Micro Fuel Cells Based Meso-Sensor Power Supplies

This SBIR Phase I project will entail critical research to enable meso-scale fuel cells being developed at the University of Illnois Urbana Champaign(UIUC) and Renew Power Incorporated (RPI) to be used in military meso sensor packages. Our existing prototype pumpless, room temperature, meso-scale fuel cells already generate enough net average power, but not enough peak power to meet the goals in the request for proposals (RFP). We believe that with modification, our existing devices can meet all of the size and power goals outlined in the RFP and have a lifetime 5 times longer than batteries. The Objective of the proposed Phase I will be to do the critical studies to determine how to best meet the goals: In particular, we will: (i) Modify the existing devices to determine how various design changes affect the peak power and to determine the power limits that can be practically obtained. (ii) Test the existing devices with a series of alternate "designer fuels" to see if any of them give improved performance in the existing devices. (iii) Explore energy storage technologies to identify practical alternatives that have the capability to improve the peak power with consuming too much space. (iv) Explore power harvesting opportunities.