CABES is researching electrochemical energy conversion in alkaline media to overcome obstacles and promote the widespread adoption of efficient and environmentally-friendly hydrogen fuel cells for clean energy solutions.
The Center for Alkaline-Based Energy Solutions (CABES), a Cornell University-led Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) established in 2018, is advancing the scientific understanding of electrochemical energy conversion in alkaline media at the fundamental level. Using this new knowledge, CABES aims to solve the technological challenges that have hindered the widespread integration of fuel cells into our energy infrastructure.
Fuel cells are well poised to address growing clean energy demands faced at the national and global levels. A fuel cell is an energy conversion device analogous to the internal combustion engine (ICE). However, unlike an ICE, a fuel cell converts a chemical fuel directly into electricity. This electrochemical route has a higher theoretical (100%) and practical (>60%) energy efficiency as compared to the thermal route for energy conversion used by ICEs (50% theoretical, 25% practical efficiency). Hydrogen fuel cells have the advantage of using a carbon-free fuel, which means they exhaust pure water and no CO2. Sourcing hydrogen can also be done in an environmentally benign process by using renewably generated electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, commonly called water electrolysis.