Chock Karuppaiah
| Headline: | Entrepreneur |
| Groups: | BASES, E-Challenge Competition 2008, E-Challenge Competition 2009, [INACTIVE] BASES E-Challenge 2010 |
| Interested in: | Brainstorming, Finding business partners, Finding cofounders, Finding team mates, Meeting new people, Professional opportunities, Promoting my startups, Recruiting for my startup |
| Schools: | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | EC Labs |
| Position: | Founder and CEO |
| Time period: | May 2007 - Present |
| Description: | - Client: Deeya Energy, Fremont, CA
Developed a prototype of a Rebalance cell for Deeya Energy's L Cell system. Documented the process. Designed and documented the scale up process. Trained the team in the fabrication and testing. - Client: Primus Power, Walnut Creek, CA Developed a prototype of the energy cell. Carried out comprehensive testing. Documented the results and improvements that can be implemented in the design. - Client: Roth Capital Management Technical evaluation and the initial due diligence on Eion Energy. |
| Employer: | Ion America / Bloom Energy |
| Position: | Director, Quality Engineering |
| Time period: | June 2005 - April 2007 |
| Description: | - Set up the complete Quality Engineering function
- Improved the yield of the first generation of stack technology from 20% to 90% - Set up an effective system for component QC – includes developing and maintaining specifications, developing test methods, mastering cross-cultural communication to work with component vendors - Progressed from 100% inspection to AQL in a systematic fashion - Played a key role in increasing the competence and productivity of India Team. |
| Employer: | Ion America / Bloom Energy |
| Position: | Senior Staff Engineer |
| Time period: | May 2004 - May 2005 |
| Description: | - Developed Qualification plan for SOFC electrolytes
- Reduced the anode reduction time from 24 hours to 45 minutes through an electrochemical route. - Carried out an yield improvement program on electrolytes and improved the yield from 10% to 50% - Project managed the task force to deliver the first set of stacks for the first 5kW system build. |
| Employer: | Yuan Ze University, Taiwan |
| Position: | Visiting Scholar |
| Time period: | November 2003 - December 2003 |
| Description: | Taught a 2 Credit Hour Graduate level course on Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells and Direct Methanol Fuel Cells in Spring 2004. |
| Employer: | Case Western Reserve University |
| Position: | Senior Research Associate, Dept. of Chemical Engineering |
| Time period: | November 2002 - April 2004 |
| Description: | - Designed the electrochemical and fuel cell test lab
- Implemented the design and trained the graduate students - Research Programs: o Study and Optimization of Electrodes for High Temperature PEM o Accelerated and durability testing of PEMFC o Percutaneous hydrogen transport for bio fuel cells - Instrumental in Grant writing and obtaining funding of 1.2 million dollars for Durability Study of PEM fuel cells |
| Employer: | Plug Power, Inc. |
| Position: | Consultant |
| Time period: | November 2002 - December 2003 |
| Description: | - Consulting on the fundamentals and design of Membrane Electrode Assemblies.
- Offered a course on “Introduction to Electrochemical Engineering” in Nov, 2003. |
| Employer: | Plug Power, Inc. |
| Position: | Manager, MEA Fundamentals Team |
| Time period: | November 2001 - September 2002 |
| Description: | - Manager of a team of 8 people which included senior scientists and their support staff.
- Successfully integrated the fundamental studies on both the high temperature and low temperature fuel cells. - Designed and implemented a Fundamentals Lab, thus leading to faster evaluation of the fundamental characteristics of fuel cells. - Interfaced with the MEA design team and the Systems team, which enabled the fundamentals team to be close to the product and educated the other teams on the design issues to ensure performance and life. - Carried out "Leading by Example" leadership style with an active participation in the technical work. - Invented the “Hybrid Electrode Architecture” resulting in a dramatic reduction in the degradation rate. |
| Employer: | Plug Power, Inc. |
| Position: | Member, Robust Cell Team |
| Time period: | May 1999 - October 2001 |
| Description: | - Current Interrupt – Developed a current interrupt method to measure the impedance. This not only saved time and labor but also provided one with a result that is closer to the operating conditions.
- Came up with a safe leak check technique to identify and pin point a fuel cell with high cross leaks in a stack. - Devised a method to mechanistically understand the reason for the anode performance loss. - Devised and carried out tests to identify the failure modes caused by dry reactants. - Managed a technical project carried out at GE CR&D to evaluate the kinetics of oxygen reduction on catalysts with different characteristics. - Investigated and identified the root cause for the failure of fuel cells on fuel starvation. Discovered an anode configuration that is tolerant to fuel starvation. - Supported the Stack Reliability Team to perform diagnostics on failed stacks. - Supported the Stack Performance Team to optimize the stack operating conditions. - Trained engineers and technicians on the fundamentals of fuel cells. - Was involved in the development and implementation of a technique in accelerating the membrane aging and thus predicting the expected life in a given set of operating conditions. - Performance Recovery Methods – Was involved in developing and evaluating the effectiveness of the different in-situ methods to recover stack performance. |
| Employer: | Plug Power, Inc. |
| Position: | Member, Stack development Team |
| Time period: | October 1997 - April 1999 |
| Description: | - Evaluated the in-house MEA technology and the external MEA technology for using in residential systems for operation under ambient conditions.
- Successfully completed the first 1000-hour test at Plug Power. - Worked closely with external vendors for the MEAs needed for the Hydrogen Demonstration Systems. - Played a key role in the stack development by providing support on stack characterization, stack incubation and the stack-system integration. - Part of the team to develop the very first residential stack, which produced 7kWe. - Directed the initial efforts in testing the air/water quality issues. |
| Employer: | Los Alamos National Lab |
| Position: | Staff Research Assistant, Fuel Cell Group, MST 11 |
| Time period: | May 1996 - September 1997 |
| Description: | - Prepared electrocatalyst inks and assembled membrane electrode assemblies for polymer electrolyte fuel cells.
