{"id":24100,"date":"2021-03-23T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/mini-fuel-cell-delivers-maximum-performance\/"},"modified":"2021-10-12T09:32:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T07:32:04","slug":"mini-fuel-cell-delivers-maximum-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/mini-fuel-cell-delivers-maximum-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mini-fuel cell delivers maximum performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

A slew of applications, ranging from weather stations and mountaintop environmental sensors to remote pipeline surveillance systems, drones and even campsites, would benefit from a compact, long-lasting and eco-friendly power supply. With this in mind, INERGIO \u2013 a spin-off based at EPFL\u2019s Innovation Park and born out of 15 years of joint research between EPFL and HEIG-VD \u2013 has developed a compact fuel cell that is 80% lighter than similar systems on the market. With support from several startup funds, the company has just completed a prototype fuel cell that measures 25 cm long by 14 cm high and wide, and that can generate 25 W of continuous power. The next step for INERGIO will be to test its system with various companies in the Lake Geneva area and develop a pilot production line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seven to eight hours of flight time for delivery drones<\/p>

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Fuel cells \u2013 including hydrogen fuel cells, which will likely power tomorrow\u2019s cars \u2013 offer a promising alternative on the path to carbon neutrality. Fuel cells use chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidizing agent to generate power: the reaction releases electricity, water and heat. INERGIO\u2019s prototype employs a solid oxide fuel cell (or SOFC), which offers high fuel-to-electricity conversion yields and doesn\u2019t emit pollutants, but operates at extremely high temperatures (650\u00b0C). The heat that SOFCs generate usually requires large amounts of insulation, which restricts their use to stationary applications. \u201cAfter 15 years of laboratory research,\u201d says INERGIO CEO Mahmoud Hadad, \u201cour major achievement is that we have confined the high-temperature zone to a small area in the battery\u2019s core.\u201d This keeps insulation to a minimum and creates a system that is three times lighter while delivering the same yields.<\/p>\n

Inergio’s battery can fly a delivery drone for several hours<\/p>\n

For now, INERGIO\u2019s system uses fuels such as butane and natural gas to feed the anode with atmospheric oxygen serving as the oxidizing agent. In addition to electrons, the reaction produces water vapor and a small amount of carbon dioxide. \u201cThe big advantage of our system is that butane and propane is available commercially at a low price. In liquid form, it is much lighter and easier to transport than hydrogen,\u201d says Mahmoud Hadad. In the future, hydrogen \u2013 for now still hard to produce \u2013 could also be used as a fuel, making the cell even more efficient and eco-friendly.<\/p>\n

When connected to a butane or propane cartridge, the mini-fuel cell\u2019s autonomy is up to 20 times greater than that of similar-sized lithium-ion batteries. \u201cFor example, we can generate 500 W of power with a 4 kg cell, which would give a delivery drone 7\u20138 hours of flight time, compared with current flight times of around 60 minutes,\u201d says Hadad. INERGIO\u2019s system is scalable and can supply between 25 W and 500 W depending on the intended use. In remote locations, such as mountainous regions, it offers a safe, silent power source that is not dependent on weather conditions and can operate on its own for extended periods.<\/p>\n

This year, thanks to an Enable grant from EPFL\u2019s Vice Presidency for Innovation as well as numerous awards and startup funding, INERGIO plans to develop an all-in-one system that could fit inside a shoebox. That means it could be transported easily or connected to remote monitoring units, and could provide thousands of hours of continuous operation.<\/p>\n

Source: EPFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A slew of applications, ranging from weather stations and mountaintop environmental sensors to remote pipeline surveillance systems, drones and even campsites, would benefit from a compact, long-lasting and eco-friendly power supply. With this in mind, INERGIO \u2013 a spin-off based at EPFL\u2019s Innovation Park and born out of 15 years of joint research between EPFL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nonsoloauto-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28174,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24100\/revisions\/28174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}