Jul 28 2006
VIASPACE Inc., a company that transforms proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions, announced today that it has filed a provisional patent application on its laser based instrument to measure the humidity level in hydrogen fuel cells. The performance of hydrogen fuel cells using a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) depends on the moisture level of the membrane. The membrane only conducts protons when it is hydrated or moist. The moisture is provided by water vapor in the incoming air or hydrogen stream. The VIASPACE instrument will provide real-time measurements of the amount of water vapor in these gas streams.
The provisional patent application describes the technique to continuously measure the humidity level using the diode laser technology, without interrupting the gas flow or requiring the water vapor to be condensed out of the gas stream. The VIASPACE laser based system has significant advantages over other humidity measuring techniques such as a wet bulb thermometer, a resistive polymer sensor, a capacitive sensor or a chilled mirror.
Dr. Carl Kukkonen, VIASPACE CEO, reports, “VIASPACE believes that its humidity measuring instrument is far superior to competing approaches, and this patent application is intended to protect our competitive advantage. The concept behind this instrument was originally developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure water vapor in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. The technology came VIA the SPACE program.”
Previously VIASPACE has reported a commercial order for five of its humidity measuring instruments.