I took the bus to campus today– a first for me– and was pleasantly surprised at how manageable the walk from my stop to Hudson Hall was. All but assured I would get lost finding my way, I began the work day feeling more comfortable than I started– and not just because I had finally found air conditioning.
The first thing I did today was meet with Dr. Hotz to debrief on the direction of the internship. He made it clear from the beginning that the work I would experience as part of the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) Department was unique in that it is funded by an academic institution, and as such would be very different than the work of my peers. For him, there are no deadlines, corners to cut in production, and a failed experiment isn’t a setback like it would be as a commercial researcher. We discussed the project his lab is working on, current experiments and material optimization research they are doing, and general lab safety procedure.
Essentially, Dr. Hotz is trying to optimize hydrogen fuel cells as a renewable energy source. He does this not by researching fuel cells, but by researching the way we get the fuel: hydrogen itself. Hydrogen is a gas that must be pressurized (requiring energy) to be stored, at which point it still takes up so much space it is impractical for single decentralized systems (power for your home or office). The solution to this problem, for many mechanical engineers, is methane steam reforming.
(Methane Steam reforming {formula 1} turns methane {CH4} and steam {H2O} into Hydrogen gas and Carbon Monoxide)
Methane steam reforming, however, can be incredibly inefficient. It requires temperatures greater than 500 degrees Celsius, temperatures for which most energy sources have to burn half of their methane supply to achieve. To combat this inefficiency, Hotz and his students have developed a solar powered, nanoparticle catalyzed solution. Using Biomethanol and a prototype flat solar collector, without solar concentration Hotz’s team can produce electricity at an efficiency of 45% with net neutral carbon emissions. The team is now working on optimizing the process. With greater temperatures the team will be able to use methane and not methanol, but it’s not so simple as cranking up the heat. At greater temperatures: materials malfunction, heat transfer (ambient loss) becomes easier, and the solar collection plate becomes more emmissive (radiative loss). I’ve already started collecting callibration data for a new catalyst built by other students, and tomorrow I’ll continue experimenting with new materials. I will also explain a little bit more about why higher temperatures screw up the current prototype, but until then, enjoy these pictures of the lab.
