Holiday Gift Ideas For The Fuel Cell "Skeptic" On Your List
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 12.11.06
Many of us have a junior fuel cell skeptic or an adult "hydrogen doubter" on our holiday gift list. If find yourself in this situation, now you can satisfy the spirit of green giving and make a convincing case for optimism with a trip to the Fuel Cell Store. Yes Virginia, there is a fuel cell store. What could be better for this purpose than a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) kit? The Fuel Cell Store even offers a fully functioning power back up system for that special skeptic who’s worried about a power outage, but also concerned about the noise and carbon monoxide poisoning risk of a conventional generator. Our finding the Fuel Cell Store comes at a particularly opportune time, as we TreeHugger writers have been looking for a place to order for Lloyd the "Energy For You" - EFOY 600 - Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (pictured) for his cabin. That way he'll be sure not to miss posting on next summer's Dorito Harvest . There's some urgency around this, as climate scientists are projecting a much earlier crop next year as well as the possibility of outbreaks in the Great Lakes.
The EFOY is $3,635.00 and performs at 600Wh/day, with two 5-Liter methanol fuel cartridges for the EFOY going at US$95.00. For the experienced skeptic, especially those with engineering backgrounds, we note that the Fuel Cell Store also carries a full line of pure hydrogen models as well.
For those outside North American, a full pdf file list of EFOY distributors is here.
For a spec sheet on all three EFOY models, all of which are DMFC units, look here.
Whew, expensive! these things make a PV cell look like bargain, with no fuel cost to boot.
I may have blown a calculation, but 1.1 liter of methanol per kilowatt hour of energy, 62,800 BTU in a gallon of methanol and 3414 BTUs to the kilowatt hour these things seem to be about about 25% efficient.
They sound attractive where you need relatively constant, low power. Powering an off grid sensor and communications package for instance. You won't need a large battery bank. But a cabin with more than just a couple CF bulbs is going to need surge capacity which means a battery bank and at that point it is probably more efficient to use a genset to charge the batteries and certainly cheaper.
Still, its good progress. If the laws of physics let the efficiency come up and market forces bring the price down it could tempt me. Especially if they provide a way to let me use the waste heat to help make hot water.
=== author's response follows ====
There is more than one style of DMFC. The one developed and patented at US Jet Propulsion Lab has much higher efficiency. Not sure about your calcs though.
600 Wh/day
$95 for 5L of methanol?
$12.57 USD a day for 0.6 kWh
Average house uses 15+ kWh per day..
lets see how many pony up for that without doing the math..
$3800 could buy you 8 Kyocera 65 watt panels, and an inverter... and you'd get power for 20+ years!!!
Fuel cells are great, but methanol and H2 are NOT the way to power them.
==== author's response follows ====
Right. But keep in mind these are portable and designed for short term use - like a recreational cabin or for power shortages. Comparing a 30-year amortized SPV system directly is not quite right.
Methanol's atomic symbol is CH4O . Where does the C and the O go?
A quiet pollution device perhaps?
Solar panels work but only when the sun is out right?
Not very sunny in Indiana, Michigan, and a few other states.
I wonder if the person could have accomplished the same with geothermal?
Alaska is generating power with it but they are closer to the ring of fire too.
==== author's response follows =====
Some DMFC's use "neat" MeOH and others use a 30% solution in water as fuel feed. Both emit CO2 and water only. The liquid solution method is reportedly far more efficient and probably safer.
Good to see the progress, but the price/performance has a long way to go. There might be an application that would make it worth using, but I can't imagine what it would be.
At a 25% efficiency, even a RV would be best advised to use directly applied energy as opposed to electrical conversion (servel refrigerator/hot water etc.)
Best to make sure the device has a long enough warrantee as well (which is why they are using super pure fuel to maintain membrane integrity).
"Right. But keep in mind these are portable and designed for short term use - like a recreational cabin or for power shortages. Comparing a 30-year amortized SPV system directly is not quite right."
Couple of trojan batteries, an Air-X, a few PV's..
your still cheaper than these!!
I'd love to see an expected power output over 20 years. Lots of ways to skin this cat. Boutique Fuel cells are about as useless as a garlic press. Gadgets for gadgets sake.
==== author's response follows ====
I agree with some of your assertions. However, we are early in the price/performance curve with this tech, and price is being held high, I believe, by the fact that the primary market at the moment is the military. By way of analogy, the original market for NiCad and then NiMH batteries also was largely military (rocketry and space guidance), and these now archaic technologies gradually shifted to domestic electronics as the dominant market.
I agree that a business model which requires captive boutique fuel container distribution systems is weak for a market debut. However, this is really no different inprinciple than the propane tanks used for back-yard grilling. A domestic scheme certainly would be possible for MeOH containers if demand were great enough.
Why are most of you talking about the efficiency? You do realize that the efficacies of the so loved PV's are much lower right? What is it about 12%-17%? IF you want to compare a home PV system then compare it to a home fuel cell system, Something from Ballard maybe, not a tiny generator.
Jilted you are correct with your PV. But compare when Fuel Cells are talked about, the Fuel that is being used is not free.
PVs fuel so to speak, is the sun and so far I've not had to pay for it.
But I do need to pay for gas, and most vehicles suck in the efficiency there. Fuel Cells of all the various types where supposed to be getting 70% - 90%; compare that with some of the higher end battieries 90% and up.
If these things were getting 70-90 you'd have to buy half the fuel. That's important.
Let´s see here. 600Wh/Day. What´s that? 600Wh/24h = 25 W? That is one dim bulb. :-)