All Talk: A Great Conversation About Fuel Cells

In the interest of getting the word out on campus about the team and the exciting evolution of fuel cell technology, we organized a talk featuring our resident experts, Professors Pharoah and Peppley. When we approached them they were eager to help because as Ph.D Pharoah said on many an occasion 'We need to do talks, we need to connect with more people to help move this industry forward'. The talk itself involved the two Professors talking about the past, present and future of their industry and their research with a passion that was easy to hear. The lecture gave way into a pizza filled question period that felt more like an informative conversation between the Ph.Ds and the well attended auditorium. Because this event was so successful we at QFCT hope to organize several more over the course of the school year. As always stay tuned!

Batteries and Hurricanes

What's going on at QFCT?

In a word: lots.

In twenty-three: Our design teams have determined the final specs for the batteries and battery controller that will provide the juice for our electric snowmobile. Go ahead and count them. 

Despite nature's best efforts (Hurricane Sandy is eyeing Kingston like it's a 22 ounce porterhouse), these parts are being ordered this week and will be arriving over the course of November. Our members are anxious to begin assembling the components that they so painstakingly selected and researched.

In the meantime however, other projects are coming together quickly such as the designing of the mounting brackets for the motor and stack, continuing to create 3d models of the assembly and finding the right chemical combination that will be able to clean a particularly stubborn whiteboard (see left).

Meanwhile, the operations side of the team is hard at work planning the first big on-campus event of the year for which more information will be released shortly. Thanks for catching up with QFCT and, as always, stay tuned!

The Start of a New Year

With start of another school year, the Queen’s Fuel Cell team is abuzz with activity. This year is kicking off with some exciting news: For the first time in the team’s history we are registered for the SAE Snowmobile Challenge in Michigan! Come March, we will be competing against dozens of other schools in a number of challenges intended to push our fuel cell snowmobile to the limit. But before we can put our electric snowmobile through the ropes, we need to build it. In the past few weeks, we have recruited our general members and divided them into teams who are all hard at work on their respective projects be they mechanical, electrical, fuel cell or Gentech. For now, most of this work involves coming up with a comprehensive model of the new fuel cell driven motor assembly which our stripped-bare Bombardier snowmobile is ready to accept. This year’s project is taking off quickly so stay tuned!