For the past few weeks, researchers in the Zenyuk group have been helping teach COSMOS students in the sustainable aviation cluster. Currently, aviation contributes 2.5% of CO2 emissions (of which 20% stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years), with a single long haul flight generating as much CO2 as one person does in an entire year. Not only do aircraft emit CO2 and nitrogen oxides (NOx), but also impact the natural concentrations ozone (O3) and ambient methane (CH4), to produce a net warming effect. And when combined with other aircraft emissions, contribute to 3.5% of global warming. The US government has a goal of zero-emissions aircraft by 2050 and Boeing and Airbus are both working on hydrogen fuel cells, with Airbus planning on a hydrogen fuel cell aircraft by 2035.
COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) is a 4-week program hosted at UCI for talented high school students passionate about STEM. Students are further divided into “clusters” based on their more specific interests.They stay on campus and typically are busy from 9a-4p attending lectures, labs, doing experiments, and preparing presentations.
Prof. Zenyuk, Nadia, and Devashish led lectures in Croul Hall on fuel cell fundamentals on Mondays and Fridays. They covered fuel cell fundamentals such as how electrochemical cells work, Faraday’s law, and the components of fuel cells. Prof. Zenyuk also demonstrated practice problems on calculating cell potential, Faradaic efficiency, and current density. The lectures also covered applications of fuel cells, such as their use in aviation (Nadia), cars (Prof. Zenyuk), and industry (Devashish), their relationship with modern batteries, and the potential for a hydrogen-based clean energy future based on expected future developments and current issues. During one lecture, a guest speaker from UCI’s ChemE car team gave a presentation on their winning fuel cell based car.
As for the lab sessions (which run on Tuesdays and Thursdays), one of the classes featured demonstrations led by Celine in ELF on MEA construction. She taught students how to differentiate between the anode and cathode using a multimeter, the importance of gaskets, and introduced polarization curves.
The other Tuesday and Thursday classes were taught by Cliff, Jesus, Ethan, and Alexis, and programming focused around model hydrogen car kits, which ran on tiny, blue plastic reversible fuel cells. The students constructed the cars, tested them under different experimental conditions and completed worksheets and calculations. Cliff gave lessons on important guiding concepts like electrolysis, the redox reactions in fuel cells, and, later, on wiring in series and the layers of MEAs. As the weeks progressed, Cliff, Jesus, Ethan, and Alexis went more “off the books” with their curriculum, figuring out how to link multiple cells together in series to make the car generate fuel and run faster, and even “demolishing” the cells to investigate their MEAs.
These efforts aim to help inspire rising college students to help create a sustainable future!
by Alexis Lindenfelser
https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation
https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_Climate_Impacts_Aviation_2019rev2022.pdf
https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation
