Hydrogen fuel cell vs. diesel generators at the Green Man Festival

Written by Mithila Manage, Graduate Research Engineer (UCL Chemical Engineering)

Torrential rain and knee deep mud couldn’t keep us away from a weekend of fun, music and spreading the word about our hydrogen fuel cell!

Off we went with our wellies at the ready to the Green Man Festival in Wales (17-19 August) to provide clean power to the Omni-Tent in Einstein’s Garden. Though I’m willing to bet Einstein probably wouldn’t have come up with something as great as this – the Garden aims to bring science to the masses and this year had an energy theme sponsored by the RCUK Energy programme.

Design of the hybrid polymer electrolyte fuel cell system has been led by Gordon Murray Design in collaboration with researchers from the UCL Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London and BOC. It has the ability to produce a whopping 8 kW of power; more than enough to provide clean, green and efficient power for the stage, sound and lighting in the Omni-Tent, which brought more science-themed fun to the festival crowd all weekend.

But, let’s face it, as much as I get excited about it and as great as it is for science and engineering, the magic of the fuel cell is still hidden away in a red box. That’s why we designed a game that made the festival goers a part of it. So much so, in fact, that they came out of it feeling like the hydrogen molecule itself! Welcome to the hydrogen relay.

The relay went down a storm with kids and big kids alike. Not surprising really when there were two person t-shirts to be worn, a laser-looking maze membrane to climb through and a space hopper representing oxygen to jump on. Come on, who doesn’t love a good space hopper?!

It was amazing to see that there were lots of people, young and old,  getting involved and interested in the fuel cell technology – especially as hydrogen has a bit of a PR issue, with most people conjuring up images of the Hindenberg.  Everyone we talked to really supported it and many even tried the only by-product of the stack – super pure water.

The weekend was a hit in terms of public engagement and spreading the word that fuel cells are actually an option as a power provider. As a PhD student myself, seeing something that was once just research providing an alternative to topical energy concerns and the general public getting enthusiastic over fuel cell technology makes the hours of research done in the department worthwhile.

Who wins: noisy carbon polluting generators versus clean water making fuel cells? I’m not sure about you, but I won’t be drinking out of the exhaust of a diesel generator…

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