| Edit | Entry | Comments | Organisation Site |
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 | Aston University Bio-Energy Research Group (BERG) | Areas of Interest: The application of chemical engineering science and technology to the provision of energy, fuels and chemicals from sustainable biomass sources. This includes biomass-derived fuels for use in fuel cells.
| www.aston-berg.co.uk |
| Cardiff University Centre for Research in the Built Environment, Welsh School of Architecture | Areas of Interest: Design of buildings and their systems, with particular emphasis on energy use in buildings, for over 40 years. Its current interest in this area is in the integration of fuel cells and other Cogeneration Systems with buildings.
| www.cf.ac.uk/archi |
| CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Lab, Energy Research Unit | The Energy Research Unit (ERU) has supported R&D in sustainable energy systems for more than 25 years. The ERU's principle role has been to research in alternative energy and to provide appropriate facilities for use by the academic sector, but increasingly it collaborates with industry and allows access to its facilities for a wider range of technology transfer and industry-supported projects.
| Energy Research Unit |
| City Univ, London, CEE | The Centre for Energy and Environment groups research in areas such as: Internal Combustion Engines, Transportation Fuels, Laser Diagnostics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Computational Continuum Dynamics, Positive Displacement Compressors, Machine Design and Fuel Cells.
| Centre for Energy & Environment |
| City Univ, London, Centre for New Technologies, Innovation & Entrepreneurship | The focus of CENTIVE is on innovation and entrepreneurship in the development and diffusion of new technology i.e. the business aspects. Fuel cell technology is seen as a potentially disruptive innovation in a number of different market applications and hence an excellent technology to study.
| Centre for New Technology |
| Coventry Univ, Design Institute | Focusing on transport related themes, the work of the Design Institute aims to improve current understanding of design processes, develop better design methods, create new and improve existing design tools, and produce novel design products and concept solutions.
| Design Institute |
| Cranfield Univ, Dept of Materials & Medical Sciences | The Department of Materials and Medical Sciences has expertise in new membranes and membrane mlectrode assemblies, new methods of fabricating MEAs and fuel cell testing. The core activity of the Fuel Cell Group is the development of novel copolymer membranes and electrode systems for fuel cells.
| Dept of Materials & Medical Science |
| Health & Safety Lab, Fire & Explosion Group | The Health & Safety Lab have expertise in flammability, ignition, explosion testing, gas dispersion, modelling, risk assessment, failure scenarios, process safety, and chemical hazards. It has laboratory and large-scale testing facilities.
| Fire, Explosion & Process Safety |
| Imperial College Centre for Energy Policy & Technology (ICEPT) | ICEPT conducts research into all types of fuel cells, but concentrates on techno-economic analysis, strategy, policy, environmental implications of their use and on system modelling.
| ICCEPT |
| Imperial College Centre for Ion Conducting Membranes | A wide range of activities is covered, including polymer fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen generation, fuel processing, materials, electrocatalysts, polymer membranes, ceramic membranes, fuel cell economics, distributed energy generation, life cycle analysis, fuel cell testing, and fuel cell modelling and validation.
| Research Interests |
| Imperial College London, Dept of Materials | The dept researches oxygen diffusion and exchange in SOFC materials, electrical and microstructural characterisation, mechanical properties, computer simulation, fuel cell testing and partial oxidation studies, oxygen ion and proton conducting systems, and structural aspects of new materials development.
| Department of Materials |
| Imperial College, Dept Mechanical Engineering | System analyses of hybrid gas turbine/solid oxide fuel cells for enhanced energy usage and sustainability, and detailed fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer in solid oxide fuel cells.
| Dept Mechanical Engineering |
| Keele Univ, Centre for Clean Technology | The Centre has expertise in fuel processing and internal reforming in SOFCs, development of new anodes for internally reforming SOFCs, Carbon deposition (coking) on active components in fuel cells, Sulphur tolerance of active materials in SOFCs, pollutant tolerances, SOFCs running on natural gas, propane/butane, higher hydrocarbons (fuel diversity), SOFCs running on biogas and biomass, fuel cell testing and evaluation, intermediate temperature SOFCs, & partial oxidation and direct hydrocarbon oxidation in SOFCs.
| Chemistry Dept |
| Loughborough Univ, Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) | CREST researches into the integration of hydrogen energy storage with renewable energy sources. This includes the production of hydrogen via electrolysis driven by intermittent power sources, plus overall system design and power electronic control of autonomous energy systems of this type.
| CREST |
| Loughborough Univ, Dept Aeronautical & Automotive Engineering | The dept maintains close links with industry and research establishments through its research and consultancy activities, and contains a custom-built Fuel Cell and Electric Vehicle Laboratory, with 4 wall-mounted stations for the supply of hydrogen, oxygen, compressed air and other gases. This facility accommodates the testing of both fuel cell stacks and fuel cell sub-systems.
