Fuel cell with simultaneous gas generation
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsRobert Frederick Benson, Lawrence C. Langebrake
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is a method of generating electrical energy from chemically generated hydrogen and oxygen including the steps of establishing a first reaction compartment, generating hydrogen gas from a reaction of aluminum metal and aqueous alkali solution in the first reaction compartment, establishing a second reaction compartment, generating oxygen gas from a reaction of oxygenated salt, water and a catalyst in the second reaction compartment, fluidly coupling the first reaction compartment to a fuel cell anode, fluidly coupling the second reaction compartment to a fuel cell cathode, and feeding the hydrogen and oxygen gas to a fuel cell to generate electricity.
Claims8
A fuel cell having an anode and cathode;
- a first reaction compartment containing aluminum and an alkali;
- an initiator controller adapted to generate an initiation signal;
- a first initiator conduit fluidly coupled to the first reaction compartment, responsive to the initiation signal the first initiator conduit flows an aqueous solution into the first reaction compartment whereby hydrogen gas is generated;
- a hydrogen gas conduit fluidly coupling the first reaction compartment to the anode;
- a second reaction compartment containing oxygenated salt and a catalyst:
- a second initiator conduit fluidly coupled to the second reaction compartment, responsive to the initiation signal, the second initiator conduit flows an aqueous solution into the second reaction compartment whereby oxygen gas is generated;
- and an oxygen conduit fluidly coupling the second reaction compartment to the fuel cell cathode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.