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CHAPTER TECHNICAL MEETING
Tuesday January 20th  2009

 Fuel Cells: State of the Art and Challenges for Clean and Efficient Power Generation

Professor Uday B. Pal
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Head, Division of Materials Science and Engineering
Boston University

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ABSTRACT The presentation will cover electrochemical fundamentals of various types of fuel cells followed by basic design and materials requirements for fuel cell power systems. Fuel cells will be compared with competing technologies and prospects for the application and commercialization of fuel cell technology in the 21st century will be discussed. Recent advances in fuel cells have greatly moved the technology forward but critical barriers still remain to be overcome for widespread use in power generation, transportation, and portable power. Our research on solid oxide fuel cell technology will be presented as a case study to illustrate the recent advances and challenges ahead.


Biography: Professor Pal has six years of industrial and eighteen years of academic research experience in high temperature chemical and electrochemical processes, including fuel cells, sensors, membrane separation, batteries, and green processing. He has received several professional awards, authored/co-authored over 100 publications and has 21 patents. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Materials Research and Metallurgical and Materials Transactions.