Grant: College and Community Innovation Program

As the energy sector transitions to more sustainable solutions, this initiative addresses stationary and, possibly transitioning into, mobile energy applications. The Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Research (RECSR) initiative will increase the capacity for Lambton College and its industrial partners to undertake applied research, development and commercialization activities in the area of renewable energy generation, conversion, storage, supply. Since energy generated by renewable sources is intermittent and, in case of wind energy, often produced at times when not required, this research initiative will explore how to buffer the resulting electrical output and release it on demand. The R&D activities at Lambton College will examine the integration of renewable energy generation technologies and will explore the viability of a hydrogen-based energy storage & production infrastructure with the goal of optimizing the energy related assets. A critical element will be the development of an Energy Management Controller (EMC) that enables the outputs of the renewable energy sources to be used directly, remain stored in the proposed media, or be released on demand from the storage media. Hydrogen offers the longest viable energy storage. The proposed research activities include the generation of hydrogen via electrolysis and photocatalysis using doped titania nanotubes. Generated hydrogen will be used to feed fuel cells to generate electricity on demand. It is expected to apply the developed technology into multiple sectors such as the renewable energy sector and the mobile or stationary emergency power back-up market. The RECSR initiative will stimulate economic development through technology transfer to local and regional SME's as well as large industrial companies located in the region and will allow the Sarnia-Lambton area to move toward being a sustainable energy node.