The Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC)

The CERC facilities opened in November 2006, and they included the first hydrogen and fuel cell laboratory at UBC. Our research at CERC is focused on fuel cell design, reliability, and failure diagnostics, fundamental studies on materials and components, and thermodynamic analysis of energy conversion technologies (electrolysis, photolysis, etc).

Our laboratory is a hydrogen-safe facility that includes the relevant control-, safety-, and reactant-delivery subsystems. We operate four independent fuel cell test stations (0-50 W to 0-3 kW), and the corresponding fuel cell hardware (single 5 cm2 cells to short, multi-kilowatt stacks).

Civil and Mechanical Engineering Facility (CEME)

Our laboratory within CEME is devoted to design, prototyping, and lifetime testing of balance of plant components. It also functions as our prototyping workshop. Current work inlcludes the development and characterisation of automotive-scale (3kW) PEMFC humidifiers.

The Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (IFCI)

Under a research agreement between UBC and the NRC’s Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (IFCI), we carry out fundamental and applied research on fuel cell daignostics and hydrogen infrastructure development.