Accelerated Testing Validation

The DOE Fuel Cell technical team recommended ASTs were performed on 2 different MEAs (designated P5 and HD6) from Ballard Power Systems. These MEAs were also incorporated into stacks and operated in fuel cell bus modules that were either operated in the field (three P5 buses) in Hamburg, or on an Orange county transit authority drive cycle in the laboratory (HD6 bus module). Qualitative agreement was found in the degradation mechanisms and rates observed in the AST and in the field. The HD6 based MEAs exhibited lower voltage degradation rates (due to catalyst corrosion) and slower membrane degradation rates in the field as reflected by their superior performance in the high potential hold and open-circuit potential AST tests. The quantitative correlation of the degradation rates will have to take into account the various stressors in the field including temperature, relative humidity, start/stops and voltage cycles

Transient PrOx carbon monoxide measurement, control, and optimization

Fuel processing systems for low temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems require control of the carbon monoxide concentration to less than 100 ppm to 10 ppm in the anode feed. Conventional hydrocarbon fuel processors use a water-gas shift (WGS) reactor to react CO with water to form H2 and reduce the CO concentration. The CO conversion is limited by equilibrium at the outlet temperature of the WGS reactor. The WGS outlet CO concentration can range from over 1% to 2000 ppm depending on the system and its operating parameters. At these concentrations, CO poisons low temperature PEM fuel cells and the concentrations needs to be reduced further

Reformate fuel cell system durability

The goal of this research is to identify the factors limiting the durability of fuel cells and fuel processors. This includes identifying PEM fuel cell durability issues for operating on pure hydrogen, and those that arise from the fuel processing of liquid hydrocarbons (e.g., gasoline) as a function of fuel composition and impurity content. Benchmark comparisons with the durability of fuel cells operating on pure hydrogen are used to identify limiting factors unique to fuel processing. We describe the design, operation and operational results of the durability system, including the operating conditions for the system, fuel processor sub-section operation over 1000 hours, post-mortem characterization of the catalysts in the fuel processor, and single cell operation

UK science press officers, professional vision and the generation of expectations

Science press officers can play an integral role in helping promote expectations and hype about biomedical research. Using this as a starting point, this article draws on interviews with 10 UK-based science press officers, which explored how they view their role as science reporters and as generators of expectations. Using Goodwin’s notion of ‘professional vision’, we argue that science press officers have a specific professional vision that shapes how they produce biomedical press releases, engage in promotion of biomedical research and make sense of hype. We discuss how these insights can contribute to the sociology of expectations, as well as inform responsible science communication.This project was funded by the Wellcome Trust (Wellcome Trust Biomedical Strategic Award 086034)

Fuels for fuel cells: Fuel and catalyst effects on carbon formation

The goal of this research is to explore the effects of fuels, fuel constituents, additives and impurities on the performance of on-board hydrogen generation devices and consequently on the overall performance of fuel cell systems using reformed hydrocarbon fuels. Different fuels and components have been tested in automotive scale, adiabatic autothermal reactors to observe their relative reforming characteristics with various operating conditions. Carbon formation has been modeled and was experimentally monitored in situ during operation by laser measurements of the effluent reformate. Ammonia formation was monitored, and conditions varied to observe under what conditions N H 3 is made

Roadmaps to Utopia: Tales of the Smart City

Notions of the Smart City are pervasive in urban development discourses. Various frameworks for the development of smart cities, often conceptualized as roadmaps, make a number of implicit claims about how smart city projects proceed but the legitimacy of those claims is unclear. This paper begins to address this gap in knowledge. We explore the development of a smart transport application, MotionMap, in the context of a £16M smart city programme taking place in Milton Keynes, UK. We examine how the idealized smart city narrative was locally inflected, and discuss the differences between the narrative and the processes and outcomes observed in Milton Keynes. The research shows that the vision of data-driven efficiency outlined in the roadmaps is not universally compelling, and that different approaches to the sensing and optimization of urban flows have potential for empowering or disempowering different actors. Roadmaps tend to emphasize the importance of delivering quick practical results. However, the benefits observed in Milton Keynes did not come from quick technical fixes but from a smart city narrative that reinforced existing city branding, mobilizing a growing network of actors towards the development of a smart region. Further research is needed to investigate this and other smart city developments, the significance of different smart city narratives, and how power relationships are reinforced and constructed through them

Interleukin-2 therapy in patients with HIV infection

BACKGROUND Used in combination with antiretroviral therapy, subcutaneous recombinant interleukin-2 raises CD4+ cell counts more than does antiretroviral therapy alone. The clinical implication of these increases is not known. METHODS We conducted two trials: the Subcutaneous Recombinant, Human Interleukin-2 in HIV-Infected Patients with Low CD4+ Counts under Active Antiretroviral Therapy (SILCAAT) study and the Evaluation of Subcutaneous Proleukin in a Randomized International Trial (ESPRIT). In each, patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who had CD4+ cell counts of either 50 to 299 per cubic millimeter (SILCAAT) or 300 or more per cubic millimeter (ESPRIT) were randomly assigned to receive interleukin-2 plus antiretroviral therapy or antiretroviral therapy alone. The interleukin-2 regimen consisted of cycles of 5 consecutive days each, administered at 8-week intervals. The SILCAAT study involved six cycles and a dose of 4.5 million IU of interleukin-2 twice daily; ESPRIT involved three cycles and a dose of 7.5 million IU twice daily. Additional cycles were recommended to maintain the CD4+ cell count above predefined target levels. The primary end point of both studies was opportunistic disease or death from any cause. RESULTS In the SILCAAT study, 1695 patients (849 receiving interleukin-2 plus antiretroviral therapy and 846 receiving antiretroviral therapy alone) who had a median CD4+ cell count of 202 cells per cubic millimeter were enrolled; in ESPRIT, 4111 patients (2071 receiving interleukin-2 plus antiretroviral therapy and 2040 receiving antiretroviral therapy alone) who had a median CD4+ cell count of 457 cells per cubic millimeter were enrolled. Over a median follow-up period of 7 to 8 years, the CD4+ cell count was higher in the interleukin-2 group than in the group receiving antiretroviral therapy alone--by 53 and 159 cells per cubic millimeter, on average, in the SILCAAT study and ESPRIT, respectively. Hazard ratios for opportunistic disease or death from any cause with interleukin-2 plus antiretroviral therapy (vs. antiretroviral therapy alone) were 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70 to 1.18; P=0.47) in the SILCAAT study and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.75 to 1.16; P=0.55) in ESPRIT. The hazard ratios for death from any cause and for grade 4 clinical events were 1.06 (P=0.73) and 1.10 (P=0.35), respectively, in the SILCAAT study and 0.90 (P=0.42) and 1.23 (P=0.003), respectively, in ESPRIT. CONCLUSIONS Despite a substantial and sustained increase in the CD4+ cell count, as compared with antiretroviral therapy alone, interleukin-2 plus antiretroviral therapy yielded no clinical benefit in either study. (ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00004978 [ESPRIT] and NCT00013611 [SILCAAT study].