Direct Ammonia-Borane Alkaline Fuel Cell with In Situ Electrolyte Replacement

The rapidly increasing power requirements of the objective force warrior's detection and communication equipment requires the development of advanced power sources beyond that of current battery technology. Soldiers bear the physical and logistical burden of carrying many pounds of batteries into missions. The development of novel high energy density personal power supplies can alleviate this burden for extended missions. Fuel cell power supplies are promising candidates to fulfill this role. The hazards of compressed hydrogen make the use of a high energy condensed phase fuel favorable. Methanol has been studied as a fuel, but anode activation and crossover problems are proving extremely difficult to overcome. Sodium borohydride, ammonia, and ammonia-borane complexes are high energy fuels, but are very difficult to use with PEM based fuel cells because of cation poisoning problems. However, cation poisoning is not an issue with alkaline fuel cells, so they present a highly promising alternative. Ammonia-borane has the advantage of being a stable room temperature solid that forms stable solutions in water. Lynntech proposes a direct ammonia-borane alkaline fuel cell power supply to meet the portable power needs of the Army. Lynntech has novel electrolyte matrix materials that permit in-situ electrolyte replacement.