| Dept Aeronautical & Automotive Engineering |
| Loughborough Univ, Institute of Polymer Technology & Materials | IPTME has two activities in the solid oxide fuel cell area; the Polymer Research Group focuses on the production of thin ceramic membranes from ceramic-filled polymer compounds, and the Ceramics Research Group is developing nanoinks for the screen printing of nanostructured patterns on zirconia substrates.
| Report on thin ceramic membranes. |
| Qinetiq Ltd Electrochemical Power | QinetiQ has an interest in most areas of fuel cell research. It has programmes developing materials for fuel cells (PEMs, DMFCs & SOFCs), novel stack designs, systems integration, diesel processing and small-scale hydrogen generators. QinetiQ also has programmes to assess commercial fuel cells for end users such as the UK military.
| Qinetiq Energy |
| Queen Mary, Univ of London, Dept of Materials | The Dept has expertise in experimental and theoretical development of Hydrogen Storage Materials and Structures, including metal hydrides, complex hydrides, and nanostructures.
| Advanced Metallics and Modelling Research Group |
| UK Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research: A Capabilities Guide, 2004 | The hard copy "UK Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research: A Capabilities Guide, 2004" was launched at the Hannover Fair on Monday 19th April 2004. This is the .pdf version (note 1.5Mb file).
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| Umist, Dept of Chemical Engineering | The dept has activities and expertise in oxidation catalysis and electrocatalysis in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), hydrogen storage and liquid organic hydrides as hydrogen storage media, integration of hydrogen storage systems with SOFC systems, and alternative SOFC electrolyte materials and fabrication processes.
| Dept of Chemical Eng. |
| Univ of Bath, Dept Engineering & Applied Science | The dept has expertise in ceramic components of the fuel cell, and the development of materials for electrolytes and electrodes.
| Materials Research Centre |
| Univ of Birmingham, Dept of Chemical Engineering | The dept of Chemical Engineering has activities in Fuel Cell Systems, fuels and fuel processing, and SOFCs.
| Dept of Chemical Engineering |
| Univ of Birmingham, Dept of Metallurgy & Materials | The dept is active in the synthesis of novel materials for solid-state storage of hydrogen, the advanced membrane materials for hydrogen purification, and the evaluation of the interaction of hydrogen with a range of infrastructure materials required in the hydrogen supply chain (from generation to end-use).
| Applied Alloy Chemistry Group |
| Univ of Dundee, Div Physical & Inorganic Chemistry | The dept has research interests in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells; Solid State Electrochemistry; ceramic oxygen ion, proton and electronic conductors; structure and composition of materials for SOFCs down to the atomic scale; catalytic electrodes; Impedance Spectroscopy; and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM).
| Div Physical & Inorganic Chemistry |
| Univ of Glamorgan, SERC, Hydrogen Research Unit | The research activities are biological hydrogen production, hydrogen production from other renewable sources, biological fuel cells, and the social economic and technical implications of the hydrogen economy.
| Univ of Glamorgan, SERC |
| Univ of Leeds - Centre for Computational Fluid Dynamics | Development of predictive capabilities for SOFC and PEMFC using innovative CFD technology. This covers all major processes occuring in fuel cell systems such as (a) chemical species transport in porous electrodes, (b) electrochemical reactions in catalytic layers, (c) heat transfer within fuel cells, and (d) potential polarisations. System performance can be numerically predicted and analysed. Collaboration with major code developers such as Fluent and CFX for development and validations of CFD models.
| Centre for Computational Fluid Dynamics |
| Univ of Leeds School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering | Extensive fuel cell test units, operating at 900-1200K with an output of up to 1 kW equipped with reactant humidification control for hydrogen or simulated reformatted mixtures. Experimental research on fuel cell performance and internal reforming at the anode and analysis of exhaust gas can be performed on the test rigs. Over 20 years research on hydrogen and biogas production, storage, transportation and combustion. Our expertise in biomass includes all areas of the thermal conversion, co-combustion and pre/post combustion/gasification of biomass.
| School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering |
| Univ of Newcastle, Sch Chem Eng & Advanced Materials | Research is focussed upon the development of proton-conducting membrane fuel cells using gaseous and liquid fuels including hydrogen, methanol, ethanol and reformate gas, with application in transportation and propulsion, and in miniaturised, portable and static power. Present research of new fuel cell technologies involves novel electrode and catalyst fabrication techniques and structures, geometries and stack configurations.
| Sch Chemical Eng & Advanced Materials |
| Univ of Nottingham, H Storage Group | Group expertise centres around synthetic techniques covering organic, inorganic, coordination, covalent and ionic solid compounds. Characterisation capabilities include single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction (ex- and in-situ), sorption and thermal analysis techniques (TG-DTA, DSC, IGA, BET etc), vibrational and resonance spectroscopy (IR, Raman, NMR, EPR), XPS and ToF SIMS, magnetometry (SQUID, MCD) and electron microscopy (SEM, TEM, EPMA, EDX, WDS, SAED etc).
