(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-11-29)
Fuller, Tom
Our society's power and energy demand is met largely through the combustion of fossil fuels. We rely on a limited resource, and what's more global energy use is expected to double in the coming decades. At the same time concerns about the effects of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and criteria pollutants as well as concerns about energy security continue to mount. Meeting our energy needs in a sustainable manner is a historic challenge that will cause us to diverge from the pattern of the last couple of centuries. To this end, several U.S. reserach universtities, Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project, Georgia Institute of Technology, and MIT to name a few, have recentely launched major intitiatives to intesify their efforts in energy research. Clean, efficient and secure energy is cleary a critical national priority. The U.S. Department of energy has also introducde a broad hydrogen-fuel initiative and shown renewed interest in nuclear power, for example. One specific technology, fuel cells, will be discussed in detail. What are the potential applications for fuel cells, what are the research challeges, and how is Georgia Tech contributing to their development?