Fig 7 12 Installing hydrazine and oxygen fuel cell in STAR I (Gen Dyn Corp) 



duces the usable electrical energy. The fuel 

 cell is an electrochemical device converting 

 energy from the reaction of two chemicals 

 into low voltage, DC electrical energy. 

 Whereas a battery's energy is stored, a fuel 



cell will produce current on demand as long 

 as the fuel and oxidizer are supplied. 



The fuel cell in STAR I is pressure-compen- 

 sated, not by oil, but by the nitrogen gas 

 released when the hydrazine fuel is con- 

 sumed. 



The authors, Loughman and Butenkoff, 

 cite the following advantages to fuel cells: 

 Turn-around time is minimal, in that only 

 the refurbishing of fuel and oxidant is re- 

 quired; they are lighter than comparable 

 power-producing batteries and do not take 

 up as much space; they have longer life than 

 conventional underwater power sources; 

 they may be tapped at any voltage and not 

 affect cell life; and they are silent and oper- 

 ate at relatively low temperatures. Other 

 than this one report (21), nothing further has 

 been heard from this program. 



In November 1969, the Perry company en- 

 tered a fuel cell test program with Pratt & 

 Whitney Corp. which resulted in the installa- 

 tion of an oxygen/hydrogen fuel cell in the 

 underwater habitat HYDRO-LAB situated in 

 50 feet of water off Palm Beach, Florida (22). 

 While this application is outside the subject 



N; GAS (OUT) 



N2H4 

 FUEL 



1 



KOH, N,H4,N, (OUT) 

 Q 



KOH & FUEL 

 RESERVOIR 



O2 (IN) 



■KgH^ 



O, SUPPLY 



— H\J— © 



O, PURGE 



HEAT 

 EXCHANGER 



3- WAY 



THERMOSTATIC 



VALVE 



KOH,N2H4 (IN) 



Fig. 7.13 Schematic of STAR I fuel cell. [From Ref. (21) 



333 



