PRO-2801 Fuel Cells and Hydrogen - 10 stp

Syllabus will cover the following points:

• Primary energy reserves, global warming, fossil fuel substitution, environment pollution and protection, nuclear and renewable energy perspective
• Hydrogen: properties, conversion factor between often used physical dimensions, terminology
• Hydrogen production pathways: thermo chemical processes, water electrolysis, water photolysis, photo biological processes
• Hydrogen storage methods
• Hydrogen safety
• Background; Fuel cell basis, components & operation of fuel cell; Classification & types of cell; Applications 
• Review of Thermodynamics & Thermodynamics of Fuel cell
• Review of Electrochemistry & Electrochemical kinetics
• Fuel Cell characterization
• Fuel cell component and Design issues
• Fuel cell applications, codes and environmental effects
• Fuel cell modelling and simulation

After passing the course, students will have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding:

The candidate will have knowledge of:

• The fundamentals characteristics of hydrogen.
• Techniques for hydrogen production, storage and utilisation
• The basic electrochemical principles of hydrogen fuel cells,
• Basic fuel cell design concepts and fuel cell systems concepts,
• How fuel cells are used for every day purposes: in portable and stationary use.
• The various terminologies used in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies

Skills

The candidate should be able to:

• Choose appropriate fuel cell technology for a particular application.
• Perform calculations to design a basic fuel cell system including material selection, cooling systems and supply rates of reactants.
• Establish a circuit model and a mathematical model of the fuel cell and analyse its performance using mathematical and computational techniques.
• List and describe the main possible hydrogen production pathways in particular relation to biomass and solar energy.
• Describe how hydrogen can be used to complement renewable energy technologies in terms of supply and demand matching.

General competence

The candidate shall have general competence in:

• Problem solving skills applied to hydrogen system design.
• Communication skills developed through assessed work and class discussions.
• Students will be able to apply the gained knowledge and skills independently in any particular situation by demonstrating the ability to cooperate, responsibility, capacity for reflection and critical thinking in studies and profession.

Lectures and exercises in 4 sessions/week

Compulsory tasks comprised of numerical calculations, design work, and home project exercise and reporting (written and/or oral presentation).

All organized teaching, course literature, and handouts are considered as course material. Exam questions are based upon this. 

Guest lectures may occur. Voluntary quizzes may occur.

Audio and video of what takes place in the classroom will be recorded by Mediasite, and will be made available live to course participants. Relevant links will also be published on Canvas.

Language of instruction

English will be used as the main instruction language in the course.

Coursework / Course requirements

3 out of 4 exercises must be approved in order to obtain exam rights.

Students need to perform research work that will be defined during the first half of the course. This work will be presented in the form of an essay/project report and can be required as an oral presentation during the meeting week (samlingsuka) on campus

Online students must attend at least one day during the meeting week to conduct exercises.

Examination and assessment

• Exams: A written school exam, 3 hours, weight 80% and 1 report weight 20%. The final grade is determined by a numerical weighting between written exam (80%) and project work (20%).
• Both the exam and the project must be passed independently of each other in order to pass the course.
• Grade Scale: A-F grading scale are given, where F is not passed.
• A re-sit exam will be arranged for this course. 

Examination language

English will be used as the main language in the exam, but students will be allowed to answer exam questions in Norwegian if they prefer.