Greater Rochester is a Hub for Fuel Cell Research
WXXI’s Peter Iglinski looks at what exactly is being researched–and what’s at stake.
——————————
General Motors has already spent a billion-and-a-half-dollars researching fuel cell cars. For the last 11 years, the work has been done at its research facility in Honeoye Falls. Daniel O’Connell is the Director of Fuel Cell Commercialization for GM. He believes things are looking up.
“The entire industry is really focused on being ready for production around 2015, so they’re all focused on that same thing as getting into the product plan, getting the technology cost-effective and getting it into high-volume as quickly as we can.”
GM’s fuel cell car, the Equinox, does work. It performs well and has great pickup. As it now stands, the Equinox has a low six-figure pricetag–it was hard to pinpoint O’Connell on how low. Much of that cost is linked to the fuel cell itself, which powers the car. It’s pricey, and work continues at GM and elsewhere to come up with components that are reliable, durable, and less expensive.
Jacqueline Sergi is a grad student at RIT. She was drawn to fuel cell research out of her concern for the environment. Since fuel cells run on hydrogen and produce water as the byproduct, it fits the bill nicely. Sergi works in the lab with another grad student, Michael Daio, who explains that their research deals with water management within the fuel cell.
“It’s optimizing the quantity of water in the fuel cell for efficient operation. Too little water and cell performance is significantly reduced, and too much water can potentially lead to cell failure, so it’s a balancing act between the two extremes.”
Daino and Sergi operate under the guidance of Satish Kandlikar, Mechanical Engineering Professor at RIT. What sets his research apart from other efforts around the country is the emphasis on freezing conditions, which is pretty important if you plan to drive the car in cold weather.
“For example, in Rochester we have very cold weather and in winter, you can imagine, if you are driving a fuel cell car and it’s generating water, some of it will be left within the fuel cell [when] you shut down the engine. That water will freeze overnight and that will cause damage.”
Kandlikar has made progress–he’s been able to reduce the amount of water in the fuel cells once the car shuts down, and freezing isn’t an issue because the leftover water is in crystalline form. He’s happy with the progress and expects to have a final solution in about five years.
Three-and-a-half-miles to the north of RIT, a different type of fuel cell research is taking place at the University of Rochester.
Keith Savina is a grad student in U of R’s chemical engineering department. He’s working on the heart of the fuel cell–the membrane that separates hydrogen from oxygen. It allows the hydrogen protons to crossover, but not the electrons–they go around the membrane, creating the electricity. Professor Matthew Yates is re-thinking the membrane.
“And currently, the two most commonly studied membranes work on two temperature extremes–a low temperature and high temperature and we’re kind of targeting an intermediate temperature range where nothing really works currently effectively. If we develop this membrane, it would allow fuel cells to be constructed out of lower cost materials.”
Yates says one class of membranes is made of ceramic material, which works well at high temperatures; another class is made of plastic, which works at lower temperatures. His is ceramic in nature, and has shown good results at lower temperatures.
“People might think it’s screwy…It’s a different approach. Maybe some other people will emulate it, and maybe some people will improve what we’ve done. It’s kind of how science works. You publish something and then you read it and somebody else takes it and improves on it. Things change that way.”
Progress isn’t the same as a solution. Even if his new, lower-cost membrane works perfectly, there are still questions. Yates says the electrodes being used in fuel cells may not work all that well with his membrane. He’ll know more in about a year. That’s when he’s hoping to demonstrate the final product.
One person paying close attention to the region’s fuel cell work is Jim Senall, President of High Tech Rochester, a non-profit economic development organization. He says fuel cells have been the “breakthrough thing” for the last 20-years, but he thinks optimism is still warranted.
“They continue to make amazing progress. The fuel cell stack that powers the General Motors’ car–they continue to cut the size in half and the power–doubling it. Amazing stuff. So they’re going in the right direction. And I think it’s still OK to be optimistic. I think it still will have a bright future–fuel cells will.”
If the research does pan out–at RIT, U of R, and GM–Senall sees a number of manufacturing opportunities.
“Take membranes for example. We could become a global leader in the development of and manufacturing of membranes for fuel cells. Membranes are a film. We know how to make film products cheaply, roll to roll. It’s a really good fit for our region, and it’s a new market for some of the core competencies here.”
Fuel cells are not limited to cars. They can also be used to power devices and buildings. But given the energy demands associated with transportation, the primary focus remains vehicles. GM thinks it’s close. Daniel O’Connell says his company…along with the entire industry…is looking at 2015 as the year for the commercial production of fuel cell vehicles. As he sees it, that’s when the slow transition from internal-combustion engines to fuel cells gets underway.
