Ballard History

PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) and SPFC (Solid Polymer Fuel Cell) are the two competing mnemonics of a low-temperature fuel cell type originated for use in space by General Electric, USA. To reflect present practice, the author will use PEFC (Proton Exchange Fuel Cell). The DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) also uses proton exchange membranes, but is referred to by its own mnemonic. Proton exchange between polar water molecules is discussed by Koryta (1991 1993) and in the introduction to this book. 

Ballard is now big enough to acquire competitors sponsoring alternative types of fuel cell, in the possible event that Ballard s early bet on the PEFC proves not to be on the nose . Its fortunate PEFC bet (Prater, 1990) was made when platinum utilisation was very poor, and present successful developments, notably flexible graphite flow plates, were not foreseeable. 

In the same way, the result of competition amongst the three surviving PEFC, SOFC and MCFC fuel cell types is not predictable. For example, the SOFC has the nascent ability to oxidise natural gas directly, and the MCFC is fuel omnivorous as a result of its mature 600 °C isothermal anode reform capability. Those latter attributes are in contrast to the confinement of the PFFC to hydrogen of minimal CO content, from hydrocarbons processed in an inefficient combustion-driven reformer (inefficient relative to anode reform). The Ballard PFFC has, however, achieved high power density with good, but not unlimited, manoeuvrability. 

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This brief history of century-old investigations toward hydrogen interaction with solid materials and nanomaterials brings us to the current state of affairs when the hydrogen storage for fuel cell systems still remains to be solved. Indeed, in the first decade of the new Millennium, and at the advent of the Hydrogen Economy, fuel cell stacks for use in mass transportation, like those developed by Ballard Power Systems based in Canada, are ready for mass commercialization. Also, hydrogen... 

While Daimler-Benz and Ballard deserve public thanks for their plans to reduce planetary warming, those who know the history of this effort wonder how much longer it would have taken without the research direction provided by Dr. Srinivasan. 

D.G.H. Ballard, The discovery of polyethylene and its effect on the evolution of polyma science, in History of Polyolefins, ed. by R.B. Seymour, T. Cheng (D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1986)... 

Our values, and theirs, will need to be identified and discussed in this critical context. Discomfort and uncertainty may need to be acknowledged together with an awareness that history teaches us that our best-intentioned insights and beliefs may be shown, in time, to be false or problematic for social justice (Ballard, 2003a, p. 60). 

Ballard Power Systems [homepage on the Internet]. Burnaby, Canada Ballard Power Systems c2008 [updated 2008]. Company history. Available from http //www.ballard.com/About BaUard/Corporate Information/Company History.htm... 

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