Fuel Cells

Fuel cells are seen as the future of energy for transport. Some of the world’s brightest chemists are leading the fuel cell sector by making them more compact, robust and powerful. This is done with vigorous testing, modelling and simulation, MatDeck is compatible with 400+ hardware devices from firms such as Advantech, ICP DAS and LabJack making it perfect for the research and production of fuel cells.

Fuel cells are complex and ever changing with barriers such as Hydrogen being especially difficult to transport and gather. However, MatDeck can help chemists and users run fuel cell calculations and modelling to make the process easier.

Fuel cells can be applied in MatDeck:

• Fuel cell calculations and reactions
• Chemistry thermodynamics and kinetics
• Fuel cell modelling
• Prototyping fuel cells
• Testing and preproduction of fuel cells
• 2D and 3D chemistry graphs

The image above shows how the overall electrochemical reaction within a fuel cell can be calculated and predicted in MatDeck. While the concept of a fuel cell is a chemical process, mathematics is heavily used. This is where MatDeck excels and mathematic functions such as matrices can be used in fuel cell applications.

Hydrogen is fed to an anode (positive node) where oxidisation occurs. As electrons are now removed and free to move, a flow of electrons (electricity) is created. Meanwhile Oxygen fed to the cathode (negative node) is reduced and gains electrons. Finally, electricity and heat is produced with water as the only by-product.

While fuel cells have become more popular in recent times cells were originally constructed and used first in 1839. However, as technology and knowledge has been improved since then, fuel cells have become much more portable and widespread. Currently, fuel cells are utilised in transportation and back-up power with Hydrogen ones developing in the automotive sector.