Hydrogen Safe Laboratories (HSL)

National Research Council Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia
What the facility does

Gas safe testing infrastructure and equipment for hydrogen technologies, including materials, component and system performance and evaluation

Areas of expertise

The Hydrogen Safe Laboratories (HSL) facility is one of the safest testing environment for hydrogen technologies in Canada. It is a built-in infrastructure in the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) building that includes state-of-the art capabilities in testing to the latest performance and durability standards and protocols conducted by world renowned experts. On the safety side, the HSL facility main technical capabilities comprise hydrogen and carbon monoxide sensors, flame detectors adjustable air changes when hydrogen/carbon monoxide is detected, shut-off valve when established safety limit concentration of hydrogen or carbon monoxide is reached or a hydrogen flame (invisible to the eye) is detected. These hydrogen and carbon monoxide safety systems are required to provide a safe environment for research and services on hydrogen technologies (production, usage, storage, and compression). The facility expertise includes scientists and engineers in the following fields: electrochemistry, materials science, polymers, ceramics, modelling capabilities from atomic to system scale, mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering.

Research services
  • Electrochemical performance evaluation of cells and stacks systems
  • Materials and components screening
  • Long-term testing for durability performance
  • Development of protocols and tools for testing, conditioning
  • Development of protocols and tools for degradation and failure modes diagnostics and analysis
  • Test for various power ratings to cover a wide range of technology readiness levels from 2 up to 8 at the stack level
  • Secure (protected B) data management and analysis platform based on cloud PI-server
Sectors of application
  • Clean technology
  • Energy
  • Environmental technologies and related services

Equipment

Function

Greenlight G60 PEM Fuel Cell Test Station

800W PEM fuel cell test station. Cell and short stack development, applications testing.

Greenlight Innovation G100 PEM Fuel Cell Test Station

1300W PEM fuel cell test station. Cell and short stack development, applications testing.

Arbin FCTS Fuel Cell Test Station (2)

500W PEM fuel cell test station. Cell and short stack development, applications testing.

Scribner 850C Compact Fuel Cell Test System

100W test station for screening PEM fuel cell components

Scribner 850E Compact Fuel Cell Test Station

100W test station for screening PEM fuel cell components

Scribner 890E Compact Fuel Cell Test Station

100W test station for screening PEM fuel cell components

Greenlight E60 PEM Electrolyser Test Station

2 kW PEM Electrolyser test station (Max250A/12V). Cell development.

Electrolyser test stations (custom-built) (5)

150W PEM electrolyser component screening