Material scientists at Harvard have developed a solid-oxide fuel cell that uses hydrogen to provide power, while also storing energy like a battery.

The fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out, giving its operations a little extra boost to prevent abrupt energy supply interruptions.

While the current version of this fuel cell can continue operating without fuel for around 3 minutes and 30 seconds, the Harvard team believes that future improvements to the fuel cell's anode will further enhance this capability.

The ability to generate power even after fuel has run out was previously observed in thin-film solid oxide fuel cells that used platinum for their anode and cathode. These platinum-based solid oxide fuel cells continued to generate power for about 15 seconds after running out of fuel.

The new solid oxide fuel cell uses a bilayer of platinum and a material known as vanadium oxide in its anode. While the new material did not cause any change in the amount of power produced during normal operation, it did display an increased capacity to operating without fuel – around 14 times as long.

A fuel cell such as this would probably be most important for small-scale, portable energy applications – such as unmanned aerial drones for military applications.

The research was benefited by support from the United States Department of Defense's National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program.

Shriram Ramanathan, an associate professor of materials science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, worked with postdoctoral fellow Quentin Van Overmeere and graduate student Kian Kerman for the fuel cell. – EcoSeed Staff