Fuel Cell-powered “Bottomless” Uninterruptible Power Supply

Toyota Engineering, 2023–24

Liaison(s): Daniel Folick, Kam Pok, Melody Lyu
Advisor(s): Okitsugu Furuya
Students(s): Lawrence Nelson (TL), Matthew Baker-Dunn, Kevin Song, Jordan Stone, Jason Bowman (F), Martin Deng (S), Pierce Gruber (S)

During grid outages, data centers receive backup power from diesel generators which are polluting and increasingly difficult to permit. This multiyear project aims to integrate a Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell stack into an existing uninterruptible power supply and test the system under various operating conditions. Currently, the team is finishing the construction of the test site in order to safely draw power from the fuel cell in a controlled manner.