UC Irvine's National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) is designing, demonstrating and accelerating the development and deployment of fuel cell technology and fuel cell systems.

Many people have heard of fuel cell powered cars, or may be familiar with the use of fuel cells in the space program. Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert a fuel's chemical energy directly to electrical energy with extremely high efficiency.

UCI is participating in groundbreaking residential fuel cell tests. This fuel cell system, about the size of a refrigerator, can produce 20%-40% reductions in home energy costs and can be easily incorporated into existing residential power and heating systems.

Fuel cells have no internal moving parts and operate like batteries. An important difference is that batteries just store energy, while fuel cells generate electricity continuously as long as fuel and air are supplied. Pollutant emissions are virtually zero.

Fuel cells electrochemically transform a fuel (typically hydrogen) and an oxidant without combustion, dispensing with the inefficiencies and pollution of traditional energy conversion systems. In a sense, our own bodies operate like fuel cells because we oxidize hydrocarbon compounds in our food and release chemical energy without combustion.

Fuel cell technology can be scaled down to power small appliances and electronic products and scaled up to power buildings and even neighborhoods. Click here to see an animation of how it works.

In fact, the center at UCI has partnered with New York-based Plug Power to test the viability of the latest generation of fuel cell technology for providing electricity and heat to homes. The partnership, which includes Southern California Gas Company, is a three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to study the durability and commercial readiness fuel cells for the home. Fuel cells today replace traditional furnaces and boilers in commercial applications throughout California, creating electricity and high-quality heating for consumers. The next application is the home.

"The world looks to California as the testing ground for next-generation power technologies. The eventual shift to fuel cell technology is not an incremental change to society, but rather a dramatic and fundamental shift in the way electrical power will be provided to individual homes," said Scott Samuelsen, NFCRC director. "UCI is playing an integral role in leading this transformation, and we are excited to partner with Plug Power in this important next step."

But the technology alone is not the entire answer. UCI is promoting strategic alliances to address the market challenges of installing and integrating fuel cells into our energy systems. "We're also educating and developing resources for consumers, manufacturers, engineers and architects and other stakeholders in the fuel cell community."

Bottom Line:
The application of fuel cell technologies to advanced power generation systems portends a significant advancement in energy efficiency, conservation and environmental protection for this century.

The National Fuel Cell Research Center at UCI is focused on stationary power and its role as a distributed power generator, its use in central power plants, and as portable power technology.

The center also is demonstrating fuel cell technology in automobiles, and as a generation source of Hydrogen for transportation fueling and industrial feed stock. The center is addressing the refinement of fuel cell systems components, and the development, integration, deployment, and connectivity of fuel cell systems.