Why This Hydrogen Fuel Cell is Engineering Genius
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Published 2024-04-05
Hydrogen fuel cells are a fantastic way to generate electricity from energy dense hydrogen, that can be produces using renewable energy. This means they are a great option for low carbon transportation, especially as the distances get longer! However, aviation has always been a challenge. Thankfully, ZeroAvia have been working on an amazing new technology: turbo charged air cooled high-temperature pem fuel cells. These have much higher power densities and therefore enable long distance hydrogen electric flight. I went to their labs to check it out!
Check out ZeroAvia here:
zeroavia.com/
Credits:
Producer: Ryan Hughes
Research: Sian Buckley and Ryan Hughes
Video Editing: @aniokukade and Ryan Hughes
Music: Joris Šimaitis
#engineering #hydrogen #breakthrough
All Comments (21)
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This breakthrough is what happens when engineers look at a problem at a system level! Amazing work. Also, don't forget to check out the interactive courses from Brilliant! Use my link at brilliant.org/ziroth/ for 30 days FREE and 20% off a subscription!
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Pro tip: don't put "insane" in your header. In 2024, it means "mediocre clickbait".
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Again "slapping a turbo on it" was the solution.
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This is a GREAT introductory explanation of fuel cells. Thanks.
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Haven't high temp fuel cells always been more efficient? That was the big issue in fuel cell development early on. You could get plenty of reliability and power from a high temperature fuel cell, but your car had to heat up to work properly. Also, power from fuel cells has never been the issue. It's always been that hydrogen is slippery. It can leak out of most fittings and can even squeeze in between molecules of solid objects.
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No mention of hydrogen storage? How much bleed off is there? Is the tank in an aircraft somewhere in the fuselage? The tech sounds good but there is always the problem of keeping the fuel at super low temperatures.
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While not taking anything away from this work no actual data of thermodynamic efficiency was presented, additionally the current cost of both fuel cells and electrolisers are very high. Producing hydrogen is always going to be very expensive. More energy must go in to produce the hydrogen than ca be extracted (therodynamics). A lot different to drilling a hole in the ground and getting oil out.
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Kontak Hydrogen Storage has patented technology that stores hydrogen on ammonia at 7 BAR. Our compact Reactor is 80% efficient and stores twice as much hydrogen as compressed and 43% more than liquid without cryogenic temperatures. As ammonia is converted, the aircraft becomes significantly lighter since the storage vessels are much lighter. Refueling times to 100% of capacity are far shorter than battery recharging.
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"If there were no challenges, it would be done already." 20:08 I just loved the phrase
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This company seems primarily focused on the efficiency in the functioning of the fuel cell itself rather than one of the biggest problems of this application. In order to really compete on distance, you need liquid hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen is stored at -253° C and that presents some serious problems for a plane
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It does not matter how well any hydrogen system operates. The massive problem hydrogen has is its production storage and distribution. Considering is propensity to permiate just about any material these are massive.
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thank you for sharing these awesome ideas and inventions, having an interest for renewable and clean energy, it is great to see so many new ideas popping up
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Great review, thanks. Looks like the way to go..
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Another awesome video - super cool to have the interviews :)
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This is a wonderful development
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Chapters would be nice. Great episode!
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The ultimate fuel cell is Methane solid oxide fuel cells - they can hit 95% chemical to electrical energy conversion without breaking a sweat! Only issue is they're expensive. But I'd be willing to bet that will change soon.
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Stack improvements were very cool to see. Have you heard of any promising advancements in Hydrogen storage? A long time ago I saw a lot of work in sold state storage but haven't heard much since. Seems we are still just using high pressure tanks to store the gas.
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Incredible, thank's so much for the excellent video, the content alone is incredibly informative and valuable but your narration, editing and videography skills are fantastic. It would be so cool to see this technology applied for marine applications as well, the heat is incredibly useful for things like heating living quarters, water makers, and generators because the power to weight ratios are less demanding in such an application space.
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FYI: Alaska Airlines is NOT a "regional" airline. It flies internationally. Not a complaint, just a correction.
