Students in an introductory engineering course at Humboldt State University conduct experiments with an electrolyzer/fuel cell kit developed as part of the H2E3 project. Photo by Kellie Brown.
The Hydrogen Energy in Engineering Education (H2E3) project began in October 2008 with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Golden Field Office. The mission of the H2E3 project is to develop, test, distribute, and promote curriculum and laboratory equipment for teaching university engineering students about hydrogen and fuel cell technologies through lectures, readings, and hands-on laboratory activities. The project will also create a limited number of internships with fuel cell companies for students who have participated in the H2E3 curriculum.
SERC created the three-year program to address a lack of hands-on hydrogen and fuel cell learning opportunities for undergraduate engineering students. The project deliverables include lesson plans and hardware for laboratory activities. These educational materials will be made available for use at all University of California and California State University engineering programs, with the ultimate aim of achieving national distribution.
For more information on H2E3, see our project web page at
www.hydrogencurriculum.org »In partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, SERC is developing the Hydrogen Technology and Energy Curriculum (HyTEC), targeted at high school chemistry and environmental science classes. The curriculum is a two-week module that features hands-on laboratory activities, readings and calculations, and issues based role-play activities. As part of this project, SERC has been involved in curriculum development, teacher training, pilot testing in the classroom, and the development of hands-on laboratory kits that feature student operated fuel cells and electrolyzers.
SERC’s education and outreach efforts make use of fuel cell equipment and interpretive materials developed and fabricated here at SERC. We have designed and built a complete fuel cell power system for educational demonstrations and single-cell fuel cell kits for hands-on use in high school and college science laboratory classes. We also design interpretive signs and brochures to educate the public about renewable energy in general and to highlight features of our individual systems.
SERC's Stack-in-a-Box® portable fuel cell system.
The Stack-in-a-Box® (SIB®) is a portable fuel cell system that can be used to educate people about hydrogen and fuel cells. It is designed to allow people of all ages and backgrounds to learn how fuel cells work. Everyone from young students to industry specialists quickly become comfortable operating the system, which has proven to be an effective educational tool. Information about the Stack-in-a-Box® is available on the SERC webpage at www.schatzlab.org/stack_in_box.html.
SERC's Stack-Outside-the-BoxTM bench-top fuel cell system.
The Stack-Outside-the-BoxTM (SoTBTM) is a bench-top educational fuel cell system and has the basic features of the SIB®, such as compactness and portability in a fully contained system, yet with a number of changes making it more conducive to extended laboratory use.
Arcata High School students operate a student fuel cell/electrolyzer as part of a HyTEC pilot training.
SERC has developed a benchtop fuel cell/electrolyzer kit that allows students to generate hydrogen using grid electricity or an optional solar cell or hand-cranked dynamo. The hydrogen can be stored and used to generate electricity using the included single-cell PEM fuel cell. This electricity can in turn be used to power a mechanical load. The students can measure the electrolyzer’s electricity consumption, volume of hydrogen produced, rate of hydrogen consumption, electrical power produced by the fuel cell, and mechanical work performed using the fuel cell’s electrical output. These data can be used to calculate component efficiencies. These kits have been used in many high schools and universities in California and have proven to be a great tool for learning about chemistry, energy, and hydrogen. The kit includes an instruction and experiment manual and everything required to perform the experiments except potassium hydroxide electrolyte needed to operate the electrolyzer.
Equipment described on this page is available for sale from SERC in any quantity, with customization as needed. Please contact us for pricing and delivery time.
