Download The Virtual Instrumentation of the Fuel Cell.

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 byproduct. 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
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www.fuelcells.org
http://www.fctec.com.com/fctec_howorks.asp
http://www.visionengineer.com/env/fc_structure_1.jpg
http://www.ni.com/labview/
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201987
www.nology.com/aptdynoespanol.html
http://www/datx.com/solution_center_data_Acq/Evoluti
on-of-Virtual-Instrumentation.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/virtual_instrumentation
Acknowledgements
Dr. kishore Pochiraju
Tan Haun
Dr. Sat
Harlem Children Society