FuelCellsWorks

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have received about $2.5 million to identify new materials that will efficiently absorb sunlight and split water (H2O) into clean hydrogen fuel, which could power cars and be used to generate electricity.

For the next three years, chemical engineering Professor Charles Mullins, chemistry Professor Allen Bard and mathematics Professor Irene M. Gamba will collaborate on the endeavor, which encompasses two grants from the National Science Foundation ($1.4 million) and the U.S. Department of Energy (about $1.1 million). Bard and Mullins are affiliated with the Center for Electrochemistry at the university.

The center is a multi-faculty collaboration devoted to research on fundamental and applied aspects of electrochemistry, which has already received research support for work on electrochemical energy sources such as batteries and fuel cells, solar energy research and new materials.

“Sustainable energy ultimately will involve the conversion of solar energy economically and efficiently to chemical fuels and electricity,” Bard said. “Our work focuses on discovering new materials for this and obtaining a better understanding of how their composition and structure govern their behavior.”

Mullins added, “The grants will fund us to explore finding new materials that will efficiently absorb sunlight and drive chemical reactions to break water into hydrogen (a fuel) and oxygen. These materials also need to be cheap and composed of elements that are abundant.”

The researchers will be examining novel metal oxides (variations of more common ones like titanium dioxide and iron oxide), which can act as semiconductors.

Mullins said because sunlight and water are relatively inexpensive and plentiful starting points, the hydrogen fuel produced by an efficient process would also be cheap.

“Plus, it would be a sustainable form of energy,” he said. “And energy, of course, is a terribly important problem that we are currently facing.”

Mullins said that researchers have studied water splitting using photoelectrochemistry for the past 40 years and progress has been made. However, efficient, cheap and abundant materials have yet to be discovered to make solar water splitting a viable process.

He said Bard will use a “combinatorial” approach for rapidly making complex compositions of metal oxides and testing them for their promise as photoelectrocatalysts, the material that facilitates the split.

“Once promising materials have been identified, we’ll research how to create nano-scale structures of that material that enhance the intrinsic properties of the material for light-absorption and water-splitting chemistry,” Mullins said.

Gamba’s past work in the mathematical treatment of electron and hole transport in semiconductors makes her essential to establishing useful theoretical models for these systems.

Mullins holds the Z.D. Bonner Professorship in Chemical Engineering, Bard holds the Hackerman-Welch Chair in Chemistry, and Gamba holds the Joe B. and Louise Cook Professorship in Mathematics.

For more information, contact: Daniel Vargas, Cockrell School of Engineering, 512-471-7541; Charles Mullins, Cockrell School of Engineering, 512-471-5817; Allen Bard, College of Natural Sciences, 512-471-3761; Irene M. Gamba, College of Natural Sciences, 512-471-7711.

SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, based just outside Munich, won the Energy category for developing small, lightweight fuel cells that can be used by soldiers instead of much bulkier, heavier batteries to power communications and navigation devices and other battlefield equipment.

One advantage of the SFC fuel cells is that they produce power from methanol. Many fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen. But hydrogen is highly explosive, so it needs to be stored in special heavy-metal cartridges. Cartridges for the SFC fuel cells are less expensive, lighter and less bulky.

Technology which could see “pollution-free cars” developed for the mass market is to be road-tested in Leicestershire.

Researchers at Loughborough University have been given planning permission for a plant to produce and store fuel for hydrogen- powered vehicles.

They have applied for permission to build an electrolyser, which will create compressed hydrogen gas that is pumped into the fuel cells of specially-adapted vehicles.

Academics say it would not only be the first step in running university vehicles on environmentally-friendly hydrogen, but would help develop the technology for the mass car market.

Professor Rob Thring, of the university’s department of aeronautical and automotive engineering, is leading the project.

He said: “This is technology which is going to make a huge difference to motoring in the future. An alternative is needed to conventional fuels because they are polluting and resources are finite.

“As oil stocks fall, the price goes up and that will be passed on to the motorists.

“There’s no limit to the amount of hydrogen we have so I believe this has to be the way forward.

“It is not a commercial proposition at the moment as there are not many hydrogen-powered cars, but the research we will be able to do will hopefully convince major car manufacturers they need to start making cars that run on hydrogen.”

Professor Thring said he had held discussions with the university’s estates office and catering firm Imago about getting them to run hydrogen vehicles on campus.

He said: “They are enthusiastic about it and it is an aim we have but the problem is getting funding for vehicles.”

He said he would be looking for cash from groups like the East Midlands Development Agency and the Engineering and Physics Research Council.

Hydrogen fuel is an alternative to petrol and vehicles run on it produce water from their exhausts rather than polluting gases.

The university has one of the few hydrogen refuelling pumps in the UK and buys in the gas, at £80 a tank, from a firm.

With the new plant, it will be able to make and store its own fuel – and hopes to have it up and running by March next year.

Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles designed so far include £60,000 Microcabs which do about 150 miles on one charge and have a top speed of about 50mph.

Dr Rupert Gammon, chairman of the British Midlands Hydrogen Forum, said: “The research that this facility will allow will help improve fuel efficiency and that is vital in getting the car industry to embrace the technology.

“Loughborough is one of the few places in the region to have a station where hydrogen vehicles can be refuelled.

“We need to increase the infrastructure around the whole of the UK because we have a chicken and egg situation. The idea is that the cars will follow when there are more refuelling stations but we are only likely to get the refuelling stations if there are enough cars on the road.

“It’s an emerging industry and Loughborough is playing a very important role in our work.”