| Fall 06: Research: Fuel Cell Research Gains Power
Buoyed by a new center, Rensselaer explores fundamental issues to make fuel cells viable
One
major breakthrough in fuel cells had already taken place at Rensselaer.
Could more follow?
Glenn Eisman is making sure it happens.
“I’m more of a strategic starter than a day-to-day, operations person,” said the research professor of materials science and engineering. “Coming here and starting a center is more in line with my nature.”
Two years ago, Rensselaer officials asked Eisman to direct the new Center for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research—and they couldn’t have made a better choice. At the time of his hiring, Eisman was chief technology officer at Plug Power, a global leader in fuel cells, and had served as an industry leader himself. As a result, he knew many of the industry’s senior executives—giving him a distinct advantage in recruiting corporate partners, and granting the center instant name recognition.
Building from the Membrane Up
In taking the position, Eisman was building on a major breakthrough. While extremely promising as an alternative energy generator—it produces heat and electricity with only water as a by-product—the fuel cell has run up against limitations of reliability, durability, and cost. Some of the issues relate to the fuel cell’s membrane and electrodes, which work together to produce the electricity that the fuel cell generates.
In response to the challenge, Brian
Benicewicz (the director of Rensselaer’s Center for Polymer Synthesis)
began to focus his research on polybenzimidazole (PBI) as a possible material
for a less expensive, more effective fuel cell membrane. PBI has no melting
point, will not ignite, and most importantly, does not require the complex
water control systems that make fuel cells cumbersome and costly.
Benicewicz’s work inspired Eisman to join Rensselaer in September
2004. His first task was to learn about Rensselaer research. “I went
knocking door to door to find out what people did around here,” he
said. “All the time I was thinking, ‘Can we apply this research
to fuel cells?’ In the end, I identified 10-15 faculty members who
might have a contribution to make.”
With those faculty members on board, Eisman began to connect promising research, promising students, and funding sources interested in both. The results, to say the least, have been impressive.
Bold and Promising Research
Funding
has come from across the spectrum of fuel cells: federal government, state
agencies, and companies like Plug Power, which donated approximately $250,000
in equipment to create the Center’s state-of-the-art laboratory and
has supported a number of on-campus fuel cell programs. All this support
has led to a profusion of fuel cell research on campus.
On the federal side, the National Institute of Standards of Technology (NIST) has supported another potential breakthrough: the real-time neutron imaging of water in PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells. “As the source of hydration for the membrane, water is the lifeblood and the Achilles heel of fuel cells,” Eisman explained. “The complexity and cost of water systems have made fuel cells slow to commercialize. With this research, we can actually see and characterize the flows inside fuel cells, allowing us to take steps to improve the effectiveness of water use.”
The Department of Energy (DOE), for its part, has awarded Benicewicz, Eisman, and other partners $900,000 to study high-temperature membranes—thus building on Benicewicz’s groundbreaking work. On another front, Eisman is attempting to develop “carbon-free” electrodes to overcome the stability issues that carbon introduces into the electrode structure.
The fuel cell activities on campus also include the Center for Future Energy Systems. Funded by the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR), the Center facilitates collaboration between the state and Rensselaer in fuel cell research.
Taken together, the research at Rensselaer addresses the issues behind nearly every aspect of the fuel cell: not just membranes and electrodes, but fuel cell stack stability, the effect of thermal gradients on performance, and more. As Eisman said, “We have been initially received as the go-to center for this fundamental research.”
Creating Fuel Cell Engineers
This status is prompting another group to “go to” Rensselaer:
promising students. To help attract them, Rensselaer has become the nation’s
first 
university
to receive an award from the National Science Foundation’s Integrative
Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) for fuel cell research.
IGERT’s goal—“to train Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed to address the global questions of the future”—fits seamlessly with Rensselaer’s emphasis on cross-discipline thinking.
“Interdisciplinary research is difficult, but it has the potential for bigger breakthroughs, since these types of projects often work at the intersections of fields and disciplines,” said Michael Jensen, professor of mechanical engineering at Rensselaer, who heads up the institute’s IGERT program. “Our students are receiving interdisciplinary experience, and faculty from different disciplines are working together.”
Barely a year old, IGERT at Rensselaer has shown promising results. Already, six Ph.D. candidates from five different disciplines have served as IGERT trainees, with another group to come this year. And they have made an impact on research: Daryl Ludlow has worked with Jensen and Eisman on the NIST imaging project, while student Tequila Harris collaborates with Daniel Walczyk (assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering) to help a German firm develop a better method to cast membranes.
“Our relationship with IGERT certainly builds on our fuel cell research and establishes our reputation on a national level,” Jensen said. “Most importantly, it allows us to recruit excellent students like Daryl and Tequila.”
Eisman has seen a high level of excitement among students. “Even undergraduates are really keen on this,” he noted. “They’re knocking on my door and saying, ‘Can I work in your lab this summer?’”
Toward the Future of Fuel Cells
And what of the future? Eisman sees several possibilities for the center: an alliance with Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management and Technology to formulate policy, a biofuel cell project (one student has already begun exploring this), and more work in hydrogen. Even now, with support from the Department of Energy, Rensselaer hydrogen research is delving into separation and transport mechanisms via membrane technology. Eisman would like to expand this area.
Yet even as Rensselaer pursues fundamental research into fuel cells, its
aims—like those of everyone in the industry—are inevitably practical.
“Sponsors want practical solutions to current challenges,” Eisman
said. “Our strength is to get deeply into the fundamental dynamics
behind fuel cells and open up the science to the world. This is terribly
important; in fact, the world’s future may depend on it.”
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