University of California, Riverside, students won the EPA P3 Student Choice award at the annual P3 student competition in Washington, D.C. Their project, "Clean, Renewable, Grid-independent Electricity by Fuel Cell System," developed a method for storing and generating electricity cleanly for remote communities. The group investigated a regenerative hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell system. This is a fuel cell system that can be generate power using hydrogen as fuel, or in reverse as an electrolyzer to split water and generate hydrogen. The key innovation was a newly developed hydroxide exchange membrane (HEM) that allowed use of inexpensive catalysts such as nickel and silver in lieu of platinum. This change significantly reduced the costs of the system. Learn more by viewing the video in the panel to the right.