| Sch of Chemistry Research |
| Univ of Nottingham, School Mech, Materials & Manufacturing Eng | The synthesis, modification and performance testing of nanomaterials for hydrogen storage. Systems of interest include catalysed light metal hydrides, nanostructured carbons and nanocomposites.
| School of Mechanical, Materials & Manufacturing Eng |
| Univ of Reading, School of Chemistry | Research activities include polymer chemistry, synthesis of new ionomers, fabrication of such materials into proton transport membranes and (in collaboration with industry) membrane-electrode assemblies for air-hydrogen fuel cells, molecular simulation and diffraction-modelling of aromatic polymer structures, and hydrogen storage.
| School of Chemistry, Research Activities |
| Univ of Salford, Institute for Materials Research | Activities include major user of neutron-scattering techniques to analyse behaviour of hydrogen in solides, developed Intelligent Gravimetric Analyser, now commercialised by HIDEN Isochema, used by many hydrogen storage groups, ab initio calculations of energy surface seen by hydrogen in metallic and non-metallic systems, and prediction of inelastice neutron scattering surface.
| Institute of Materials Research |
| Univ of Sheffield, Dept Chemical & Process Eng | Research activities include fire and explosion safety of hydrogen, transportation of hydrogen using high-pressure pipeline technology and hydrogen production technologies from gasification , biological processes and sulphur iodine processes.
| Chemical & Process Eng Research |
| Univ of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials | Current interest is in oxide ion solid electrolytes including Rare-earth Apatites, cubic and mixed hexagonal/cubic close-packed Perovskites and Bismuth-based fluorites. The group aims to optimise the properties of known electroceramics via control of the composition, defect chemistry and ceramic microstructure and to discover new materials via explorative phase diagram studies and chemical doping studies, defect chemistry, crystallography (X-ray, Neutron and Electron Diffraction), analytical electron microscopy (eg SEM/TEM with EDX, EPMA, EELS and PEELS) and electrical characterisation by Impedance Spectroscopy.
| Dept Engineering Materials |
| Univ of Sheffield, Dept of Mechanical Eng | The department is looking at energy storage systems based on the Regenesys technology (charging one fluid relative to another) which is a low-cost energy storage concept. Activities include flow through cells, durability, lifetimes, and optimisation of performance.
| Dept of Mechanical Eng |
| Univ of Southampton, Comb Centre of Excellence | Research interests are Model Heterogeneous Catalysis and Electrocatalysis, High Throughput Thin Film Materials Synthesis and Screening, PEM Fuel Cell (hydrogen, reformate and direct methanol), and Hydrogen Storage Materials.
| Surface Science & Heterogeneous Catalysis Research Gp |
| Univ of St Andrews, School of Chemistry | The school's interest is in high temperature fuel cells, primarily solid oxide fuel cells, including basic material studies for fuel cell electrolyte and electrode materials, new fuel concepts, electrodes with better redox tolerance and higher hydrocarbon systems. We focus on the stability, durability and efficiency of ceramic fuel cells and in proton conducting oxides, intermediate temperature and alternative fuel cells, fuel production for high temperature fuel cells, and other chemical fuels such as ammonia.
| School of Chemistry Research |
| Univ of Strathclyde, Centre for Economic Renewable Power Delivery | Core activities include development of fuel cell systems for electric vehicles (via the Scottish Fuel Cell Consortium), a demonstration project on the island of Islay, a similar study producing 'organic' electricity from local waste streams on Mull, CERPD has a dedicated fuel cell laboratory capable of testing systems up to 15kWe, including CHP mode of operation. Also an associated electric vehicle laboratory allows ongoing testing and study of vehicular fuel cell systems.
| Centre for Economic Renewable Power Delivery |
| Univ of Surrey, Chemistry Division | Research activities are focussed on combined experimental and computer modelling of materials for use in solid oxide fuel cells, synthesis and characterisation of new electrolyte (oxide ion and proton conducting) and electrode materials, and structural (X-ray and neutron diffraction) and computer modelling studies.
| UniS Materials Institute |
| Univ of Warwick, Process Technology Gp | The group researches the development of new materials for fuel cell applications, including electrolyte materials, and the preparation and manipulation of nano-crystalline oxides, novel compositions for electrode components with coating technology for component manufacture, the development of modular, small-scale gas processing systems for hydrogen, and biomass conversion and integration with fuel cells.
| Technology Research |
| Univ of West of England, IAS Lab, CEMS Faculty | The group focuses on the development of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) systems to provide energy for prolonged periods. The main research objective is the development of an artificial agent capable of energetic autonomy. There is also interest in investigating bacterial reactions within the fuel cells apart from producing power, e.g. for sensing.
| Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory |