|
Many experts predict that fuel cells will be a vital energy conversion device in the future - some estimate the fuel cell market may be worth as much as $7 billion per year by 2009. At Case, they're also an important part of our past. Research in electrochemistry for fuel cells dates back to the 1930s here, and the university remains a leader in the field to this day.
 The era of electrochemistry - the science of the interaction of electric and chemical phenomena - at what is now Case began when Frank Hovorka, a Western Reserve University chemistry professor, began his research in the late 1930s. The fuel cell era at Case began in 1951, when Ernest B. Yeager, a student and eventual colleague of Hovorka's at Western Reserve, developed the university's first fuel cell.
Yeager would go on to establish the Case Laboratories for Electrochemical Studies in 1976. The center is now known as the Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences.
According to Daniel Scherson, the Yeager Center's director and professor of chemistry at Case, the center "promotes and coordinates research and education at Case Western Reserve University in the highly interdisciplinary areas of electrochemical science and electrochemical technology."
Frank Hovorka and Ernest Yeager have both since retired and passed away, but their legacy has lived on through Case's robust electrochemistry and fuel cell research programs. The university and many of its engineering faculty are recognized as world leaders in fuel cell research, and they are working to promote the region's leadership in this growing industry.
"One way or another, the United States and the rest of the world are eventually going to have to move away from their reliance on fossil fuels," says Dean Robert F. Savinell, himself a world-renowned fuel cell researcher. "The continued development and commercialization of alternative sources of energy is going to be a huge focus in the coming years and decades, and there's no reason why Ohio can’t be at the forefront. We have the tools and the talent."
The "talent" Savinell speaks of includes Thomas A. Zawodzinski Jr., the former lead fuel cell researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who was named Ohio’s first Eminent Scholar in Fuel Cell Research at Case in 2002. Zawodzinski established the Case Advanced Power Institute that same year.
More than 20 other Case faculty members, representing four departments in two schools, are directly involved in fuel cell research. The school is attempting to maximize collaboration among these researchers through an initiative called electrochemistry@case. Peter Pintauro, Kent H. Smith Professor of Engineering and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, is spearheading this effort.
Among Case's fuel cell "tools" is an $18 million grant from the state to create the Wright Fuel Cell Group, orginally called the Power Partnership for Ohio, the first nonbiotech-related Wright Center of Innovation. As the lead university, Case houses the Wright Fuel Cell Group on its campus. Other collaborators include Cleveland State University, Ohio State University, the University of Toledo and Stark State College of Technology. Industry partners include several leading Ohio research, high-tech and manufacturing companies.
"In addition to research, development, training and education, the Wright Fuel Cell Group will generate awareness of new technology and be a magnet to attract new industries to the region," says John J. McGrath, the group's executive director. "Ohio's fuel cell future is bright."
A bright future that's based on a proud history.
|
