National Cheng Kung University, the second largest university in Taiwan, and Celxpert Energy Corp., the renowned Li-ion battery manufacturer, jointly established a platform for industry-academia cooperation, especially with a focus on fuel cell development. The kick-off party was held on the 1st December 2008, at the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics of NCKU, represented by Professor Wei-Hsiang Lewis Lai and Professor Yong-Hwa Tzeng from NCKU, and Chairman Shi-Ming Huang and Mr. Tadaji Okudo, head of research department from Celxpert Energy Corp.

The cooperation between NCKU and Celxpert Energy was initiated from the NCKU’s successful bid from the National Science Council with a grant of 38 million New Taiwan Dollars, approximately 1.1 million USD, over the next three years on an industry-academia collaborative project on “Research and Development of 1 kW Methanol Reformate Fuel Cell Systems.”

According to Mr. Tadaji Okudo, the aim of this project is to develop fuel cell technologies based on a feed of methanol reformate, which can generate “cleaner and greener” energy, combining NCKU’s advanced technology on fuel cell and various experiences on Li-ion battery industry from Celxpert Energy.

According to Professor Wei-Hsiang Lewis Lai, the project will accelerate the research and development for 1 kW methanol-reformate fuel cell system, which will become the main energy and heat supply system for domestic appliances and applications.

The shared laboratory on fuel cell jointly built by NCKU and Celxpert Energy Corp. started to run since this May. This project, approved by NSC, can be seen as a great leap for future technology on methanol-reformate fuel cell.

According to Professor Yong-Hwa Tzeng, the Vice President of Office of Research and Development at NCKU, it is expected that this industry-academia cooperation can bring win-win situation and foster technology about fuel-cell rooted in Taiwan.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Energy Storage. Tags: battery manufacturer Celxpert Energy Corp. Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics energy foster technology fuel cell fuel cell system fuel cell technologies main energy National Cheng Kung University National Science Council Office of Research and Development Office of Research and Development at NCKU Shi-Ming Huang Tadaji Okudo Taiwan Wei-Hsiang Lewis Lai Yong-Hwa Tzeng . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.