UK-Japan Young Scientist workshops in Surrey this week

Monday 4 August 2008

On Thursday 7 August the youngsters will be working together at a session on fuel cells in the chemistry department of the university and will be available to be photographed or to be interviewed.

The contacts at the event are Professor Bob Slade of the university chemistry department or Eric Albone of the Clifton Scientific Trust with which the university is collaborating.

The purpose of the workshops is to develop international links and to build understanding and global perspectives amongst the participants, who represent two countries that share common experience in scientific interest and future challenges.

The University of Surrey is a leading international focal point of R&D in fuel cell technology and the end-applications of its work include transportation, defence and portable communications.

Full details of the event are below.

Editors' Notes

 

UK-Japan Young Scientist Workshop 2008 Team Investigation of Electrical Energy from Chemical and Microbial Fuel Cells

Welcome to our Team

Welcome to our Team. We are looking forward to meeting you and working with you at the University of Surrey, Guildford. You will be working with researchers from the Energy Materials Team during the week – Prof Slade (myself) and Dr Feng Zhao, and researchers from our laboratories. We are all based in Chemical Sciences at the University and all working on chemical production and storage of electricity, as part of national programmes of research in the UK. The particular emphases at Surrey, in chemical generation of electricity, cover both conventional fuel cells (with fuels such as hydrogen or methanol) and microbiological cells (using enzymes or bacteria).

Here is some information to give you an idea what we are going to be doing, and how your investigations will examine the potential for direct methanol fuel cell technology and microbial fuel cells to generate electricity at differing power levels for different applications.

We will be studying how direct methanol fuel cells and microbial fuel cells (DMFCs and MFCs, both "air breathing") generate electrical power at differing levels. One type is suited to the direct powering of electrical appliances (e.g. mobile phones) while the other is suited to the generation of low intensity power, for energy storage until output is required at a higher power level (e.g. charging a bank of capacitors for powering a self-powered robot).

What will the Team be doing at Surrey?

During the week we aim to provide experience of use of fuel cells of the two types, and of measuring the power output form these devices. We will provide access to computers for the purposes of web-based investigations and for the production of presentations to be given at the end of the week. We will look to compare and contrast the possible applications and use of these types of cell and compare them (via literature/internet studies) to other fuel cell types.

What is so important about Fuel Cell Technology?

There is now a real awareness of the limitations of current technologies for the production of electrical power, particularly those based on use of fuels from fossil sources (coal, oil, natural gas). Fuel cells can make use of alternative fuels, with air being the oxidant in most cases; the fuels are often said to be sustainable and include hydrogen gas (e.g. generated by electrolysis of water), methanol (produced from "synthesis gas" or from waste) and molecules or waste of biological origin. In the case of biological fuel cells, the electrochemical processes within the cell can also result in "cleaning" of the waste (e.g. waste from a brewery is rich in sugars as fuels). Fuels for use in such systems are often said to be "sustainable", but this is sometimes questionable (e.g. where does the electricity used in electrolysis come from?). Among the advantages of fuel cell technologies over conventional (grid-based) sources of electricity are the potential for some systems to be portable and for others to be sited in areas remote from (and therefore not connected to) any other source of electricity, but with a local supply of "fuel".

By the end of this workshop, you should have a good idea as to some of the considerations regarding the potential for application of fuel cell technologies.

Keywords

Fuel Cells; Power Generation; Direct Methanol Fuel cells; Microbial Fuel Cells; Sustainable Energy Generation; Green Energy

When you arrive

Once you have arrived in Chemical Sciences at the university we will give you computer passwords, show you how to use the computers, and give you some initial background information. We shall carry out laboratory based investigations of power generation using direct methanol (DMFC) and microbial (MFC) fuel cell types.

Preparation

Before you arrive, you may want to look at websites that are relevant to the programme once you are here. Here are a few as a starting point.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-methanol_fuel_cell
• http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell1.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_fuel_cell
• http://www.microbialfuelcell.org/
• http://www.brl.uwe.ac.uk/projects/ecobot/index.html

Media Enquiries

Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 689191, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk