Portable hydrogen micro-backup for fuel cells

Chemical engineering students at Stevens Institute of Technology are changing the way U.S. soldiers charge their battery-powered devices. Taking advantage of the unique properties of micro-systems, the students invented a micro-backup capable of converting everyday fossil fuels such as propane and butane into pure hydrogen that can be used in fuel cell batteries. These batteries will not only be extremely efficient, but they will be able to be recharged repeatedly with hydrogen for years.

In light of the fact that 80% of the weight that soldiers carry are batteries, the army has a special interest in converting the batteries that exist today into a reliable energy source that can be reused. Thus, the innovative micro-backups have the ability to not only reduce waste from single-use batteries, but also provide US soldiers with a reliable way to charge their batteries that are present in the vital devices that protect them.

Current methods of producing hydrogen for fuel cells are both sophisticated and dangerous, requiring high vacuum temperatures in order to produce the materials responsible for the appropriate chemical reaction. Once in the tank, hydrogen is an extremely volatile and dangerous substance that is expensive to transport.

The innovative micro-backups overcome these two limitations by using atmospheric temperatures and pressures, and by producing hydrogen only at the very moment required, in order to prevent explosive targets in combat zones. These micro-backers are produced using the most advanced production methods, methods that are also used today in the preparation of plasma television screens, which utilize the laws of physics on a micron scale to prepare plasma under normal temperature and pressure conditions.

The research team has already succeeded in producing hydrogen from methanol. After turning methanol into a gas by introducing it into heated nitrogen gas, the mixture is flowed into a channel with a diameter of 25 microns in the mop. There, the mixture reacts with plasma in a thermal decomposition reaction that breaks down the methanol into its basic components.

Now, the team of researchers is looking at the utilization of different fuels put into the new mop. Eventually, soldiers will be able to convert everyday liquid fuels such as propane or butane, common on military bases, into an efficient mixture for fuel cell batteries.

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