RESEARCH · CLEAN ENERGY

CLEAN ENERGY

Clean Energy plays a central role in modern industrial economies. Most of the energy supply today originates from fossil and nuclear sources. Fossil fuels represent a finite resource, and their use produces carbon dioxide, which is widely considered to be a leading cause for global warming, as well as other air pollutants. Nuclear power plants inevitably generate radioactive wastes for which there is no good disposal technology. To circumvent these issues there will be a growing imperative in the coming century to develop clean energy sources. The sun is the most obvious alternative energy source, providing more energy to the Earth in one hour than all the human-related energy consumption on the planet in a year. While solar cells have been in use for space exploration, they furnish about 1 millionth of the electricity supply on the Earth at present because of low efficiencies and high costs. Closely related to solar cells, fuel cells convert chemical energy, as in hydrogen, directly into electrical energy with a high efficiency and no emission of pollutants. Although fuel cells have been used in space missions for decades, the high costs involved have prevented their widespread use on the Earth. Yet another clean energy source is based on bioconversion of lignocellulose, the most abundant natural product, into ethanol to help alleviate the world's dependence on petroleum. Ethanol is an excellent transportation fuel, burning cleaner with greater efficiency than gasoline. A research center for fuel cells is taking shape as a result of team work involving the entire Chemical Engineering faculty, including the production and storage of hydrogen by Eldred Chimowitz and David Wu; molecular simulation of proton transport in fuel cell membranes by Eldred Chimowitz; the development of electrocatalysts by Hong Yang; the development of polymer electrolyte membranes by Mitch Anthamatten, Shaw Chen, and Matthew Yates; and water management and electrode durability by Jacob Jorné. In addition, Shaw Chen and Hong Yang work on the development of novel, cost-effective, easily processable polymers and nanomaterials for use in solar cells; and David Wu, on enzyme and cell engineering for cellulose degradation and ethanol fermentation as part of the biomass conversion process.