Professor Rod Boswell
Space, Plasma, Power and Propulsion Group,
Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering,
Australian National University
Rod Boswell is head of the Space, Plasma, Power and Propulsion group at the Australian National University. He is active in the fields of plasma processing of surfaces for microelectronics and optoelectronics, plasma thrusters, fuel cells as well as basic linear and non-linear processes in plasmas. Over the past 15 years he has published over 100 papers in major international journals, been granted 7 patents, given about 50 invited lectures in international conferences and presented his group's work to many industrialists in many countries. He is interested in discovering curious phenomena and using them in practical ways. His helicon reactor is well known as a fascinating research experiment and an effective processing tool in the microelectronics industry. In recent years he has become interested in applying electric double layers to astrophysical phenomena and to space propulsion. He is the co-inventor of the WEDGE virtual reality theatre, a number of which are now installed outside the university in museums and other venues. His group will be contributing to the hydrogen economy by deposition of nano-aggregates of catalysts and new proton conducting membranes. These developments will lead to more efficient and cheaper fuel cells of the proton exchange membrane type.
Professor Harry Watson
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
University of Melbourne
Harry Watson's doctoral thesis at Imperial College London was on the combustion of hydrogen in engines. This led at Melbourne to the building of two hydrogen cars and the granting of several patents including Hydrogen Assisted Jet Ignition and Diesel Engine Oxygen Enrichment. He was awarded a personal chair at the University of Melbourne in 1996 and has supervised more than 60 doctoral students in work extending from combustion fundamentals through complete engine design and manufacture. His presentation will examine fuel cell performance, review experience with hydrogen fuelled cars and engines, and conclude with comparisons of energy efficiency and cost. On the basis of present evidence current combustion engine performance is marginally worse than prototype fuel cells. It seems likely that wide scale implementation of hydrogen fuel cells in cars will be delayed. The cars that were to be market ready by 2004 have not yet appeared. When will they be ready and what will their cost be?
Dr Tom Biegler
Former Chief of CSIRO Division of Mineral Products
Tom Biegler grew up and was educated in Sydney. After several years of post-doctoral study abroad, he joined CSIRO in Melbourne as a research scientist. He has had an involvement in two waves of global fuel cell activity separated by over 30 years, first as a researcher in the 1960s working on methanol and platinum electrochemistry and later, after serving as Chief of CSIRO Division of Mineral Products, as a consultant for parties involved in fuel cell development. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and of the professional institutes for chemists and metallurgists. He is retired and lives in Melbourne. He takes the view that both faith in fuel cells and claims for their super-efficient performance do not stand up to scrutiny. He feels the Hydrogen Economy is a distraction from the real task which is to pursue every opportunity for energy conservation and efficiency and to prepare for a future where energy has become scarce and precious.
Moderator: Dr (Ian) Pete Griffith
Pete graduated with a BA in Biochemistry from Oxford and has a PhD in Microbiology from the ANU. He worked for a while in the Pharmaceutical Industry before joining the Victorian College of Pharmacy as lecturer in microbiology and immunology in 1975. He resigned his position as Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Microbiology in 1999, moving to a position in the Commonwealth Department of Health. Now retired, he is actively involved in adult education in Canberra and a past president of Canberra Skeptics Inc.