September 2008
"Father of the fuel cell industry" Geoff Ballard has died at age 76.
around the industry
Geoff Ballard Dies
Geoff Ballard, founder of the Vancouver, BC-based Ballard Power Systems Inc., died on August 2 reports The Canadian Press. He was 76. Ballard has been called "Father of the fuel cell industry" for his work which included introducing in 1993 the world's first hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered transit bus.
He was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and studied geological engineering at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. He also earned a doctorate in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and was awarded numerous honorary degrees. He received the Order of Canada in 1999 and the Order of British Columbia in 2004.
He founded Ballard Research Inc. in 1979 with two others to do R&D in high-energy lithium batteries. In 1983, the company began developing proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells powered by hydrogen. Ballard Power now makes hydrogen fuel cells for materials handling, residential cogeneration, backup power and transportation.
Geoff served as chairman of Ballard Power until 1997, then started General Hydrogen in 1999, which was bought by Plug Power Inc. last year for US$10 million.
Air Products Acquires Harvest Energy
Air Products has acquired Harvest Energy Technology, Inc., a leader in the development of hydrogen generation technology for industrial and energy applications, to enhance its hydrogen product offerings. Harvest Energy is based in Sun Valley, California.
"This acquisition enables Air Products to offer a cost-effective generated hydrogen solution to augment our current gaseous tube trailer and liquid hydrogen tanker offerings," says Robert Dixon, senior vice president and general manager, merchant gases at Air Products.
Air Products has teamed with Harvest's patent-protected on-site reformer technology previously for two U.S. Department of Energy hydrogen energy station and vehicle fueling projects. The projects located in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in State College, Pennsylvania at The Pennsylvania State University, provided optimal testing grounds for the successful combination of the two companies' technologies and also provided early insight to potential industrial system applications.
Stan Kell Passes Away at 54
This photo, taken at a wedding 12 years ago, led son Ryan to say, "He was perfectly photogenic. I never saw a bad picture of my father."
William Stanley Kell of Woodland Hills, Utah, died on August 8, 2008, at the University of Utah Hospital. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on January 26, 1954.
A consultant in renewable energy and a frequent visitor to battery conferences, he could always make people laugh. He earned a degree in physics in 1980 from Brigham Young University but not before marrying Patty Larson, "the beautiful secretary from the BYU physics depart-ment" in 1979. They had five children.
He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served faithfully in his callings. His greatest joy was spending time with family.
Before becoming a consultant, Stan worked in the battery industry for a Schlumberger division (now Solartron), Maccor and Arbin. His most recent projects were with Viaspace and Fuel Cell Technologies Inc.
In 2006 Stan was diagnosed with multiple myeloma which he courageously battled into full and complete remission this year, but he died from complications of pneumonia. He is survived by his wife Patty; four daughters: Amy, Tracy, Kristy and Julie; son Ryan, who pinch hit for Stan at some battery conferences this year; two granddaughters, his father and two sisters. He was preceded in death by his mother.
Donations to the Stan Kell Fund, with proceeds going to the Huntsman Cancer Center where he had received treatment for the past two years, may be sent to his home at 490 S. Woodland Hills Dr., Woodland Hills, UT 84653.
