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Incorporating nanostructures may
lead to more efficient hydrogen production and storage, according to researchers
from the University of Georgia and the University of California, Santa Cruz
who have secured $1.35 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) to work on clean energy technologies. Yiping Zhao, assistant professor
in the department of physics and astronomy at UGA and a recognized expert in
the fabrication of nanostructures, is the principal investigator on the hydrogen
storage aspect of the multi-institution project.
The grants cover two distinct projects based on nanoscale materials on which
the researchers will collaborate; one is for generating a solar cell device
to produce hydrogen and one is using nanomaterials to safely store the hydrogen.
Both projects are dependent on the materials to be designed and fabricated
by Zhao at UGA, which will then be characterized and tested by Jin Zhang at
UCSC. Researchers also involved are Mathew D. McCluskey from Washington State
University for the hydrogen storage project and Wei Chen from Nomadics, Inc.,
in the hydrogen generation project.
The grants are among 70 hydrogen research projects funded through a $64 million
DOE initiative aimed at making vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells available,
practical and affordable to American consumers by 2020. Generating hydrogen
from solar energy – using it as a transportation fuel with only clean
water as a byproduct – would completely bypass fossil fuels as an energy
source. Still, significant technological barriers continue to block this reality.
For example, about four kilograms of compressed hydrogen is needed to drive
an automobile 300 miles. The present state of the technology would require
a large volume, equal to about a 50-gallon drum, of the volatile element to
be stored in a vehicle for use. Zhao is confident of reducing this volume with
the use of nanostructures as a storage mechanism.
“Nanostructures are important in hydrogen storage because you have a
higher surface area,” said Zhao. “But what really sets this process
apart is the nanofabrication techniques – we can design better structures
and incorporate more complex materials, which is vital if this technology is
to move forward.”
The research on materials and generating hydrogen from solar cells will focus
on the fundamental research needed to be able to mass produce these technologies
for a consumer market. The basics of how hydrogen interacts with nanostructures,
its diffusion and temperature thresholds on the scale of a billionth of a meter
hold the key for its wider application.
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UGA
physics professor Yiping Zhao shares a $1.35 million grant from the U.S. Department
of Energy to help use solar energy to develop and store clean-burning hydrogen
fuel.
