Idea of Honor Student, 15, Gains the Attention of Top Energy Engineers

Todd Courtois, 15, wasn’t bored on the flight from Atlanta to San Diego. He spent the time calculating the potential methane consumption and electricity and water output of the two-phase fuel cell he’s building in his backyard.

Courtois, an honor student at Granite Hills High School, was returning home after attending the 9th World Energy Engineering Congress where he spoke before professional engineers about his project.

He said it was “neat” to talk with high-powered energy experts about his work--and theirs--but he wasn’t overly awed and had little difficulty switching his attention from the whirl international engineering back to his friends at school.

Courtois first got the idea for the fuel cell project from reading science magazines and science fiction works. His current work is based on a small working model that won the Assn. of Energy Engineers award for best energy-related project at the San Diego Science Fair in May. Courtois estimates that the nine-foot cell he’s now building would generate enough cheap electricity to run three major household appliances simultaneously, and provide a family’s supply of pure drinking water.

When Courtois isn’t working on the project, he’s often with his friends, “a small, tight group of students in the honors program,” who also have out-of-school projects.

Much of his free time is spent reading or playing word games on his computer. Sometimes he rides his bike to a friend’s house and “we’ll have some destructive fun blowing something up,” he said jokingly as he refered to his interest in chemistry.”

Physical education classes are the worst part of school for Courtois while practicing with the school’s academic team for inter-school competitions provides an enjoyable relief from a heavy academic schedule that includes German, world history, biology and English.

Courtois’ father refers to his son’s energy project as “the missile in the backyard.” Actually, the fuel cell resembles a water heater.

Courtois will display an intermediate-sized fuel cell alongside displays by research and development experts from San Diego Gas & Electric and Science Applications International Corp. at the upcoming Energy Expo ’86 at the Sheraton Harbor Island on Nov. 24 and 25.

Courtois “caught the hearts and minds” of San Diego’s energy engineers with his fuel cell design at the science fair last May, said Bill McNeese, vice president of marketing for American Illuminetics in Carlsbad.

What sets his fuel cell apart from others is it does not depend on the costly generation of high heat, and its byproducts are all usable. Courtois is “proving that a fuel cell could be used in residential application . . . he could be the next youngest billionaire,” McNeese said.

Although local energy consultants are more reserved than their marketing counterpart, they agree that the design has commercial possibilities and that Courtois may be the person to take advantage of them.

“He has no preconceptions of what can’t be done. I have a feeling he’ll pull this off,” said Jack Flynn, an energy management consultant at Verle A. Williams & Associates and a past president of A.E.E.

Flynn, who won this year’s Energy Professional Development Award at the Energy Engineering Congress in Atlanta, said that Courtois “amazed people there with his knowledge. He can talk with authorities in the field and sometimes gets ahead of them.”

Courtois displayed his fuel cell and spoke at the conference during time allotted to Dr. Halil Guven, director of the Energy Engineering Institute at San Diego State University. Guven, whose institute is providing technical assistance to Courtois, said that engineers at the congress were impressed with the research of this “very bright young person.”

Courtois said that people in Atlanta asked for details about his fuel cell and felt that “the idea was enticing.” Parallel research would be great, he said, but it seems that everyone is waiting for the conclusion of his research. Most gratifying, Courtois said, was the interest expressed by Prof. W. van Gool of the State University of the Netherlands, who has been involved in fuel cell research for 30 years.

Besides presenting his research, Courtois attended seminars on research methodologies, fuel cell testing procedures, industrial cogeneration and energy economics during the five-day congress, the world’s largest gathering of energy engineers. He said the advice he received from the engineers would be a great help in presenting his project at upcoming fairs.

The local chapter of A.E.E. raised the money for Courtois’ trip to Atlanta through donations from people at SDG&E;, Sylvania Lighting Services, Centaurus Software and Verle A. Williams & Associates.

In addition, Raus Electronics has donated a computer that Courtois will use to monitor the fuel cell’s operating efficiency. SDG&E; donated chemicals, lab supplies and three gas meters. Other local companies have provided PVC pipe, lab equipment and technical advice.

Courtois said he was going to turn to a new project last summer but McNeese and Flynn convinced him to keep working on the fuel cell.

Their encouragement and Courtois’ lack of preconceptions were both important in developing the cell. What sets the design apart from others is that the cell will run at low temperatures, use inexpensive materials and produce usable byproducts.

Courtois said that, although chemists have always assumed high temperatures are necessary for the reactions in fuel cells, “I didn’t know that when I started.” He added that the first hydrogen-oxygen cell was built in the 1860s using platinum as the electrode and that subsequent researchers ignored other possibilities. Courtois’ cell uses aluminum, which is less efficient but more cost-effective.

He said his father, Dr. Louis Courtois, a toxicologist at the state Department of Fish and Game, gave him a push toward environmentalism by encouraging projects that didn’t produce harmful byproducts.

An advantage to the low temperatures involved in his cell is that it results in the production of pure water and carbon dioxide instead of steam and carbon monoxide. In addition, efficiency is increased because there is no heat loss during the process.

The first part of the fuel cell combines methane and two water molecules to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The second part converts hydrogen and oxygen from the atmosphere to form four water molecules.

Courtois said his first small model produced electricity and water, but it was impossible to determine why it worked. When the model is complete, Courtois said he will use it to test for “optimally efficient temperatures and size.”

Thorough testing will be difficult. “I’ll need help with flow instrumentation,” and because the processes in the cell involve gases, solids and liquids, it will be necessary to use radioactive isotopes to determine why or how these processes work, he said.

Although “fuel cells are modular, stackable and can be thrown behind any office building, the municipal scale is where you want it.” Larger-scale operations would allow the more efficient use of municipal waste. Whether large-scale or for home use, the market for this type of project will be fantastic for the next 20 years, Courtois said.