“We’ve got to get over this auto thing,” says Dr. Brant Peppley, Director of the Queen’s-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre in Kingston.

“People always say, ‘Hey, I thought we were going to have fuel cell cars by now. Where are they?”
The truth, Dr. Peppley points out, is that commercial fuel cells are increasingly at work all around us. They’re powering a new generation of specialty vehicles like fork-lift trucks, and replacing diesel generators as a source of back-up power.

But that’s just the beginning. Dr. Peppley predicts that within ten years, fuel cells will also begin to play a major role in providing residential power. The technology would work especially well as part of a de-centralized, renewable energy strategy. Solar cells on the roof of a house, for example, could provide the energy to create hydrogen fuel from water during the day; then at night, a fuel cell would turn the hydrogen back into electricity. As a bonus, thermal energy produced by the cell would help with heating.

“The biggest barrier is cost,” says Dr. Peppley, “and cost is driven very much by the price of platinum catalyst.” Fuel cells require a catalyst to support the chemical reaction that produces electricity. A significant focus of work at the Queen’s-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre is on reducing the amount of catalyst needed, while maintaining fuel cell reliability. Dr. Peppley is also working on cells that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by operating on biogas obtained from landfill sites and waste water treatment plants. Research at the Centre— a joint venture of the Royal Military College and Queen’s University—is supported by advanced lab facilities funded in part by an investment from the Ontario Innovation Trust.

And what about the fuel cell automobile? Dr. Peppley still strongly believes that this is where we’re headed. But he has another interesting idea about the connection between fuel cells and cars.

“As far as I can tell, the North American automotive industry isn’t exactly growing. And yet we have this incredible infrastructure in Ontario. Fuel cells would offer the perfect opportunity to take advantage of that by converting the industry’s manufacturing capacity to a clean energy option. We might not be making fuel cell automobiles, it might be fuel cell power systems. But we could provide the world with that technology.”