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Gold/Mining/Energy : Global Thermoelectric - SOFC Fuel cells (GLE:TSE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stew who wrote (4916)	4/11/2000 8:47:00 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6016

Blue-Chip had this on the other thread , good stuff so I brought it over here sam So lets now discuss how an SOFC fits in to all of this. Well with all these new electically driven functions comes a requirement for an new way to power them. As said current vehicle electrical systems tax the engine almost to its limited. Also for the vehicle to run in stop start mode to eliminating idling when not in motion a vehicle must have an alternate source of power to keep all the electrical functions that are still required by a vehicle even when not in motion. Although one may think batteries are an option (which they are in a way) they would have to be designed to handle the worst case scenario such as being stopped for a long time and drawing alot of stored power from the system. All the advantages of a reduced weight and cost of the 42 volt electrical system would be lost to a high battery cost and weight. The increased weight would decrease fuel economy. The frquency of the cycling of the batteries would also be a costly expense to replace them when they wore out. If an engine had all the mechanical and belt driven loads removed from it it could be sized to suit propulsion only, therefore increasing fuel economy and emissions, this as a result of reduced ize as well as operating features such as start stop and the electronic valve control. Automakers therefore need an alternative to generating power, an alternative that does not rely on the engine whatsoever, but will generate the high power loads with something small, lightweight, low maintenance, and reliable, that also has a long range and is not limited to the length of a charge etc. One more thing to understand before we talk specifically on the fuel cell is some of the new engine technology. Delphi, BMW, Ford, and others have been looking into other alternate ways to make engines burn cleaner. One of the ways they have come up with is utilizing hyrogen in the engine. Both BMW and Ford have hydrogen engine technology. Although one may think this means you run an engine on pure hydrogen that is not necessarily the case. Delphi has worked with a partial oxidation reformer for gasoline before they even decided to try it on a fuel cell. Many people are unaware that you could also talk about a hydrogen engine in the context of more of a hydrogen enriched engine. If you were to increase the hydrogen content of a gasoline fuel stream in an engine the increased hydrogen would increase the engine power (maybe only by 5 or 10%) but it would dramatically reduce emissions of an engine for items such as NOx by anywhere from 55-85%. Delphi calls this advanced engine management using partial oxidation reforming. Increasing the hydrogen content of the gasoline stream into a ICE (intenal combustion engine) could take this smaller more efficient engine with better emissions because it is sized for propulsion only and increase the fuel economy even further. This may make a vehicle that has an gasoline ICE which may acheive ULEV (ultra low emission vehicle standards) acheive SULEV standards (super ultral low emission vehicle standards) and perhaps ZLEV (zero level emission vehicle) standards. Together the combination would be a huge leap in meeting and surpassing vehicle emission standards without a change in complete technology. It would also not require the public to loose the performance characterisitics of an ic engine. This POx gas may reduce hydrocarbon emissions by up to 73%. The POx gas(the reformed gasoline from a partial oxidation reformer) could also be added to the exhaust system just prior to the converter to help the catylitic converter further reduce emissions. This all could be done w8ith a POx reformer using california grade gasoline, the features described, and an engine management system. So you look at this now and go back to the earlier question on how are we going to produce power for this new 42 volt system??? Well, that Partial oxidation gasoline reformer is the same reformer that can be used for a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. So the reformer would serve double duty. The engine and the fuel cell would work independently satisfying needs for propulsion and electricity, together the Fuel Cell, Reformer, and Engine along with several engine features such as the start stop operation and electronic valve control would provide a combined dramatic drop in emissions. A lighter car, smaller control systems, easier to engineer and design due to increased flexibility of component location, etc, etc, etc. Even the ehaust from the fuel cell could be fed into the engine fuel stream. The residual hydrogen would boost the gasoline hydrogen content even more and the mositure in the fuel cell exhaust would also help the engine burn more efficiently and cleaner. (Not many people know that moisture injected in a fuel stream increases combustion efficiency - some have added water injectors like fuel injectors to car systems) Any extra residual from the cell could as well be used to heat the vehicles reformer and to maintain its operating temperature. Heat from the cell can be used for passener compartment heating, for air conditioning, for heating the catylitic converter, and for preheating the engine. This is just one example of how it could all work, there are other options as well. Just imagine, carmakers get to keep internal combustion engine technology, they get to work in new IC engine fuel effeciency features, they get the badly needed drop to very low vehicle emissions while still maintaining gasoline as the fuel. They would also have a method for satisfying the increased power demand that vehicles presently cannot handle while at the same time increasing vehicle features. Combined the whole thing may be even cheaper than a current vehicle system because of the elimination of many parts, less materials, a lighter car, more design flexibility, more profits by being able to give consumers all the bells and whistles still ALL WITH GASOLINE ALL WITH TODAYS INFRASTRUCTURE ALL WITH THE 42 VOLT POWER SYSTEM ALL WITH THE SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL!!!