Ballard Power Systems of Canada

Ballard Power Systems of Canada (see web site) is the Titan, the co-ordinating major force in the international proton exchange fuel cell or polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) business. Ballard claims over 500 patents Also, a worldwide complex of allies serves its international interests. 

Bewag AG s Treptow heating plant, located in Berlin, Germany received a 250 kW PEM fuel cell unit in April 2000 from Ballard Generation Systems, a subsidiary of Ballard Power System, of Burnaby, BC, Canada. 

Clean energy systems have been realized such as the first zero emission fuel (ZEV) cell powered bus developed by Ballard Power Systems Inc., Canada. The company has designed in phase 1 (1991 - 1993) a 20 passenger transit bus driven by 24 PEFC stacks with 5 kW each. The bus was the world s first ZEV vehicle and has met its performance targets. Phase 2 of Ballard s ZEV Fuel Cell Bus finished in 1995 was based on a 60 passenger commercial prototype bus with a power of 260 kW. In a subsequent phase 3, small fleets of buses are to provide the basic data for a full conunercial production [64]. Within this phase, the city of Chicago has started in early 1997 a 3-years bus fleet testing... 

The development of proton exchange membrane (PEM) cells went more or less into abeyance in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, in the latter half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, there was a renaissance of interest in this type of cell (Prater, 1990). A good deal of the credit for this must go to Ballard Power Systems of Vancouver, Canada and to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States. ... 

Ballard Power Systems, in conjunction with the province of British Columbia and the government of Canada, have converted a diesel bus for Vancouver, B.C. Transit (43). This 9.1-m vehicle is powered by a 105-kW fuel cell. Gaseous hydrogen, stored on board the bus in DOT-approved glass-wound composite cylinders operating at 20.7 MPa (3000 psi), provides the necessary fuel requited for the 150-km projected vehicle range. 

Ballard Power Systems supplied one of the first fuel cell demonstration projects for British Columbia Transit. Ballard is a pioneer and major producer of fuel cells which it installed in several Vancouver, Canada city buses. The fuel cell powered New Flier buses are much cleaner than new diesels and they are not adding to Vancouver s smog problem. A similar demonstration has taken place in Chicago, where the modified city buses have been called the Green Machines. 

Recently, the major activity in transportation fuel cell development has focused on the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). In 1993, Ballard Power Systems (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) demonstrated a 10 m (32 foot) light-duty transit bus with a 120 kW fuel cell system, followed by a 200 kW, 12 meter (40 foot) heavy-duty transit bus in 1995 (26). These buses use no traction batteries. They operate on compressed hydrogen as the on-board fuel. In 1997, Ballard provided 205 kW (275 HP) PEFC units for a small fleet of hydrogen-fueled, full-size transit buses for demonstrations in Chicago, Illinois, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Working... 

David P. Wilkinson, (Ballard Power Systems) and David Thompsett (Johnson Matthey Technology Centre), "Materials and Approaches for CO and CO2 Tolerance for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells," presented at the 1997 Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on New Materials for Fuel Cells and Modern Battery Systems, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 6-10, 1997. 

Prior to this appointment. Dr. Wilkinson was the director, and then vice president of research and development at Ballard Power Systems and involved with the research, development, and application of fuel cell technology for transportation, stationary power, and portable applications. Until 2003, Dr. Wilkinson was the leading all-time fuel cell inventor by number of issued US. patents. Dr. Wilkinson s main research interest is in electrochemical power sources and processes to create clean and sustainable energy. He is an active member of the Electrochemical Society, the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Chemical Institute of Canada, and the American Chemical Society. 

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... 

AMERICAN AIR LIQUIDE HOLDINGS INC AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION CORP AMERICAN SUPERCONDUCTOR CORP ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO AREVA GROUP AROTECH CORPORATION ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LIMITED ATS AUTOMATION TOOLING SYSTEMS INC BABCOCK WILCOX COMPANY (THE) BALLARD POWER SYSTEMS BASF AG... 

Ballard is a registered trademark of Ballard Power Systems Inc., 9000 Glenlyon Parkway, Burnaby, BC V5J 5J8, Canada, www.ballard.com... 

Ballard Power Systems (Canada) is the world leader in stack development and manufacturing. Its stacks are reliable and offer very uniform cell-to-cell and stack-to-stack performance. Figure 5.4 is a picture of a Ballard FCgen-1020ACS series air-cooled stack with 80 unit cells. The honeycomb-like... 

As a key module of the fuel cell system, the performance and reliability of the stack is crucial. As a world leader, Ballard Power Systems (Canada) has spent many years developing stacks. Table 6.7 lists the basic parameters of Ballard9 SSL stacks. At a rated power of 21.0 kW (current is 300 A), the specific and volumetric power densities of the stack are 1.24 kW kg and 1.52 kW H, respectively. 

Canada Canada has focused primarily on PEFC research and development over the last decade. To commercialize its PEFC technology, Ballard Power Systems has developed a major international network of strategic partners, including DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, GPU international (US), Alstom SA (a UK company based in France), and Ebara Corporation (Japan). Ballard 250 kWe stationary prototypes are developed by Ballard Generation Systems. The first prototype operating is in Vancouver, Canada. Ballard delivered a second 250-kilowatt PEFC power system to Cinergy Technology. This is the first field trial unit built by Ballard. The... 

For the development of this semiempirical model, the authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation, National Research Council of Canada (NRC-IFCI), Ballard Power Systems Inc., Hydrogenics Corp., and Angstrom Power Incorporated. 

Ballard Power Systems (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) started research in PEMFC manufacturing technology in 1989, and between 1992 and 1994 delivered a few prototypes of power units in different sizes. The first commercial unit, which had 1.2 k W of power, was made in 2001. At present, this company produces different types of power units between 4 and 21 k W for different applications electric cars, power backup, and plants for heat and power cogeneration... 

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