Course Details in 2021/22 Session

Module Title	LM Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Laboratories (FCHLAB)
School	Chemical Engineering
Department	Chemical Engineering
Module Code	04 37592
Module Lead	Dr Shangfeng Du / Dr Ahmad El-kharouf / Prof Robert Steinberger-Wilckens
Level	Masters Level
Credits	10
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites	Introduction to Electrochemistry - (04 26223) LM Fuel Cell Technologies - (04 37607) - (04 37591) LM Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels (H2HF) - (04 37590) Techniques for Fuel Cell Characterisation - (03 26219) LM Principles of Hydrogen Safety - (04 28864)
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Exclusions
Description	The module supplies the hands-on experience necessary to fully appraise fuel cell and hydrogen technologies, complementary to the Characterisation module TFCC. The range of topics reaches from basics of testing components to assessment of practical conditions in running fuel cell and hydrogen systems. Headlines in the course include: • Introduction to fuel cell testing: basic principles for electrodes, cells and stacks testing • Direct current (DC) polarisation techniques for fuel cell testing and the ASR extrapolation • Alternate current (AC) techniques: introduction to EIS principles and EIS data interpretation by equivalent circuits, DRT and ISGP methods. • PEFC and SOFC components assessment. Seminar: impact of contaminants on PEFC, PEMELY and SOC performance, introduction to contaminants and interpretation of SOCs characterisation in the presence of contaminants • PEFC, PEMELY and SOC testing: outlook and concluding remarks
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Discuss the background in fuel cell characterisation techniques. Students know the peculiarity of DC/AC techniques and the characteristics of the experimental setups needed for the cell characterisation. Explain the mathematical tools required for the interpretation of fuel cell characterisation data. Students know how to elaborate the data from polarisation and EIS experiments to derive simple quantities (i.e., ASR and equivalent circuit components). Understand the principles of fuel cell and electrolyser characterisation techniques and the effect of contaminants on fuel cell characterisation. Explain on how to perform polarisation experiments on fuel cells with standard experimental setup.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: class (lab) tests 25%, 2,500 word study report 25%, 1 hr written unseen exam 50% reassessment: 100% written report, 2500 words.
Other
Reading List