• More than 40 researchers affiliated with FCRC.
• Over 8000 sq.ft. of laboratory and office space.

• Automated Dynamic Fuel Cell Test System (FCATS): This is a fully automated test system capable of testing PEM fuel cells in unattended, programmed mode for cyclic and steady-state operation. To date, this system has accumulated in excess of 4000 hours of operation in the study of bipolar flow-field plate material reliability and durability.

• Automated Dynamic Fuel Cell Test Systems (3 Hydrogenics G60's): These are fully automated test systems capable of testing PEM fuel cells in unattended, programmed mode for cyclic and steady-state operation.

• Automated Steady-State Fuel Cell Test System: This test system is fully automated for conducting steady-state tests of fuel-cell performance. To date over 5000 hours of steady-state testing of flow-field plate material reliability and durability has been conducted.

• Particle Imaging Velocimetry System (PIV): This system is used as a non-intrusive laser optical measurement technique for research and diagnostics into flow, turbulence and microfluidics. Measurement data include velocity, concentration and particle size.

• Contaminant Release and Exposure Test Systems: These systems are designed to test the chemical and physical stability of flow field plate materials to long-term exposure to fuel cell operating conditions. Both the release of contaminants from the material and the physical durability of the material can be studied.

• Stress-Fatigue Test System: This test system studies the reliability of flow-field plate material under fluctuating pressure conditions typical during cyclic fuel-cell operation.

• Signatone Probe Station: This system is used to study electrical properties of SOFC components at operating temperatures. The hot stages enable tests under vacuum, inert gas or atmospheric conditions.

• Reformer Test System: This test system is capable of testing hydrocarbon fuel processing systems up to 5kW electrical equivalent capacity. Fuel feed can either be gaseous or liquid.

• SOFC Testing: This system is capable of studying the electrical and electrochemical performance degradation of anode and cathode materials for solid-oxide fuel cells.

• Ceramic Processing: Facilities for dry pressing, tape casting, ceramic wet-spraying, electrophoretic deposition and high temperature furnaces used to process ceramic powders into SOFC single and 3-electrode cells.

• Advanced Fluid-Dynamic Modeling System: This system is capable of solving large-scale computational problems in fuel-cell modeling. The system is configured to run commercial fluid dynamic modeling software and has been used to study heat and mass transfer problems for both SOFC and PEMFC systems.

• Injection Molding System: This system can be used to study the influence of processing variables on the performance of conductive composites for flow-field plates.

• Solartron 1260A Impedance/Gain-phase Analyzer. This is the most powerful and accurate impedance analyzer currently available. It is capable of non-destructive (in-situ) assessment of fuel cell and battery components; evaluation of material corrosion and degradation; characterization of thin films, coatings, membranes etc.; testing of electronic components and circuits.

• PAR 273A Potentiostat. This instrument is widely recognized as a benchmark potentiostat for electrochemical research. It is designed for large variety of electrochemical measurements, including fuel cell and battery testing, electrocatalyst surface area estimation, corrosion/inhibitors studies, electroplating etc.

• BASi Rotating Disk Electrode Electrochemical System combined with Solartron 1287 Potentiostat. This system is designed for electrochemical testing of electrode materials and reactions on electrode / liquid electrolyte interfaces. It is capable of evaluation of electrochemical catalyst activity, parameters of diffusion process in liquid phases.

• OGP Avant ZIP 400 Video Measuring System. This instrument is designed for mapping of complex surfaces with high precision.

In addition to the facilities at the Fuel Cell Research Centre, there are facilities at Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada that can be used for fuel cell related research.

The Chemical Engineering Department at Queen's University has a well-equipped laboratory for characterizing polymer composite materials. This laboratory has the capability to study the fundamental properties of conductive polymer composite materials for flow-field plates. Also at the Queen's Chemical Engineering Department there is a catalyst test system for studying the kinetics of reactions for producing hydrogen from various hydrocarbon and alcohol fuels.

At the Royal Military College of Canada there are two catalyst test systems for studying the kinetics of catalysts for fuel processing for fuel cells. There are also a number of systems for preparing and characterizing catalyst materials for fuel processing. RMC also has a direct-methanol fuel cell test system that includes an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy system for analyzing the kinetic and mass transfer kinetics of DMFC electrodes.