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became the mother of invention, prompting Kenna to leave Ballard in 2012 and launch Terrella Energy Systems Ltd. out of a small shop in Mission. To Kenna, graphite is a miracle material—malleable, conduc- tive and impervious to corrosion. For the past four years, he's been fine-tuning roll-embossing technology that can bulk pro- duce graphite-embossed bipolar plates at a much lower cost than traditional stamping presses. (According to Kenna, one fuel cell has roughly 900 plates, and roll-embossing churns out a plate every three seconds, compared to one every 20 seconds for a stamp.) But most important, this method has applications else- where in the cleantech realm, in particular for heat exchangers and heat sinks (devices that absorb excessive or unwanted heat). "I knew that I'd have a tough time getting people excited about investing in fuel cell technology," Kenna says. Terrella is a lean outfit, with three full-time employees, but Kenna is leveraging a research partnership through SFU's Laboratory for Alternative Energy Conversion. Headed by engi- neering professor Majid Bahrami, the lab secured $700,000 in Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada ( NSERC) funding and united Terrella with Burnaby-based tele- com and electronics manufacturer Alpha Technologies Ltd. and Vancouver's Westport Innovations, a specialist in natural-gas engines and vehicles, to explore the estimated US$40-billion market for graphite thermal management products. Although Terrella has orders for graphite bipolar plates, Kenna believes thermal will be the company's hot ticket. POWER BARS Terrella Energy Systems manufactures bipolar plates for fuel cells COURTESY OF CORVUS ENERGY (FERRY); COURTESY OF SUNPUMP SOLAR 50 BCBUSINESS MAY 2017 OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE 10851 SHELLBRIDGE WAY, RICHMOND, B.C. up to 56,918 sq. ft. available • AAA "LEED Gold" building • Convenient North Richmond location • Award winning 35 acre landscaped park • Complimentary shuttle bus to and from Bridgeport Canada Line Station Contact: TIM EVANS tevans@bentallkennedy.com | 604.233.1009 www.airportexecutivepark.com BentallKennedy.indd 1 2017-03-16 12:00 PM