EEEP- FCCSPT'24
Fuel Cells and Concentrated Solar Power Technologies

Fossil energies are not only limited by their storage, but also generate large amounts of CO2 while combusting, resulting in climate warming, glacier melting, and thus the destruction of eco-environment. Hence, the development of renewable energies has great significance on mitigating the energy crisis and improving the environment. Hydrogen energy and solar energy are two of the most promising renewable energies among others.
Hydrogen is the carrier form of hydrogen energy. The combustion of hydrogen generates large amounts of heat without any pollutants to the environment. Fuel cell is a device to convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen into electrical energy. Fuel cells have several categories containing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFE), molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC), solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), and alkaline fuel cell (AFC). Fuel cells are widely used in many fields, from the early submarine and aerospace fields to civilian fields, including stationary power supply, mobilized power supply, transportation and so on. Fuel cell vehicles are getting more and more attention due to long endurance time and low hydrogen adding time. However, the technique issues of fuel cell key materials and components production and high cost limit the industrial proceeding of fuel cells.
Solar energy is a kind of renewable energy that could not be used up forever. Concentrated solar power plant (CSP) is the most efficient means to make use of solar energy. The thermal energy irradiated from the sum could be stored into molten salts, and then be converted into electricity at proper time, which could dispatch electricity during cloudy and rainy weather or at night. There are four typical systems for CSP, which are power tower systems, dish/engine systems, linear concentrator systems (parabolic trough systems and linear Fresnel reflector systems). At present time, power tower systems are the dominant type in the world and growing fast. In order to improve the electricity efficiency of CSP and reduce the cost, it requires the CSP to work at higher temperature, thus, the development on novel molten salt medium and corresponding storage tanks and transferring pipes, and heat exchangers are imperative.

EEEP- FCCSPT'24 Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• Molten carbonate fuel cell
• Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
• Phosphoric acid fuel cell
• Solid oxide fuel cell
• Alkaline fuel cell
• Hydrogen storage materials
• Hydrogen produced by water electrolysis
• Concentrated solar power plant
• Heat exchanger
• Physicochemical properties of molten salts
• Thermal storage and heat transfer materials

EEEP- FCCSPT' 24 Session Chair

Liangjuan Gao
Associate researcher, Sichuan University/College of Materials Science and Engineering

Speakers