a chance in cars.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Glenn Arnold: last week I accepted a position doing development work on fuel cells.
Congratulations.
I completely understand putting off finishing the masters. I do recommend finding out how long you have to complete it. I have a friend who suddenly discovered that she had less than a year before some of her credits would "age out" -- and that meant she was put in the position of having to race to complete her degree while dealing with a child in the ICU and then at home with major medical needs.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Fuel cells in combination with hydrogen, even if fuel cells are perfected, won't happen until two other lynch pins fall into place:
1. A distribution infrastructure throughout the US for hydrogen.
2. A means to produce hydrogen that doens't require a massive new invesment in polluting energy. A great deal of hydrogen could be produced at night, when the grid is largely quiet but power is still being generated. It'd be like free hydrogen really, since most of that power is just wasted, but, it's a fraction of what would be needed. Along these thoughtlines, it could be 50 years before there are enough clean power generating plants to make it feasible.
The possible silver bullet to solve BOTH problems? Honda and a couple others are working on a HOME refueling station. It'd be installed in your backyard, or wherever, and would be powered by solar or wind, or whatever, and would be a personal producer of hydrogen for you, so you can refill your own car. This could kill two birds with one stone, but that too is a decade or more away.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Fuel cells don't have to run on hydrogen. There is little reason to think that near to mid term fuel cell use will be anything other than a liquid fuel.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Oct 2001
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The fuel cells that I'll be working on are run on natural gas.
Fuel cells in cars will likely be run in tandem with an ethanol (or other fuel) reformer, producing H2 and CO that is fed to the fuel cell.
As far as I know, the catalyst poisoning is only an issue with petroleum based fuels.
I expect I'll be learning a lot more details in the near future.
Rivka: I'm pretty sure my credits start "aging out" in May 09. I've only got to take one course though. I'll probably take it this summer.
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Ah, neat. Whenever I read about fuel cells it's always in tandem with hydrogen. It's nice to know there's other stuff out there.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Glenn Arnold: Rivka: I'm pretty sure my credits start "aging out" in May 09. I've only got to take one course though. I'll probably take it this summer.
Sounds like a good plan. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Well, I've been learning a lot. I don't think I know any magical trade secrets yet, but I've got to be somewhat careful about what I say online.
Anyway, there are quite a variety of different kinds of fuel cells, and their fuel requirements can be very different.
The kind of cells I'm working on run on methane, which means they can run on natural gas, but they can also be run on gas derived from vegetable and animal waste, by digesting it. They can also be run on coal syngas, but you've got to take out the sulfur.
Another thing that's interesting is that while fuel cells are very efficient at turning fuel into electricity (say 50%, compared to 30% for a gas turbine running a generator) the fuel cell is not very good at completely converting all of the fuel that's fed into it. So while a gas turbine burns all of the gas that's fed into it, a fuel cell may still have say, 30% of the hydrogen molecules still unreacted after producing the aforementioned 50% electrical output from a given fuel input.
This is a possible scenario for fueling stations for hydrogen cars. Fuel cells running on methane may be put online locally to supply power to the grid, while the H2 from the off-gas is purified and sold as fuel for cars.
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