A research team led by Professor Kim Young-Bae (School of Mechanical Engineering), developed and successfully demonstrated the world's first hybrid system of a 5kW fuel cell and battery for buildings in collaboration with KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) Research Institute, S-fucell Co., Ltd. and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST).

Fuel cells produce electricity and heat through the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen as a fuel, which is a clean energy that does not have a combustion process and emits only pure water after power generation. However, conventional fuel cells lack the ability to respond to instantaneous power changes despite their high power output as in coal-fired power and nuclear power.

In contrast, batteries can be used as energy storage devices for short-term power shortages. However, they have a weakness in their charging capacity, which makes the constant power supply difficult.

The fuel cell-battery hybrid system, jointly developed by CNU and KEPCO Research Institute, combines the advantages of both fuel cells and batteries to store the power produced by the fuel cells in the battery and supply the power it stored at peak hours to its fuel cell and the battery simultaneously.

The system also discharges and charges the power stored in the battery even during frequent power changes, which can serve as an energy storage device such as for frequency control as well as for the stable operation of fuel cells.