WVU fuel cell can stabilize power grid by making, storing energy in extreme industrial conditions

Wednesday, July 02, 2025

To build a modern-day electrical grid with the flexibility and resilience to handle ebbing and flowing energy sources like solar and wind power, West Virginia University engineers have designed and successfully tested a fuel cell that can switch between storing or making electricity and also generate hydrogen from water.

Unlike similar technologies, the fuel cell can withstand the heat and steam generated when running on an industrial scale for long periods at high power. Additionally, it addresses the three big problems with existing designs for a potentially valuable energy technology called a “protonic ceramic electrochemical cell.”

Researcher Xingbo Liu, materials science professor and associate dean for research at the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, explained that because PCECs switch between energy storage and power production, they could be a lifesaving technology for an overwhelmed U.S. electrical grid struggling to incorporate the energy it receives at uncertain intervals from multiple sources — conventional power plants and hydropower dams as well as residential solar panels and even ocean waves.

However, Liu said current PCEC designs “are unstable in high steam environments, with weak connections between layers and they perform poorly at the critical task of conducting protons. In response, our group built a ‘conformally coated scaffold’ design by connecting electrolytes, and we coated and sealed it with an electrocatalyst layer that’s stable in steam, absorbs water and stays intact as temperatures rise and fall. Protons, heat and electricity can all move through the structure.”

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… The CCS-based PCEC demonstrates a round-trip efficiency of 64% …