Connor Moyer
My name is Connor Moyer and I was fortunate enough to work in the best laboratory on campus at the Colorado School of Mines – the Colorado Fuel Cell Center (CFCC). While attending CSM as an undergraduate and receiving my BS in Mechanical Engineering, I became interested in fuel cells as a research area. Following graduation, I was able to join on a project with Sandia National Laboratory at the CFCC in exploring the elementary charge transfer mechanisms of reversible solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). Reversible - meaning operation as a fuel cell producing power and also as an electrolyzer splitting water to make hydrogen and oxygen. My work included fabricating cells, some brief modeling, the testing of tubular SOFCs under various fuel compositions, and subsequent analysis of the data. Because of my work in reversible cells, I was hired on at Versa Power Systems in Littleton, CO after completing my Master’s degree in August of 2010. Versa is a fuel cell development company and had just begun the second phase of a project involving planar SOFCs that needed to operate in fuel cell and electrolysis conditions. I was able to get this job specifically because of the work that I did in the CFCC and the company’s relationship with CSM. Now, I deal with fuel cells at a system level mostly, but my lab work during graduate school has provided me a basis of fuel cell knowledge that I draw from constantly. Research in the Colorado Fuel Cell Center put me on the path to the career that I wanted.