Several technologies are being used in distributed generation applications with variable degree of success. Among those are: wind turbines, small-scale hydropower plants, biomass, microturbines, photovoltaic arrays and fuel cells. In a fuel cell, the chemical energy incorporated in the fuel is converted directly to electricity and heat. Fuel cell technology is one of the most interesting energy...

Fuel cell is one of the best alternatives of fossil energy. However, there are still two barriers: the durability and reliability, which block the wide application of fuel cells. To overcome these barriers, fault diagnosis is an efficient solution. This paper proposes a method for detection of common faults occurring in membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) of fuel cells using image processing to...

Protective coatings that resist oxide scale growth and decrease chromium evaporation are necessary to makestainless steel interconnect materials for long-term durable operation of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Inthis study a layer of manganese was coated on the surface of AISI 441 ferritic stainless steel which is used insolid oxide fuel cells for interconnect applications. The oxidation beha...

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells have been receiving more and more attention these recent years. Maintaining a fuel cell system in correct operating conditions requires good controller. Based on the mathematical model of proton exchange membrane fuel cells described in this paper, the fuzzy logic controllers was designed for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell to make it possible to outpu...

Even today, some types of fuel cells have been already used in practical applications such as combined heat and power generation applications and space vehicle applications. Though research and development activities are still required, the fuel cell technology is one of the most important technologies that allow us to draw the environment friendly society in the twenty-first century. This sect...

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a completely new long term, affordable, accessible and ecofriendly approach to waste water treatment with production of sustainable energy. The power generation efficiency in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is based on bioreactors, which may represent a completely new approach to wastewater treatment. In our experimental test we found that it is possible to gen...