CGFCC in the News

$1.4 million Federal Earmark

The U.S. military has a great need to improve its mobility and energy efficiency. The development of highly efficient micro and miniature fuel cells will provide military personnel with a superior energy resource and enhanced flexibility versus current power generation technologies. Capitalizing on the existing strong fuel cell knowledge base, the Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center and the School of Engineering, has actively pursued Congressional earmarks to conduct cutting-edge research in the area of fuel cells. The first earmark ($2.4 million) allowed the center to develop an advanced portable direct methanol fuel cell system. A second earmark ($3.5 million) was announced to pursue research in the areas of miniature and micro fuel cell research, specifically the areas of reformation, PEM, SOFC, new material development, diagnostics and modeling. Recently a third earmark was announced that leverages the efforts of the first two programs. This third phase builds upon key research areas developed in the first and second phase and combines this research knowledge with prototype developments of three different technologies. The prototypes planned for include a 25 W PEM fuel cell hybrid, a 100 W solid oxide fuel cell hybrid system and a passive 2 W direct methanol system.