Energy Conversion
Fuel cells provide a clean and sustainable pathway to convert vast amounts of chemical energy into electrical energy. The chemical feedstock for fuel cells can be hydrogen using low temperature fuel cells such as proton exchange membrane (PEM) and anion exchange membrane (AEM) fuel cells. At elevated temperatures, alternative feedstocks such as alcohols and hydrocarbons can also be utilised using solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).
We work to address scientific challenges to enable the realisation more affordable and higher performance fuel cell technologies. For PEM, the need is to identify affordable catalysts, for AEM, the primary challenge is to find stable membrane, and for SOFCs, the grand challenge is to mitigate materials challenges that come with operation at elevated temperatures.
At Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, we design new materials that will mitigate these technological barriers, and explore fundamental chemistry and physics to understand intricacies of fuel cell performance.
Energy Storage
As the grid shifts to an ever-increasing renewable portfolio, the need to store vast amounts of intermittently generated electricity becomes more urgent. Hydrogen generation through water electrolysis offer one promising solution. At Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, we explore various technologies to generate and store hydrogen. Specifically, we are interested in identifying materials and methods that will reduce the amount of expensive catalysts utilised in electrolysers. In order to increase capacity, we explore novel systems that allow direct compression of the generated hydrogen for transport and efficient materials and method to store hydrogen.
Energy Materials Innovation
To deliver energy conversion and storage technologies at scale, and at competitive prices, breakthrough materials innovations are required. We explore developing more durable, efficient and abundant components for energy conversion and storage devices. Some of the components are common to fuel cells, electrolysers and other electrochemical devices we are exploring. Their development has benefits across the landscape.
For example, identifying materials as active and stable as platinum for fuel cells and iridium for electrolyser will have benefits across the systems that utilise proton exchange membranes. Other technologies, such as the membranes for an ion exchange devices and solid oxide fuel cells will have to be tailored for their niche applications.
We approach the challenges from the fundamental chemical and materials point of views. We synthesise advanced materials using solution and solid state methods, characterise the components using advanced state-of-the-art techniques, and finally assess the performance in devices using benchmarking protocols.
The researchers at Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre also collaborate extensively with teams at Manchester Metropolitan University, universities in the UK and around the world to achieve these goals. We believe that such collaborations are essential for progression of the research field as well as the intellectual growth of students. Additionally, such collaborations give us access to government labs and industrial facilities that house some of the most sophisticated scientific instruments.
Device Integration
Another strategy to improve performance and to reduce the cost of energy technologies is to engineer devices that are more efficient. In order for a scientific breakthrough to translate from the lab-scale success to a commercially relevant product requires rigorous testing and extensive engineering. We work with innovators, businesses and policy makers to identify device modifications to fit their needs. Such collaborations not only benefit the industry to bring the product, it also provides an outstanding learning echo system for our students and researchers to learn and train.
Please refer to the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre programme and goals for detailed descriptions on how the centre engages with the community and entrepreneurs. We bring the scientific know-how and technologies to complete the technology-business engagement.
System Diagnosis
Energy conversion and storage devices are inherently complex and expensive to operate and explore in laboratory experiments. Software and hardware developments have now made it possible to simulate these devices at minute levels (micro, nano and atomic scales). We will deploy modelling and simulations using state-of-the-art technologies to gain system insights in fuel cells and electrolysers that are either too expensive or take too long to investigate using experiments. Such findings will ultimately help us to identify better components, fabricate better devices and deploy systems that are more efficient.
