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Hydrogen sensors have many applications in existing industries for leak detection and process control, and could be a key enabler for the emerging ‘hydrogen economy’. The global market for hydrogen sensors is already estimated to be several hundred million US dollars per annum.
Hydrogen is an explosive gas that is currently widely used in many industries, and which may become the fuel of the future, replacing fossil fuels. The only emissions from hydrogen powered cars would be water. NCD researchers believe that commercial hydrogen sensors based on their new prototypes will have many advantageous properties, for example, low cost, fast response times, high sensitivity, and low power consumption. These sensors could be used in applications as varied as:
- Detection of impending electrical power transformer failure. There are estimated to be more than 400,000 large power transformers worldwide, each worth ~US$2millon. There is currently great interest from power transmission companies in protecting their multi-billion dollar investments.
- Monitoring Hydrogen concentrations in Fuel Cells
- Leak Detection during transportation and storage of H2
- Industrial Process Gas Monitoring
- Sensing hydrogen buildups in lead acid storage batteries (found in most vehicles).
- Detecting hydrogen leaks during ammonia, methanol manufacturing, and desulphurization of petroleum products along with many other petrochemical applications.
Nano Cluster Devices technology can be applied to a wide range of other chemical sensing applications.
Fig. 1 The response of a Pd cluster sensor (black, left scale) upon exposure to
consecutive pulses of hydrogen (blue, right scale).
Figure 2. The relative change in resistance plotted versus hydrogen pressure for
a Pd cluster sensor.
Further information may be obtained by e-mailing us at admin@nanoclusterdevices.com. |
