Univ. of Birmingham Collaborating with Ontario’ Hydrogen Village
28 September 2009
The UK University of Birmingham’s Fuel Cell Group and Ontario’s Hydrogen Village recently signed a collaboration agreement that will result in the exchange of researchers and academics and will facilitate commercial relationships with the Province of Ontario and West Midlands’ companies.
The Hydrogen Village is based in Toronto with a mandate to create early commercial markets for hydrogen and fuel cell applications and to educate the public, government and media on the benefits of these technologies. The Village has assisted in the development and execution of a wide range of early deployment projects creating a sector cluster in Ontario.
The University of Birmingham’s Fuel Cell Group based in the School of Chemical Engineering focuses on research around hydrogen as an energy vector and the application of fuel cells. It houses one of the only two hydrogen fuelling stations in the UK and has its own fleet of five hydrogen-powered vehicles which are taking part in a research project to ascertain the feasibility of hydrogen in a transport application. It also runs the newly created Doctoral Training Centre in Hydrogen, Fuel Cell and their applications, the first of its kind in the UK.
The team are also involved in research with the Black Country Housing Association’s hydrogen-powered house based in Stourbridge, West Midlands, UK. By remotely monitoring the hydrogen fuel cell system which is powering the house’s electricity, water and central heating the research team are learning more about hydrogen and fuel cells—their efficiency, performance, operation, and durability—in a domestic context.
The Fuel Cell Group was set up in 2000 in the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering by Professor Kevin Kendall who jointly, with Dr. Waldemar Bujalski and Dr. Bruno Pollet is leading the research projects into hydrogen vehicles and combined heat and power systems stemming from a range of Advantage West Midlands funding including Science City.
I actually live in Toronto, Ontario and have never heard of this project. I am disappointed that such a noble grassroots private-public project has not been more widely publicized. This may be one of the main reasons for this technology lagging (or at least a shortage of enthusiasm) - the lack of community involvement. A lower profile (in the sense of a neighborhood level of information awareness), more widespread, and without all the big news propaganda, may push a more 'thoughtful' type of development. Hydrogen in your community rather than hydrogen super-network.
Posted by: Jer | 28 September 2009 at 07:49 AM
At least some people think Hydrogen has a future.
Posted by: Mannstein | 28 September 2009 at 10:01 AM