Developing a Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Integrated R

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Developing a Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Integrated
RD Platform in Romania
Dr. Vasile STANCIU Dr. Roxana Elena LAZAR ICSI
Rm. Valcea
Brussels, 20 May 2005
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Outline of presentation

• The Romanian Paltform for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
• New launched research programme
• New project proposals

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The Romanian Paltform for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
.

• In November 2004, the Romanian Ministry of
  Education and Research promoted the Sectorial
  Plan of Research Development which aims are the
  support of Romanian economy competitiveness and
  the preparing of integrating in the European
  research space and accessing EU.
• Developing a Hydrogen and Fuel Cells RD
  Integrated Platform was one of the Sectorial
  Plan projects.
• The financial support, of 351,000 , is provided
  by the Ministry of Education and Research
  270,000 , and by the partners themselves
  81,000 .

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Platform Coordination

• Managed by National RD Institute for Cryogenics
  and Isotopic Technologies ICIT Rm. Valcea.
• The platform it is networking nine RD
  organizations acting in the area of Hydrogen and
  Fuel Cells in Romania, in order to develop the
  Romanian capabilities in this domain and to reach
  the level permitting the connection with the
  European HFP
• The partners of the consortium are both public
  entities (national RD institutes and
  universities) and private companies.

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• The project is based on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
  researches and technological capabilities already
  achieved by the partners in other National RD
  Programs, as MENER (Environment, Energy and
  Resources Program) or CERES (Fundamental Research
  of Social, Economical and Cultural Interest
  Program). Those activities made feasible an
  experimental-demonstrative pilot plant for energy
  conversion using hydrogen PEM fuel cells which
  building started in ICIT Rimnicu Vilcea in 2002
  and finished in 2004.
• There were also started researches on Solid
  Oxide Fuel Cells by National RD Institute for
  Electrical Engineering-Advanced Research -
  ICPE-CA Bucharest and ICEMENERG SA Bucharest,
  mainly regarding preparation and characterization
  of ceramic materials for medium temperature SOFC.

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Main objectives

• To ascertain the scientific and technological
  capabilities of the partners involved in the area
  of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
• To determine the directions of the future
  development in this domain, in connection with
  the European strategy
• To increase the national scientific and
  technological capabilities in hydrogen and fuel
  cells
• To increase the national and European platform
  visibility

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• The Platform Main Activities

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CHALLENGES
Hydrogen production via reforming The main
objectives are obtaining and characterization of
some performance reforming catalysts designing
of a membrane reformer which is achieving the
simultaneous generation and separation of
hydrogen, permitting the hydrogen purification
unit to be cancelled and lowering the reaction
temperature.
Hydrogen storage on metal hydrides The main
objectives are increasing the storage capacity
by designing of some alloys systems on the base
of transition metal (Ti, Zr) and/or alkaline
metal (specially Mg with additives from the Fe
group) the improvement of the obtaining method
for micro and nano-crystalline powdery materials
kinetics studies of H2 absorption safety issues.

• Hydrogen purification
• The main objectives are obtaining and
  characterization of microporous inorganic
  membranes as competitive substitutes for costly
  palladium membranes.

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CHALLENGES
Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell The main
objectives are synthesis and experimental
characterization of membrane electrode ensemble
for proton exchange membrane fuel cells design,
modeling and experimental study of a H2/Air PEM
fuel cell stack development of a coupled system,
hydrogen storage unit-fuel cells stack, used in
mobile and stationary applications optimizing
the gas and water economy.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell The main objectives are
obtaining of ceramic materials for anode (cermets
from Ni and ZrO2 stabilized with Y2O3 (Ni-YSZ))
and for cathode (La1-x(Sr, Ca)MnO3) where x 0,2
0,6 processing and characterization of oxide
materials for medium temperature SOFC (7000C
8000C).
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Project stages

• The first stage of the project ascertained the
  scientific and technological capabilities of the
  partners in the mentioned RD lines and outlined
  their needs in order to connect their activity
  with the European efforts and achievements in
  this field

• The second stage of the project will increase
  the technological capabilities of the partners by
  renewing and up-grading their scientific and
  technological equipments.

• The third stage of the project deals with
• - Consolidation and improvement of the
  professional skills and communication
  opportunities offered to the researchers by
  training programs and workshops. Two courses,
  addressed to young scientists, MSc and PhD
  students, one on Hydrogen generation and storage
  technologies, and one on computational modeling
  of fluid dynamics in energy systems and
  optimization of MEA, are organized by ICIT
  Rimnicu Vilcea and Politehnica University
  Bucharest. A Workshop on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells,
  organized by the same entities, will proceed
  within The International Conference on Energy and
  Environment- CIEM 2005 in Bucharest.
• - Increasing the national and European platform
  visibility by preparing the project website under
  present ICIT web portal and creating a database
  covering the Hydrogen Fuel Cells related
  organisations in Romania.

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New launched research programme

• A new Research of Excellence Programme will be
  launched on 1st June 2005 by the Romanian
  Ministry of Education and Research

• One of the main research domain will be the
  energy
• - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
• - Renewable electricity generation
• - Renewables for heating and cooling
• - CO2 capture and storage technologies for
  zero
• emission power generation
• - Smart energy netwarks
• - Energy efficiency and savings.

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Main activities in the new project proposals

• Hydrogen production using a membrane reformer for
  PEM applications.
• The membrane reformer will achieve the
  simultaneous generation and separation of
  hydrogen, permitting the hydrogen purification
  unit to be cancelled and lowering the reaction
  temperature.
• Developing a complementary system for power
  generation using fuel and solar cells.
• Synthesis and experimental characterization of
  membrane electrode ensemble for proton exchange
  membrane fuel cells. New materials.

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End of Presentation THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!