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DOE awards $2 million to Clemson hydrogen
research
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will award $2 million to Clemson
University to fund hydrogen research and development that may help
change the way we power the country.
The funding will be used by chemical and biomolecular engineering
department chair, James Goodwin, in collaboration with the Savannah
River National Lab, for research on understanding impurities in
the production of hydrogen and oxygen streams and the performance
of hydrogen fuel cells. It is part of a $100 million fund for 25
hydrogen projects that support President Bush’s Advanced Energy
Initiative, which seeks to reduce United States’ dependence
on foreign sources of energy through new clean energy technologies.
The Clemson research focuses on filtering out impurities in hydrogen
and oxygen streams to boost the performance of fuel cells. Fuel
cells are electrochemical energy conversion devices that produce
electricity when hydrogen and oxygen are combined to produce water.
Although fuel cells are more expensive, and currently have difficulty
maintaining performance over the full useful life of the system,
they can be used to power vehicles with up to three times the efficiency
of traditional internal combustion technologies.
James Goodwin, department chair
for chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received a Department
of Energy grant for hydrogen research and development that may help
change the way we power the country.
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