Fuel cells would never come into fruition without the unwavering support and achievements of its strongest proponents. The 2008 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition would like to commemorate those who have made a lasting contribution to the fuel cell community.
Geoffrey Ballard
Geoff Ballard, founder of the Vancouver, BC-based Ballard Power Systems Inc., died on August 2 reports The Canadian Press. He was 76. Ballard has been called "Father of the fuel cell industry" for his work which included introducing in 1993 the world's first hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered transit bus.
He was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and studied geological engineering at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. He also earned a doctorate in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and was awarded numerous honorary degrees. He received the Order of Canada in 1999 and the Order of British Columbia in 2004.
He founded Ballard Research Inc. in 1979 with two others to do R&D in high-energy lithium batteries. In 1983, the company began developing proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells powered by hydrogen. Ballard Power now makes hydrogen fuel cells for materials handling, residential cogeneration, backup power and transportation.
Geoff served as chairman of Ballard Power until 1997, then started General Hydrogen in 1999, which was bought by Plug Power Inc. last year for US$10 million.
*As printed in Advanced Fuel Cell Technology (FCT), September 2008 Edition, Volume 12 – Number 9.
Allan Casanova
On May 29, 2008 the fuel cell industry lost one of its most ardent ambassadors and proponents with the passing Allan Casanova.
Upon graduation from Delta State University in 1967, Allan started his career with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in the graduate student program. Initially assigned to the East Pittsburgh works, Allan quickly moved up through the corporate chain of command. He spent time in various divisions in Westinghouse including Power Generation, Power Circuit Breakers, Transportation, Defense Electronics, Corporate Strategic Planning, and finally at the Science and Technology Center where he became Vice President of Business Development for the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Division. Appreciating the potential of fuel cells in the power generation industry, Allan opted to remain with the SOFC group when it was acquired by Siemens AG from Westinghouse. Allan played a key role in the smooth transition of the technology transfer from Westinghouse to Siemens, working closely with the US Departments of Energy, Justice, and Commerce.
His role at Siemens Stationary Fuel Cells spanned more than a decade and led to such projects as the SCE PH 220 kWe PSOFC/GT – the world’s first pressurized fuel cell gas turbine hybrid system; SOFC CHP projects with OPG, Hannover, and BP; second generation hybrid systems with RWE and EDI; and numerous other projects and collaborations with major utilities, companies, and government agencies, both domestic and foreign.
Allan attended Mississippi State University, received his BS in Business/Industrial Management from Delta State University, an MBA from West Virginia University, and completed additional graduate studies at The Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Allan also attended Executive Programs in Strategic Marketing at Northwestern University and in Mergers and Acquisitions at New York University.
Outside of the office Allan was involved for many years in youth football, youth hockey, and was a diehard fan of any sports team associated with his hometown of Pittsburgh, especially the Pitt Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Born on October 20, 1945 Allan, after a year-long battle, succumbed to a rare form of cancer. Always seeing the glass as half – or more – full, Allan worked diligently until his final days. Allan's positive outlook on all aspects of life was quite contagious. This rare quality motivated his staff of employees over the years to perform to their top potential. His co-workers regarded him with utmost respect and admiration. His love, enthusiasm, passion, drives for success, wit and smiling face will be missed by all whose lives he has touched. He is survived by his loving wife, Barbara; and was the loving father of daughter, Jennifer, and son, Louis.
Edward A. Gillis
2008 marked the loss of another fuel cell pioneer: Edward A. Gillis. Ed spent his entire technical career in furthering the progress of fuel cell development and commercialization. Upon his graduation from Marquette University in 1961 (ranking 1st among engineering graduates) he joined the fuel cell group within Allis-Chalmers (A-C) Research Division at Milwaukee, WI. Ed had been introduced to fuel cells during his internship with A-C and it was love at first sight. A-C was involved with the development of alkaline technology; initially for terrestrial applications (farm tractors, lift trucks, golf carts) and eventually ground power and space systems. Ed’s primary involvement was as PM with the golf cart and then the N2H4-O2 lift truck. He saw the 5 KVA alkaline unit being delivered by an A-C/Engelhard team to the U.S Army’s Engineer Research & Development Laboratory (ERDL) at Ft. Belvoir, VA.
Ed took the opportunity to join ERDL’s growing program in 1964 via a position with the Electro-technology Laboratory at Belvoir. His hydrazine experience was just right for his design of the four 5 KVA units used in the Belvoir M-37 truck. He then steered the development of a family of PAFC fuel cell units for the field army. These planned SLEEP (Silent Lightweight Efficient Electric Power) units ranged from 1.5 to 10 KW. His group also supplied/maintained 30 hydrazine-air units (300 W, 28 v DC) that were tested with troops in Viet Nam. They were received enthusiastically because of their silent operation. Also Ed’s group at Belvoir initiated development ofsome of the earliest PEMFC prototypes for small remote and portable applications.
The growing interest in fuel cell technology by the utility industries led to two major programs, one with each industry. The electric utility plan was development of a 26 MW PAFC power plant by United Technologies Corporation (UTC) of So. Windsor CT. Funding was to be provided by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a team of utilities and DOE. The challenge of this program lured Ed in 1976 to EPRI in Palo Alto, CA . He became EPRI project manager for the 4.8 MW PAFC demonstration plant to be operated in downtown New York city and he made significant contributions to an 11 MW plant design. EPRI’s, and Ed’s, involvement with other technologies also grew with the interests of its members. During this time he became a member of the organizing committee of the Fuel Cell Seminar. The seminar was initially founded by EPRI and DOE (ERDA). Ed’s next major project was the 2.0 MW MCFC unit to be developed by Fuel Cell Energy (FCE) of Danbury, CT and sited at Santa Clara, CA. Ed also initiated R&D projects in the late 1980s in solid oxide fuel cell technology recognizing the high efficiency and low cost possibilities for utility applications. Under Ed’s leadership and management the 4.8 MW demonstration and the 2 MW MCFC project were the largest fuel cell power plants demonstrated in the U.S. at their time.
After the conclusion of these projects and with the shifting of utility interest to smaller distributed generation applications, Ed decided in 1994 to retire from EPRI. He then applied his extensive knowledge and experience to serve as an energy conversion system analyst for a broad range of clients. Eventually he increased his involvement with a variety of community organizations; notably the Lions club, the local rod & gun club and antique/collectable car shows, especially the very large annual show at Stanford University. When his cancer was discovered/diagnosed in March 2008 it was already terminal and he died a few weeks later on April 11th at age 69. We have lost an important contributor and resource for the progression of the technology. Ed had a unique systems’ engineering approach to help direct R&D in fuel cell stacks. He combined a wonderful combination of enthusiasm and realism with intellectual honesty and technical curiosity. He will be sorely missed by his friends and the entire fuel cell community.
Shalom Zelingher
Shalom was a leading advocate for the advancement of fuel cell technology in New York as well as a pioneer for other clean energy technologies such as solar photovoltaic. Due in large part to Shalom’s vision, NYPA currently has over 14 stationary fuel cells installed throughout the state and is planning to install over 4megawatts of fuel cells at New York City’s Freedom Towers.
Under his leadership, NYPA was:
- In cooperation with the City of Yonkers, the first U.S. site to test a fuel cell system on anaerobic digester gas (ADG)
- In cooperation with the US EPA, the first to test UTC’s proprietary ADG clean-up technology
- In cooperation with NYC Police Department, the first to operate a commercial fuel cell at a building with no electrical grid. The latter application, at the Central Park Police Station, proved again the inherent value of stationary fuel cells by continuing to meet the station’s varying electrical load during the large scale Northeastern US power outage. That station also had several battery power police vehicles resulting in the first case of a fuel cell being used to recharge an electric vehicle.
Shalom demonstrated his innovativeness and ability to “think out of the box” by installing several 200 Kw fuel cells at NYC Waste Water Treatment plants offsetting the emissions of may multimegawatt gas turbines which had installed throughout the City. This was the first case of using fuel cells in this “offset “manner. A brilliant engineer, Shalom was excited to push new technology into the marketplace and was outspoken about the importance of fuel cells to the future of our planet. He received more than a dozen industry awards for his leadership and technical accomplishments and was the recipient of three R&D Magazine R&D 100 awards. He authored or co-authored more than 60 technical papers.
Shalom played an active part in the advancement of On-site stationary fuel cells by giving fuel cell companies continuous feedback which proved invaluable during product design, development and trials.Shalom was also known for his keen sense of humor and his kindness to his many friends.
Our industry has lost a visionary and a great friend. We all miss Shalom.