The Virtual Instrumentation of the Fuel Cell. By: Pamal Ramrup Mentor: Dr. Kishore Pochiraju Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken NJ)

Outline Objective Introduction of The Fuel Cell The Technology of Virtual Instruments Summary

Objective Study the basic theory of the fuel cell. Learn the technology of virtual instruments. Develop a monitoring system for measuring the performance of the fuel cell.

Introduction of the Fuel Cell What is a Fuel Cell? A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with water and heat as its by- product. As long as fuel is supplied, the fuel cell will continue to generate power. Since the conversion of the fuel to energy takes place through an electrochemical process, not combustion, the process is clean, quiet and highly efficient – two to three times more efficient than fuel burning.

Introduction of the Fuel Cell (Cont.) How does the Fuel Cell work? A fuel cell generates electrical power by continuously converting the chemical energy of a fuel into electrical energy by way of an electrochemical reaction. The fuel cell itself has no moving parts, making it a quiet and reliable source of power. Fuel cells typically utilize hydrogen as the fuel, and oxygen (usually from air) as the oxidant in the electrochemical reaction. The reaction results in electricity, by-product water, and by-product heat. When hydrogen gas is introduced into the system, the catalyst surface of the membrane splits hydrogen gas molecules into protons and electrons. The protons pass through the membrane to react with oxygen in the air (forming water). The electrons, which cannot pass through the membrane, must travel around it, thus creating the source of DC electricity.

Introduction of the Fuel Cell (Cont.) How does the Fuel Cell work?

The technology of Virtual Instruments (cont.) Virtual Instrumentation is the use of customizable software and modular measurement hardware to create user-defined measurement systems, called virtual instruments. Computer Software Hardware

The technology of Virtual Instruments (cont.) Advantages of Virtual Instruments versus Traditional Instruments Flexibility You can easily add additional functions such as a filter routine or a new data view to a virtual instrument. Storage Today's personal computers have hard disks that can store dozens of gigabytes which is an absolute plus if you want to process mass data like audio or video. Display Computer monitors usually have better color depth and pixel resolution than traditional instruments. Also you can switch easily between different views of the data (graphical, numerical). Costs PC add-in boards for signal acquisition and software mostly cost a fraction of the traditional hardware they emulate.

Summary I’ve learned basic theories of the fuel cell. Learning the basic concepts of the graphical programming language LabVIEW. Based the work that I’ve done I will develop a monitoring system to measure the voltage output of a fuel cell. After completing the monitoring system I will then create a complete testing system for a fuel cell.

References on-of-Virtual-Instrumentation.pdfhttp://www/datx.com/solution_center_data_Acq/Evoluti on-of-Virtual-Instrumentation.pdf

Acknowledgements Dr. kishore Pochiraju Tan Haun Dr. Sat Harlem Children Society