Oxygen Source for Underwater Vehicle Fuel Cells

The proposed project is a joint effort between MER and Sandia National Laboratory and it is devoted to the development of ¿ new oxygen high-pressure storage (OHPS) system. OHPS has a number of advantages over previously known designs such as convenience ofoperation, safety against explosive gas release at the global and local level, optional high speed extraction of oxygen, high contents of oxygen (about 50 % by weight), and low cost. One version of OHPS is based on cast articles from gasar porous materialthat are closely and evenly packed with longitudinally or radially oriented cylindrical pores 1-10 mm in diameter at a porosity level of 70-80 volume %. This innovative structure will isolate stored oxygen into many small elements within the cylinder, soupon accident only damaged elements can leak, reducing the risk of massive explosion. Another version of the OHPS is based on microtube cell technology. Compressed oxygen is stored into a plurality of tube-like cells having a common gas distributionmanifold. The flow of gas between the manifold and any given cell is blocked in the event of a sudden pressure drop in the cell. The new OHPS can be used to supply oxygen for underwater vehicles, fuel cells, portable hydrogen plasma generators and heatgenerators. Extensive use of this storage could also extend to store hydrogen fuel for fuel cell applications. High capacity, safe storage system for gases, will have potentially large market for fuel cells and also in the chemical industry.