Low-cost fuel cells

An energy materials research group in alkaline polymer fuel cells lead by Dr John Varcoe at Surrey University has been awarded £292,000 by the EPSRC to develop new low-temperature fuel cells.

The cells could one day lower the cost and increase the operation times of batteries used in everyday gadgets such as mobile phones and laptops. The EPSRC award to Surrey forms part of a larger £1.4m award to four UK universities.

Currently most fuel cells use acidic polymers and therefore need platinum electrocatalysts to work. Dr. Varcoe’s research will investigate the possibility of using alkaline (hydroxide ion conducting), rather than acidic polymers which may enable the use of metals other than prohibitively expensive platinum in their electrocatalysts.

Research in this area follows on from earlier EPSRC funded research at Surrey that showed that alkaline polymers are good ionic conductors and do not suffer from performance losses due to the reaction of the hydroxide anions with carbon dioxide in the air, as is the case with traditional non-polymer alkaline fuel cells.