It has the ideas, now the UH Center for Materials Chemistry has the means to pay for those ideas.
A $500,000 grant from the Department of Energy, will allow the CMC to investigate ways to reduce the cost of using solid oxide fuel cells that will improve methods of generating electricity.
The cells can potentially improve the environment and lower the cost of electricity, said Allan Jacobson, director of the center and head of the research project.
“I think in general, the whole area of fuel cell research is an exciting area, and it has the potential to have an impact in the area of energy,” said Jacobson, who also is head of the project.
UH graduate students will work with the University of Toronto to enable the cells to meet intermediate temperatures, which will make the technology more affordable, Jacobson said. “It is a very large activity. There are a lot of research groups working on it,” Jacobson said.
A higher operating temperature would allow the cells to use fossil fuels that are already present and to turn turbines while having a higher rate of efficiency when converting fuel to electricity.
The cells are non-polluting, quiet and efficient, and if intermediate temperature operations are established, less-expensive materials will be available to use as heat exchangers and interconnects, scientists hope. The improvement of electrodes and the development of inexpensive fabricated materials will also lower costs. The public should see the introduction of fuel cells in the next five years, Jacobson said.
Other objectives of the project are to increase understanding of the transport properties of conducting oxides and oxide-oxide interfaces that can be used to help with the development of the cells.
“A strong commitment to leading-edge science is necessary in order to develop energy-efficiency and clean energy technologies,” said Spencer Abraham, the nation's energy secretary in a press release. “Addressing crosscutting science needs within DOE maximizes the taxpayers' return on investment in key technology areas such as solid-state lighting, membranes that produce hydrogen, advanced fuels and chemicals, solid oxide fuel cells, as well as process sensors and controls.”
The CMC is a continuation of the Materials Center. Created in 1996, it has 16 faculty members from several fields including chemistry, physics and chemical engineering.
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