Mound Advanced Technology Center

Mound Unveils Line of Fuel Cell Test Equipment

Mound Technical Solutions Inc. was recently awarded a $490,040 grant from the Ohio Third Frontier Fuel Cell Initiative for the second phase of development of the company’s new suite of fuel cell test instrumentation.

“We have applied our years of experience in DOE tritium technology and function testing of weapons components to bring some exciting advances to fuel cell technology,” said Doug McClelland, project manager, Mound Technical Solutions.

The company’s suite of testers covers a variety of fuel cell technologies: proton exchange membrane (PEM), solid oxide (SOFC), methanol and phosphoric acid (PA). All systems supply and regulate fuel and oxidant to the fuel cell and measure electrical power output to evaluate performance under various operating conditions.

"The suite of testers will prove especially beneficial to manufacturers who perform quality assurance testing and conditioning of their fuel cell products, as well as manufacturers who embed fuel cells in their products,” McClelland said. “Other potential users include researchers, developers and fuel cell technology educators."

Mound Technical Solutions introduced its PEM model, the MT571 test system (see above image), at the Ohio Fuel Cell Symposium in Columbus last month. This patented ETCH™ module technology provides an integrated thermal chamber as well as Expandable Thermal, Current, and Humidity modules that allow the system to be easily configured to meet specific customer needs.

In addition to Mound Technical Solutions, the following collaborators contributed to the first phase of this project:

  • Inorganic Specialists
  • The University of Dayton Research Institute
  • The Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
  • Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corporation
  • Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC)
  • Sinclair Community College

Mound Technical Solutions is also collaborating with the University of Dayton on its “Accelerated Testing Demonstration for Market Entry” project. This 2007 Ohio Third Frontier Fuel Cell Initiative Market Readiness Demonstrations Project will validate the real-world reliability and application compatibility of the XX25 fuel cell that has been developed by UltraCell Corporation. Other collaborators on this project are: UltraCell Corp., Motorola Labs Energy Technologies Group, Daybreak and Montgomery County Department of Sanitary Engineering.