Evaluating the Performance of Fuel Cell in Water Electrolysis to Power

Up the Hydrocar
Learning Outcomes

1. To build hydrogen fuel cell car

2. To setup the circuit for conducting water electrolysis for producing hydrogen- and oxygen-gas
3. To estimate the quantity of hydrogen- and oxygen gas generated at specific time interval
4. To understand the working principle of the fuel cell in powering the vehicle

Theory

A. Introduction

The current global energy resources are highly dependant of the extensive usage of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal).
Nevertheless, due to the constantly depleting fossil reserves and growing environmental concerns on the reverse impacts
of burning fossil fuels, there are substantial research efforts currently are devoted to the development of a clean, green
and sustainable sources of energy. Hydrogen gas is foreseen as the future energy carrier since it does not generate the
“greenhouse gas” during the combustion, clean, green and renewable, has a large specific energy density and is easily
convertible to electricity by fuel cells. However. Industrial hydrogen (H2) production consumes a large amount of fossil
fuels, resulting in equally huge amount of green house gases emission. Therefore, the development of electrolysis system
that facilitates the production of hydrogen gas via water splitting process has thus attracted a great deal of interest among
the scientific community. This technology adopts electricity to induce the water splitting.

The electrolyzer in the hydrogen fuel cell car is a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, which is also the
reversible fuel cell. The construction of an electrolyzer is very similar to a battery. It consists of an anode, a cathode and
an electrolyte. At the negative electrode, the protons are removed from the electrolyte, and electrons are provided by the
external electrical supply. The electrode is a thin, solid ion-conducting membrane which is used instead of the aqueous
solution used in the alkaline electrolyzers that can be built with materials as simple as two pencils. The energy efficiency
of water electrolysis is reported to be between 50 – 80%, but these values only refer to the efficiency of converting
electrical energy to chemical energy.

Experiment I

In this experiment, you will build hydrogen fuel cell car and setup a complete electrolysis system (using battery) for
producing hydrogen- and oxygen-gas.

Procedure:

1. Place the red pin into one of the 4cm PTFE tubing, and the black pin into the another 4cm PTFE tubing.
2. Connect the short tubes completely onto the short H2/O2 intake nozzles located on the lower sections of both
"H2" and "O2" sides of the fuel cell as below:

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 3. Insert the fuel cell into the rectangular slot located on the car chassis.
4. Inert the Hydrogen outer storage cylinder into the round slot located on the right side of the chassis.
5. Insert the Oxygen outer storage cylinder into the round slot located on the left side of the chassis.
6. Fill in both of the outer cyclinders with distilled water up to the level of 20 mL (top level).
7. Place inner containers into outer cylinders minding that the gaps are not blocked by inner plastic
rims. Make sure the water is still level to the “0” line. If not, remove some water with the syringe.
Then connect the tubing to the inner containers. Make sure there is no air trapped inside the inner
containers and the water is level to the "0" line.
8. Attach the long tubing to the top of the hydrogen inner cylinders and attach the long tubing coming from the
hydrogen storage cylinder to the upper nozzle of the hydrogen side of the fuel cell.
9. Attach the long tubing to the top of the oxygen inner cylinders and attach the long tubing coming from the oxygen
storage cylinder to the upper nozzle of the oxygen side of the fuel cell.
10. Remove the pin from each tube connected to the fuel cell. Using the syringe, inject distilled water
into the Oxygen side of the fuel cell until the compartment of Oxygen side is fully filled with water.
WARNING: The distilled water must ONLY be hydrated through the O2 side and NOT through the H2 side; failure
to do so will result in the bloackage of hydrogen flow.
11. Once the fuel cell is HALF filled with water, remove the syringe and wait for 5-10 minutes for the distilled water to
to fully humidify the membrane for ideal conductivity. After that, insert back both of the red- and black-pin onto the
end of PTFE tubing.
WARNING: The polymer membrane is an important part of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, it
should be prevented from drying out.

Experiment II

In this experiment, you are going to conduct the electrolysis process and quantify the hydrogen gas generated with
respect to time duration.

Procedure:

1. Take the battery pack, make sure the switch on the battery box is in the "off" position.
2. Make sure red- and black-wire is not touching each other. (WARNING: If the cable is short circuited the batteries
inside could become hot and potentially cause burns, melting of parts, or
create risk of fire).
3. Install the battery into battery pack with proper terminal.
4. Connect the red and black cables of the battery pack to the red and black sockets on the fuel cell, respectively.
WARNING: DO NOT CONNECT TO WRONG TERMINAL ONTO FUEL CELL AS IT WILL SPOIL THE FUEL
CELL
5. Switch on the battery pack and observe the electrolysis process, where electrolysis of water should begin with
oxygen and hydrogen being produced and stored in each storage tank.

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 6. Jot down the amount of both gases produced at specific interval in a table for below parameter::
(a) Table instantaneous gases produced versus time
(b) Table cumulative gases produced versus time
7. Plot graphs consisted of:
(a) graph instantaneous gases produced versus time
(b) graph cumulative gases produced versus time
8. Wait until the bubbles in the hydrogen tank start to escape from the inner storage cylinder located in the H2
cylinder. (Be patient, process can take 15–20min)
9. After the bubbles in the hydrogen tank start to escape from the inner storage cylinder located in the H2 cylinder,
turn off the switch on the battery pack and remove the cables from the cable sockets located on the fuel cell.
WARNING: Keep the battery box switched to the "off" position except during the time you are performing
electrolysis. The sample was kept into test tube.

Experiment III

During electrolysis, observe the renewable energy meter and jot down the total amount of current pass through at
specific intervals in addition to jot down the amount of both gases produced. Plot the graph of gas (in mL) and current
(in A) versus time.

State the stoichiometry chemical equation that happen in anode and cathode of fuel cell.

Using ideal gas law, calculate the amount of gas (in mol) produced versus time and plot the graph for specific time
interval that you already planned above.

Calculate the faradaic efficiency at specific time interval and plot the graph of faradaic efficiency versus time.

Experiment IV

In this experiment, you are going to observed the hydrogen- and oxygen-gas consumed during reversible cycle of fuel cell
operation.

Procedure:

1. Remove the red and black cables connected to the fuel cell. Insert the banana plug cables from the car’s motor
into the red and black plugs on the fuel cell. Make sure the colors of the plugs and cables are inserted into plug socket of
the same color. The motor should begin to power the car and cause it to start in motion.
2. Switch “ON” the power button on the body of hydrocar.
3. Jot down the amount of both gases produced at specific interval in a table for below parameter:
(a) Table instantaneous gases used versus time
(b) Table cumulative gases used versus time
4. Plot graphs consisted of::
(a) graph instantaneous gases used versus time
(b) graph cumulative gases used versus time

References

[1] Villagra, A.; Millet, P., (2018) "An analysis of PEM water electrolysis cells operating at elevated current densities"
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy,
[2] Vincent, I.; Bessarabov, D., (2018) "Low cost hydrogen production by anion exchange membrane electrolysis: A
review" Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 81 pp.1690-1704
[3] Chi, J.; Yu, H., (2018) "Water electrolysis based on renewable energy for hydrogen production" Chinese Journal of
Catalysis, 39 (3), pp.390-394
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