1. ElectroChem Inc. PEM Fuel Cell with Dead-ended Operation Radha Jalan, Ph.D. President and CEO rjalan@fuelcell.com ElectroChem, Inc 400 W. Cummings Park Woburn, MA 01801 USA Presented at ICEPS-2008 November 27 th

2. ElectroChem Inc. A Brief History 1986 ElectroChem founded 1992 First to develop and sell a portable fuel cell system 1993 First to develop computerized test equipment 1995 First fuel cell company to be online : www.fuelcell.com 2002 First to develop a test station for 5 independent cells testing 2005 Received Massachusetts High Tech All Star Energy Award

3. ElectroChem Inc. The Company  A leading company working in the area of Energy Storage, Hydrogen Generation and Fuel Cells  40 years of experience in developing new technologies for NASA, DOE, DOD, and EPRI  Over 20 years of experience in developing, manufacturing and selling fuel cell products to researchers around the world  A vision of a future where a sustainable global economy resides in harmony with a clean, healthy environment

4. ElectroChem Inc. ECcell TM Energy Storage System a Regenerative System

5. ElectroChem Inc. Electrolyzer Based Home Hydrogen Refueling (HHR) System

6. ElectroChem Inc. Research Objectives Develop Passive PEM fuel cells - No moving parts - Dead-ended operation Develop PEM fuel cells for zero-gravity operation

7. ElectroChem Inc. Dead-ended Operation (I) Dead-ended operation is not considered in a Reformate fuel cell When pure H 2 is used as fuel, Dead-ended operation can be applied to H 2 side of a fuel cell Oxidant Air Fuel H 2, CO, CO 2 Oxidant Air Fuel H 2

8. ElectroChem Inc. Dead-ended Operation (II) When pure O 2 is used as an oxidant, It is considered to have an O 2 Dead-ended operation - High energy efficiency - Safety concerns But There is a challenge to remove the product water while running an O 2 Dead-ended operation fuel cell Oxidant O 2 Fuel H 2

9. ElectroChem Inc. Product Water Removal Water is produced on the O 2 /Air side of fuel cells Dead-ended operation Porous flow channel Water is transported by wicking effect ElectroChem MEA Open-ended operation Open flow channel Water is carried away by high air flow Conventional MEA

10. ElectroChem Inc. Fuel Cell Test Parameters Fuel cell size : 50 cm 2 Operation condition: - 75 o C, 30 psig (H 2 /O 2 ) - 400 mA/cm 2 Test parameters - operate fuel cell at one stoic of reactant gas - change the orientation of the fuel cel l

11. ElectroChem Inc. Cell Stability operate fuel cells at one stoic of reactant gas Demonstrates very stable performance at low excess gas conditions

12. ElectroChem Inc. Zero-Gravity Evaluation

13. ElectroChem Inc. Orientation Independence (I) No significant effect due to changing of orientations 0o0o H2H2 O2O2 90 o O 2 electrode

14. ElectroChem Inc. Orientation Independence (II) Product water can be moved upward against gravity 180 o

15. ElectroChem Inc. Orientation Independence (III) 270 o O 2 electrode 90 o O 2 electrode No significant effect due to changing of orientations

16. ElectroChem Inc. Comparative Cell Performance Porous flow field provides an advantage: The elimination of mass transfer limit

17. ElectroChem Inc. Conclusions Fuel cell with open channel demonstrates higher performance than the conventional flow channel cell – better reactant gas transport The cell demonstrates Stable Operation at Extremely Low Excess Oxygen Flow Rates - Enabling Passive Operation The cell demonstrates no effects of Change in Orientation on performance - Potential for “Zero-G” Water Removal

18. ElectroChem Inc. Acknowledgement This work was funded by NASA under Contract NNJ06JD71C