The Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), has announced funding for a collaboration between industry, university and government to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The project which focuses on affordable, high performance and durable polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells has started phase 1.

The project has a total value of $1,898,432 CAD ($1,422,065.95 US) with CUTRIC funding 25% of the cost.

“This funding will integrate and develop zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell technologies, advancing low and zero carbon solutions for urban mobility, one of CUTRIC’s key pillars,” said Josipa Petrunic, CUTRIC’s Executive Director and CEO.

The CUTRIC-led project has been made possible through a partnership between the University of Waterloo with Professor Xianguo Li as Principal Investigator; the University of Western Ontario; Ballard Power Systems Inc.; and, StarPower ON System Inc. and co-funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

“NSERC’s research partnerships support collaborations that allow new scientific evidence to be applied to a broad range of new applications,” said Narc Fortin, Vice-President, Research Partnerships, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

The project will develop research in next generation fuel cell technologies for transit and automobile applications.

“This research will play a key role in Canada’s commitment to tackling climate change and will allow Ballard Power Systems to maintain a leadership position in an increasingly competitive and important area of clean energy technology,” said Fortin.

“We at Ballard Power Systems are excited to be part of this Canadian funded project working with world class fuel cell researchers, Dr Li, Dr Sun, and their teams at the University of Waterloo and Western University, said Alan Young, Principal Research Engineering at Ballard.

“This project focuses on key area required by the fuel cell industry, and the new class of catalyst materials to be developed has significant promise to provide the technology needed to propel us forward to the next generation of fuel cell products,” said Young.

“We are very pleased to collaborate with CUTRIC along with partners in academia, government, and industry on this project which will allow us to develop next generation fuel cell technology to maintain Canada’s leadership in the clean energy technology area,” said Xianguo Li, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo.