Michael Fowler, PEng
Biography
Michael Fowler is a Professor and is cross-appointed to the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
Professor Fowler’s research focuses on electrochemical power sources in vehicles, specifically degradation analysis and control of batteries in hybrid and plug-in hybrid power trains. His interest takes him into the modelling of fuel cells and requires simulating the performance and reliability of fuel cells and batteries. Professor Fowler’s research group is interested in performance evaluation, diagnostics, and forensics associated with fuel cell stacks, single cells and batteries. His study of fuel cell failure mode and reliability also encompasses the extensive development of polymers due to their function as the fuel cells’ electrolyte, gas diffusion layer and blending of polymers for conductive bipolar plates.
One of the key questions to be addressed in the 'hydrogen economy' is the clean production and distribution of hydrogen. Through a series of publications and presentations, his work has furthered the concept of 'clean energy hubs' as distributed energy generation systems including wind and solar, and large scale systems with CO2 free nuclear energy as a key components of the hubs. Unique to this work is the consideration the integration of natural gas and electrical distribution systems through the ‘Power to Gas’ concept of energy storage and distribution. This work has principally included hydrogen as an energy vector, but also considered the impact of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles within such clean energy hubs.
His expertise in fuel cell technology has landed him the position of co-faculty supervisor of competitive vehicle team design projects; ChallengeX and EcoCar where he has supervised the development of two fuel cell vehicles, and two plug-in hybrid vehicle. Professor Fowler assists these teams with their design, construction, implementation and testing of hybrid vehicles. He also supervises other award winning student teams in the design of Green Energy Systems.
Professor Fowler’s research focuses on electrochemical power sources in vehicles, specifically degradation analysis and control of batteries in hybrid and plug-in hybrid power trains. His interest takes him into the modelling of fuel cells and requires simulating the performance and reliability of fuel cells and batteries. Professor Fowler’s research group is interested in performance evaluation, diagnostics, and forensics associated with fuel cell stacks, single cells and batteries. His study of fuel cell failure mode and reliability also encompasses the extensive development of polymers due to their function as the fuel cells’ electrolyte, gas diffusion layer and blending of polymers for conductive bipolar plates.
One of the key questions to be addressed in the 'hydrogen economy' is the clean production and distribution of hydrogen. Through a series of publications and presentations, his work has furthered the concept of 'clean energy hubs' as distributed energy generation systems including wind and solar, and large scale systems with CO2 free nuclear energy as a key components of the hubs. Unique to this work is the consideration the integration of natural gas and electrical distribution systems through the ‘Power to Gas’ concept of energy storage and distribution. This work has principally included hydrogen as an energy vector, but also considered the impact of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles within such clean energy hubs.
His expertise in fuel cell technology has landed him the position of co-faculty supervisor of competitive vehicle team design projects; ChallengeX and EcoCar where he has supervised the development of two fuel cell vehicles, and two plug-in hybrid vehicle. Professor Fowler assists these teams with their design, construction, implementation and testing of hybrid vehicles. He also supervises other award winning student teams in the design of Green Energy Systems.
Research Interests
- Green Reaction Engineering, Polymer Science, Interfacial Phenomena, Colloids & Porous Media, Modelling of Hydrogen Energy Hubs and Power to Gas Energy Storage, Reliability Assessment of Electrochemical Storage Systems, Development of Battery and Fuel Cell Hybrid Power Train Vehicles and Test Benches
Education
- 2003, Doctorate Chemical and Materials Engineering (Fuel Cell Reliability), Royal Military College of Canada, Canada
- 1995, Certificate in Environmental Assessment Environmental Impact Assessment, Lakehead University, Canada
- 1988, Master's Engineering Chemistry (Polymer Processing), Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
- 1986, Bachelor's Fuels and Materials Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, Canada
Teaching*
- CHE 331 - Electrochemical Engineering
- Taught in 2023, 2024
- CHE 482 - Group Design Project
- Taught in 2019
* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.
Selected/Recent Publications
- Haghi, Ehsan and Raahemifar, Kaamran and Fowler, Michael, Investigating the effect of renewable energy incentives and hydrogen storage on advantages of stakeholders in a microgrid, Energy Policy, 206, 2018
- Walker, Sean B and Sun, Duo and Kidon, Dominika and Siddiqui, Ashar and Kuner, Amrit and Fowler, Michael and Simakov, David SA, Upgrading biogas produced at dairy farms into renewable natural gas by methanation, International Journal of Energy Research, , 2018
- Panchal, Satyam and Dincer, Ibrahim and Agelin-Chaab, Martin and Fraser, Roydon and Fowler, Michael, Design and simulation of a lithium-ion battery at large C-rates and Varying boundary conditions through heat flux distributions, Measurement, 382, 2018
- Malik, M and Dincer, I and Rosen, Marc A and Mathew, M and Fowler, M, Thermal and electrical performance evaluations of series connected Li-ion batteries in a pack with liquid cooling, Applied Thermal Engineering, 472, 2018
- Sherman, Steven B and Cano, Zachary P and Fowler, Michael and Chen, Zhongwei, Range-extending Zinc-air battery for electric vehicle, , , 2018
In The News
Graduate studies
- Currently considering applications from graduate students. A completed online application is required for admission; start the application process now.