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FIELD AND SPACE ROBOTICS LABORATORY |
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SMART FUEL CELLS FOR SPACE AND TERRESTRIAL APPLICATIONS
Principle Investigator Dr. Steven Dubowsky Group Members Jekanthan Thangavelautham, Postdoc Kavya K. Manyapu, MS Student Daniele Gallardo, MS Exchange Student Ellie Field, MS Student Overview and Motivation Applications such as border security, agriculture, forestry, etc, require remote monitoring and sensing for very long durations with low power requirements, on the order of months to years. The technology of batteries has been successful in providing substantial amounts of power for such applications; however batteries have proved to be unreliable as they are limited in terms of battery life, have low energy capacities and are not robust to temperature swings. Their limitations also include mass and volume constraints as well as environmental concerns such as toxic metal pollution. The emergence of the Fuel cell technology has shown to be a promising alternative to overcome such limitations. Fuel cells have the ability to provide power for long durations due to their high energy capacity. They are much more efficient (fuel cell efficiency- 60-70%) when compared to other power generating mechanisms and have environmentally friendly emissions. However, miniature fuel cells are yet to be applied for remote sensing and monitoring. Objective The objective of this research is to design, develop and demonstrate fuel cells for sensor networks in extreme environments. The research would focus on developing smart designs and control concepts of miniature fuel cell powered sensor systems for long duration operations. Part of the challenge will be to effectively isolate the fuel cells from harsh environments such as the terrestrial desert regions. These micro fuel cell power supplies would weigh in the order of 10’s of grams providing power to sensor modules with operational lives extending from many months to years. A concept of the fuel cell powered sensor system is show in figure1.
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