- Built anode fuel stream systems using mass flow controllers to simulate different reformate compositions. - Performed polarization studies on the single cells using the LANL fuel cell test stations. - Identified and developed methods and materials to improve the carbon monoxide tolerance, to an extent of 1000 ppm, of polymer electrolyte fuel cells. - Investigated the mechanistic aspects underlying the carbon monoxide tolerance using Cyclic Voltametry, X-Ray diffraction analysis and IR detection of carbon dioxide. - Involved in the scaling-up of carbon monoxide tolerant fuel cells. |
| Employer: | Dais Corporation |
| Position: | Research Assistant |
| Time period: | January 1994 - April 1996 |
| Description: | - Designed and implemented a half cell technique for the performance evaluation of gas diffusion electrodes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells.
- Investigated the parameters affecting the conductivity of membranes used in polymer electrolyte fuel cells. - Performed quality control checks on the raw materials and products using Gel Permeation and Gas chromatography. - Tested the feasibility of the use of a novel ion-exchanger to modify the electrode surfaces. - Investigated the charge transport phenomena in the modified electrode system. |
| Employer: | Coal India Ltd, India. |
| Position: | Research Intern |
| Time period: | January 1993 - April 1993 |
| Description: | - Characterized the erosion-corrosion of HSLA steels in coal slurries.
- Developed an inhibitor system, which reduced the erosion-corrosion loss by 75%. |
EDUCATION
| University: | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
| Time period: | 1997 |
| Degree: | Chemistry, PhD |
PUBLICATIONS
| Articles: | 1. Chock Karuppaiah, “Meeting the reliability and durability goals of PEMFC Stacks: Materials and Engineering Solutions” Presented in INO-US Workshop on Power and Energy, March 12-15 2007, New Delhi, India.
2. Chock Karuppaiah, “Estimation of Anode and Cathode Overpotential in an Operating Direct Methanol Fuel Cell – Theoretical Framework” Presented in International Conference on Alternative Energy, Jan 16-18, 2007, Albuquerque, NM 3. Felicia R. Costello, Chockkalingam Karuppaiah, and Thomas A. Zawodzinski , “Accessing Kinetics of Oxygen Reduction Reaction in an Operating Fuel Cell” Presented in Case Research Showcase in 2004, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 4. A. Agarwal, C. Karuppaiah, U. Landau, and T. Zawodzinski, “Determination of H2O2 Formed During Oxygen Reduction on High Surface Area Pt/C Catalysts” Presented in ECS Meeting, October 2004. 5. Gary E. Wnek, Bashir M.Sheikh-Ali, Joseph M. Serpico, Scott G.Ehrenberg, Timothy N.Tangredi, Chockkalingam Karuppaiah, Yijun Ye, “Ion-conducting and electroactive block polymer membranes”. Polymer Preprints, 1998, 39(1), 54-55. 6. Thomas A Zawodzinski Jr., Chockkalingam Karuppaiah, Francisco Uribe, Shimshon Gottesfeld, “Aspects of CO tolerance in polymer electrolyte fuel cells: some experimental findings.” Proceedings - Electrochemical Society (1997), 97-13(Electrode Materials and Processes for Energy Conversion and Storage IV), 139-146. 7. Chockkalingam Karuppaiah, Jeffrey N Rider and Gary E Wnek, “Applications of a sulfonated triblock copolymer for chemically modified electrode” Polymer Preprints, Vol 211, Part 2, p411, 1996. 8. R Babu, S Bhaskar, K Chockkalingam, G T Parthiban and N S Rangaswamy, “Erosion corrosion of HSLA steel in a coal slurry”, Corrosion Prevention and Control, Vol 43, No. 5, p131, 1996. 9. Thomas A Zawodzinski Jr., Chockkalingam Karuppaiah, Francisco A Uribe and Shimshon Gottesfeld, “Carbon monoxide tolerance in PEM fuel cells”. Extended Abstracts, Electrochemical Society Fall Meeting, San Antonio, TX. October 1996 Vol 96-2, Abstract No. 781 10. Chockkalingam Karuppaiah, Nazan Tunoglu, Gary E Wnek and T. A. Zawodzinski Jr., “Charge transport in a novel polymeric electrode modifier: Sulfonated Poly[(b-styrene-)-(-b-ethylene-butylene-)-(-b-styrene)]”, Extended Abstracts, Electrochemical Society Spring Meeting: Montreal, Canada, May 1997: Vol 97-1. 11. " Fractals in electrodeposits", Workshop on Electroplating, Society for Advancement of Electrochemical Science and Technology, India, February 1993. 12. " Monte Carlo simulation of crystal size distribution in a continuous crystallizer", Inter-University Chemical Engineering Seminar, Annamalai University, India, September 1992. |
| Patents: | 1. Method of operating a Fuel Cell System Patent Issued US Pat No. 6,299,996 B1
2. Carbon Monoxide Filter. Patent Issued US Pat No. 6,517,963 3. In-situ Performance Recovery of Fuel Cell Stack Patent Issued US Pat No. 6,537,690 4. Method of qualifying at least a portion of a fuel cell system and an apparatus employing same Patent Issued US Pat No. 6,774,637 5. Hydrophillic Anode Gas Diffusion Layer Patent Issued US Pat No. 6,821,661 6. Electrode structure for enhanced fuel cell performance and life Patent Issued US Pat No. 6,756,150 7. Fuel Cell Anode Electrode configuration that is tolerant towards fuel starvation patent pending 8. Reduction of SOFC Anodes to extend stack lifetime patent pending |
