Category: Fuel Cells

Researchers at Stanford University in Northern California have developed what they are calling “unzipped carbon nanotubes” to replace catalytic platinum in fuel cells. Today’s price of platinum is between $1400 and $1500 per ounce. Carbon nanotubes and graphene, on the other hand, are relatively cheap to produce. This low price could lead to wide spread […]

The New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) has named a senior chemist, Radoslav Adzic, who works for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) with its prestigious 2012 Inventor of the Year award. It’s Adzic’s work with nanocatalysts that use small, durable amounts of platinum to create reactions in hydrogen PEM […]

University of Connecticut (UConn) professor Radenka Maric has developed a low cost method of creating fuel cell membranes. The new technique will reduce the high cost of platinum in fuel cells by 10 times. According to UConn, “…one of the primary drawbacks to the widespread use of the cells is that they are expensive to […]

In September 2007, I had talked about how carmaker Daihatsu was developing a platinum-free fuel cell that uses liquid or solid hydrazine hydrate for fuel instead of gaseous hydrogen. Now, 5 years later they are still showing off their FC ShoCase concept vehicle that runs on hydrazine hydrate (N2H4H2O). I hope they are a little […]

Researchers at Cornell University have been doing some outside the box thinking in regard to fuel cells. They have basically thrown away the expensive Nafion Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) that defines most of today’s hydrogen fuel cells used in cars. According to RSC.org, “Usually, fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen or methanol along with oxygen, […]

I’ve talked about Apple, Inc., you know the computer, iPhone, iTunes company before as being a visionary when it comes to hydrogen fuel cells. I’ve also talked once about how Apple may help H2 fuel cells go mainstream by using them in their laptops and other electronic devices. But, now Apple is going with hydrogen […]

Scientists and researchers at Cornell University have spent over 10 years trying to find a way on a nanoscale level to make metal more conductive for fuel cells and batteries. Developing tiny silicon porous structures was part of the key and now the scientists believe they have discovered another important part to the equation that […]

I’ve talked about the possibility of the Apple iPhone using hydrogen fuel cell batteries before. Shortly after Steven Jobs died I had stated that this may be one of his legacies yet to be realized. Unlike normal lithium batteries that need to be recharged often, as in every day for many users, hydrogen batteries can […]