XStorra™ Regenerative Fuel Cells: The focus of our commercial product efforts is the development of a modular Regenerative Fuel Cell that stores solar energy as hydrogen then uses the stored hydrogen to make electrical power at night or when it's cloudy.

Benefits: Hydrogen tanks have a capital cost of $20/kWh vs. batteries at $150/kWh. This very low cost of storing energy as hydrogen means the incremental cost of energy storage can be very low. As illustrated below, when storing large amounts of energy the XStorra RFC system projects a substantial cost advantage.

Operation: Infinity's XStorra Regenerative Fuel Cell operation is described below. As shown here the process begins as water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is vented but the hydrogen is stored in gaseous form in a modified propane tank. When power is needed the hydrogen flows to the fuel cell to produce electricity and pure water as a by product. For a more dynamic look click on the animation buttons to the left.

Related Technologies: NASA Advanced Water Management Fuel Cells

Under our NASA SBIR Phase 1 and Phase 2 efforts we are developing a new generation of passive water management fuel cells that project to enhance reliability, reduce overall mission weight and increase flexibility thorough design modularity. These have application to future NASA missions but may also become the preferred fuel cell technology for XStorra because of the simple modular design.