Sossina Haile + SAFCel
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
McCormick School of Engineering
Sossina Haile has devoted the last 20 years of her professional life to alternative energy and for good reason: like so many others, she recognizes the environmental crises encircling the world.
SAFCell, a transformative energy technology company that first sprouted from Haile’s materials science lab at the California Institute of Technology, represents Haile’s enterprising efforts to ensure a brighter, more sustainable energy future. SAFCell develops solid acid fuel cells for portable, stationary, and mobile applications, all of which run on hydrogen as well as commercially available liquid fuels.
Headquartered in Pasadena, California, the 12-year-old company began as a fuel cell company converting hydrogen into electrical power. Recognizing that a hydrogen delivery infrastructure was years away, the company shifted to methanol as an energy source and has developed a 50-watt system running exclusively on the simple alcohol. The system, SAFCell’s first commercial product, can operate unattended for months at a time in demanding climates.
We’re at code red as a planet and we need to pursue global energy sustainability. I know we can get there, as long as we make climate solutions a priority and put capital behind ambitious efforts like SAFCell.”
— Sossina Haile, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering
Headquartered in Pasadena, California, the 12-year-old company began as a fuel cell company converting hydrogen into electrical power. Recognizing that a hydrogen delivery infrastructure was years away, the company shifted to methanol as an energy source and has developed a 50-watt system running exclusively on the simple alcohol. The system, SAFCell’s first commercial product, can operate unattended for months at a time in demanding climates.
With interest in hydrogen returning, but the delivery infrastructure still years away, SAFCell is exploiting its unique technology in a mode that uses easily transported liquid fuels, such as ammonia, to generate hydrogen on demand for fuel cell vehicles and other applications.
Flexible, efficient, and cost-effective, including operating in a mid-temperature range that eliminates the need for costly high-temperature materials in the auxiliary components, SAFCell’s fuel cell technology offers a compelling value proposition in the green energy market.
Over its lifetime, the company has been granted more than 20 patents and captured more than $35 million in contract, grant, and private funding to spur commercialization efforts. And since Haile arrived at Northwestern in 2015, INVO has helped SAFCell secure additional patents from the Haile Lab’s continued work and connected the young company to inventive partners sharing a similar environmental-minded mission.
“We’re at code red as a planet and we need to pursue global energy sustainability. I know we can get there, as long as we make climate solutions a priority and put capital behind ambitious efforts like SAFCell.”
-Sossina Haile, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering