"Be prepared for a revolution in electricity-less batteris"

SNU Professor Suk Won Cha starts fuel cell business …"It was time to bring 15 years of research to fruition."

[Money Today] Reporter Doyoon Kim |2013.06.17 07:00


"I’ve researched fuel cells for the past 15 years and it’s time to put them out into the world."

 
SNU Dep. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Suk Won Cha (42) revealed his background on what lead him to start a business with the ambitious goal to “Change the energy paradigm”<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Professor Suk Won Cha, together with his college junior CEO Oh Oong Kwon officially stepped into the fuel cell business, establishing a firm with the name ‘G.V Fuel Cell, in a structure where CEO Kwon leads the company while professor Cha provides the technology. However, the people involved in this firm are not only these two but also 9 other national Stanford-graduate professors and Ph.D. students of SNU.

Up until now, professor Cha has been researching on PEMFCs, SOFCs, DMFCs, and others. A fuel cell operated by turing the chemical energy produced during the oxidation of the fuel into electrical energy, essentially a green technology. Samsung, LG and other big national firms have been showing interest in the technology but there were so attempts to commercialize this technology within the nation, and only a few others on a worldwide scale.

“After roughly a year of research, I’ve succeeded in developing a 450cc-sized power bank that uses methanol as fuel. With this power bank, smartphones can be charged up to 3~4 times without any electricity. A prototype is due this month.”

Professor Cha dreams of a battery revolution through fuel cells, starting first with portable batteries in smartphones and tablet PCs. On a long term scale, he plans to continue growing until a household fuel cell can be developed, which can  provide not only electricity but heating and warm water as well.

 
Already there is interest in CV Fuel Cell’s technology not just nationally but from Silicon Valley as well. There are plans to bring in bigger foreign capital investment through the release of the prototype this month.

GV fuel cell is expecting an official product release in 2015. They plan to reduce the size to 130ccs by next year and be able to charge phones up to 10 times.

CEO Kwon said “One-time use batteries already have a market worth 32 trillion won, with the national power bank industry at a scale of 400 billion won.” He added, “Keep your eyes peeled for the growth of GV Fuel Cell.”

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