News

AirUCI faculty Paulina Oliva has left UCI's Department of Economics and AirUCI to take a faculty position at the University of Southern California.  We wish her the greatest success and hope to continue collaborative research with her.

AirUCI faculty Scott Samuelsen, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at UCI, is quoted in an article in the New York Times describing how hydrogen fuel cells are being used to power massive data centers.  These data centers could become an important market for fuel cells because the industry “appears to want to be more environmentally sensitive but more reliant on their own resources.”  Compared to fossil fuel-burning centers, fuel cells are more efficient and quieter, which has proven a surprising barrier to their acceptance among potential customers, Professor Samuelsen says. “It’s hard for anyone to believe that they’re making any power,” he said. “It’s not like a jet engine.”
 
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AirUCI faculty Jack Brouwer was quoted in Transportation Topics journal in an article on fuel cells and how they're being used to extend distance and payload of freight trucks.  “With fuel cells, it’s possible to make a totally zero-emissions truck that can haul a big payload over a reasonable distance without adding so much weight," Brouwer said.  This type of separate power and energy sizing of the truck’s fuel cell “is not possible with batteries alone.”    Read the article