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Welcome to UCell: an electrochemical outreach group based at University College London.
About Us
UCell is a group of PhD and masters students based at UCL, who are passionate about hydrogen, clean technologies and electricity storage and love sharing our knowledge and experience to the general public through outreach.
UCell was launched in 2013 and since then, we have travelled around London and the UK attending festivals and events with our 3 kW fuel cell stack to power stages, thermal cameras and, well, anything that needs powering!
As well as the fuel cell stack, we also take low power demonstration fuel cell kits to schools and smaller events to explain more about hydrogen generation; from electrolysis, the use of hydrogen in fuel cells and how energy storage can be done using batteries. In a time of a changing energy landscape, we aim to show how these technologies are starting to become a regular feature in our everyday lives.
Our Fuel Cell Stack
A fuel cell works by reacting hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity and water as the only product. If you increase the size of the fuel cell, you can increase the amount of electricity produced. Thus, fuel cells are currently very promising for use in vehicles, public transport and stationary power for homes. It is expected that fuel cells, along with batteries, will form a large part of the energy mix in the coming years and dispelling some of the myths around the dangers of hydrogen, through outreach and engagement with the public, is very important.
Our fuel cell stack is a 3 kW stack and using only hydrogen (and oxygen from the air) can power just about anything that is plugged into it! The fuel cell stack and all the other components that are used for controlling the stack are housed in a clear casing, so visitors can see exactly how the stack would work. Our fuel cell system could be compared to that of a car – for example, the Toyota Mirai (Toyota’s first fuel cell vehicle) has many of the same parts as our stack, just on a larger scale!