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Spinoff story
Versatile Fuel Cells Stop Natural Gas Emissions at Oil Wells
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
A Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer taught two California Institute of Technology students how they might make a fuel cell based on their professor’s invention of a crystal that conducts protons at record speeds. The students and professor started a company offering fuel cells now used at oil drilling sites to run pneumatic equipment traditionally powered with high-pressure methane, a greenhouse gas that drillers then vent. Based in Pasadena, California, SAFCell also works with another company to make wearable fuel cells for the military.