(Blacksburg, VA) -- Virginia Tech is among nine schools to receive U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grants for establishment of Graduate Automotive Technology Education (GATE) Centers.

DOE's goal in awarding the competitive GATE grants is to enlist the help of graduate students and faculty members to work with industry in developing environmentally safe and ultra fuel-efficient cars of the future. The grants will enable the nine schools selected to offer a graduate degree in engineering with a focus on one of five advanced automotive technologies fuel cells, lightweight materials, direct injection diesel engines, advance energy storage, and hybrid electric drive trains and control systems.

At Virginia Tech, mechanical engineering professor Doug Nelson heads up the GATE center and a graduate program in fuel cell research. The GATE grant will enable Nelson and faculty colleagues to develop a new graduate course in fuel cell systems and helped establish the multidisciplinary Center for Automotive Fuel Cell Systems.

Faculty and students associated with the center and laboratory will study fuel cell propulsion systems performance, efficiency, manufacturing, recycling, safety, cost, reliability/durability, and aging/degradation. Nelson says the center also will initiate an industry affiliates program to help direct, fund and use the resulting research. Under GATE, Virginia Tech will receive up to $200,000 over two years to develop curriculum and laboratory projects. In addition, DOE will donate about $100,000 annually for at least three years to fund fellowships for students pursuing graduate engineering degrees.

DOE also recently donated a $250,000 fuel cell to the Tech Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team (HEVT) for use in the national 1999 FutureCar Challenge and for other student and faculty research.

The HEVT team turned a Chevrolet Lumina into a fully functional, fuel-cell-powered car and placed second in the challenge. For 2000, the engineering students have been invited to enter the national FutureTruck Challenge, and they will use fuel cell technology to modify a sports utility vehicle.

Nelson, who serves as adviser for the HEVT, and faculty at Tech's Energy Management Institute have established a fuel cell testing lab, where they will conduct research on fuel cells for transportation and power utility applications.

Fuel cells were invented more than a century ago, and while their mechanical, economic and environmental advantages are well-known, they still are expensive to produce. As Nelson notes, the major focus of current research into the use of fuel cell systems for transportation is to determine the long-term reliability of affordable fuel cells for passenger vehicles.