Researchers worldwide are racing to develop fuel cells. Here's why: Fuel cells do not rely on combustion to create electricity, thus they emit little pollution.
Hydrogen- or alcohol-based fuel cells get most of the attention. But at UA, Dr. Steven Chuang and his team of student researchers are focused on creating one based on coal.
"Coal is cost-effective and readily available, especially here in the United States," Chuang says. "And when coal is consumed in a fuel-cell, it emits a pure form of carbon dioxide that is easy to capture."
Cost is main challenge
As with all fuel cell projects, the challenge is cost. So Chuang, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, pores over hundreds of journals articles monthly, searching for findings that can wring out more cost. Promising ideas are handed to his student researchers, who test their viability.
"Research is like piecing together components in a computer," Chuang says. "It's a matter of finding the right existing science and putting it together in a way that works."
Uses for fuel cells
A successful coal-based fuel cell will create more reliable electricity for cities and suburbs. Over time, large power plants would be replaced by a hundreds of smaller, cleaner, coal-based fuel cells, disbursed among the homes and businesses that they power. With power sources more distributed, reliability would increase, Chuang says.
If Chuang and his team are wildly successful, the fuel cell project will obsolete the other big project that is under way in the lab: He and his team are developing a means to capture the carbon dioxide emitted by a coal-fired power plant. The team faces two challenges. Power plants emit a large volume of gas, 10 to 15 percent of which is carbon dioxide. So the material that captures the carbon dioxide must allow the great majority of the gas to pass through. Second, the material must be cost-effective to manufacture.
Chuang says he and his team are on target to deliver a prototype carbon-dioxide absorber in three years. The coal-based fuel cell is probably five years off.
Research center to open
Both research projects are the initial thrust of UA's FirstEnergy Advanced Energy Research Center, which will open formally in the fall. Funding for the center has come from a number of sources, chiefly FirstEnergy Corp, which in December pledged $2 million to the center. The U.S. Department of Energy, Ohio Coal Development Office and The Babcock & Wilcox Co. of Barberton, among others, have awarded funding as well.
Chuang says his goal is simple. "We want to make Akron the center of fuel cell manufacturing and the center of carbon-capture technology."
Story by UA's Department of Institutional Marketing and Communications
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