The new FuelWorks™ center will leverage ongoing collaboration among scientific and technical staff from its founding partners: UMD, Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems, and the US Department of Defense’s Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

FuelWorks has a mandate to develop technologies that enable fuel cells to operate with fuels such as JP-8, diesel, natural gas, and LPG. It will be open to industry, academia and government agencies, and provide a forum for collaboration to advance fuel reforming technology for military and commercial applications.

‘Ballard is committed to accelerating the implementation of flexible fueling approaches for fuel cell generators,’ says Michael Goldstein, Chief Commercial Officer at Ballard. ‘This capability is especially important for developing countries that can benefit from clean fuel cell power.’

Ballard will also continue its active participation in UMD’s Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE), an industry-sponsored consortium of public and private organizations collaborating on clean energy solutions for portable and distributed power.

‘FuelWorks will build on existing expertise at CEEE and, through collaboration between Ballard and other partners, it will address critical research needs for fuel cells operating in various applications, using existing and emerging fuels,’ comments Reinhard Radermacher, Director of CEEE and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland.