BioRegional Quintain has a project underway at RiversideOne in Middlesbrough to install a fuel cell to provide electrical power to the Marketing Suite.

The fuel cell will have an out put of about 3 kW and will be stationed at the rear of the building. It is to be installed by the Centre for Process Innovation. CPI, based on Teesside and involved with a wide range of new technologies, is dedicated to bringing futuristic science to the forefront through demonstration projects. It is expected that the fuel cell will be installed in the very near future just as son as commissioning trials which are being conducted off site are completed.

A fuel cell is very environmentally friendly as it produces energy with water as the only by product and so does not contribute to global warming. It works by releasing the energy that is produced when hydrogen and oxygen are converted to water. In a fuel cell this energy is released as an electrical current that can be used to provide power. Provided the cell continues to be supplied with hydrogen ( and oxygen from the air ) it will generate electricity. There are many types of fuel cell all with their own uses. They can be small enough to power a laptop or large enough to power a hotel.

The fuel cell was invented in 1839 by William Groove but it was the research and development work done by NASA that really established the potential of these devices confirmed when they were used to provide in-flight electrical power for space flight for the Apollo space programme in the 1960’s .