Could an Ethiopian immigrant who now works in Pasadena be behind a breakthrough in fuel cell technology?

Maybe so. Sossina Haile decided to specialize in fuel cells, which turn chemical energy into electrical power, when she joined the faculty at California Institute of Technology in 1996. Two of her grad students, Calum Chisholm and Dane Boysen, started working with her on increasing fuel cell efficiency in 1999. They’re now trying to translate the results of hard science into working products with their company, Superprotonic Inc. Now that they’ve finished their studies, they have licensed Haile’s fuel cell technology from Caltech.

Superprotonic has been approached by Nissan and Honda, which want to know if there is a future in the company’s fuel cells.

Fuel cells have long been a promising alternative energy source. However, their big drawback is that they operate only at extreme high and extreme low temperatures, so they can be used for industrial power but not for cars or home heating or air conditioning.

But by using solid materials instead of oxides and polymers, Haile and her students have developed fuel cells that can operate at mid-range temperatures. That means they could power cars or military equipment in a cost-effective manner.

“Sure enough, it was not rocket science,” Haile said. “It was quite straight forward. But we had a lot of skeptics because this was so different from what everyone else was doing.”

Haile, 42, came to the United States from Ethiopia with her family in the late 1970s. She quickly developed a talent for science and was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when she was 16; she joined the faculty of Caltech when she was 30.

The fuel cell technology still has a way to go before commercialization.

“We have not seen performance data on solid acid fuel cell systems,” said Adam Gottlieb, information officer for the California Energy Commission. “The Energy Commission recognized the need for independent testing and reporting on fuel cell systems to inform consumer choice.”

Current investors in Superprotonic include US Venture Partners and Dow Venture Capital. The company has a research contract with the U.S. Army through the Small Business Technology Transfer program.

Chisholm, vice president of Superprotonic, looks back at the beginning of his long learning curve with some wonder.

“I remember knowing what a fuel cell was, but having no clue as to what you would use that in,” he said. “Fuel cells at that point weren’t really talked about that much.”