EAST LANSING – Jason Nicholas, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, has received a $400,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award to support his research to reduce operating temperatures, improve performance, lower costs and extend the operational life of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.
Nicholas becomes the 13th member of the MSU College of Engineering faculty to receive an NSF CAREER Award in the past four years. He works on fuel cells, electrochemical devices used to convert the energy stored within the chemical bonds of the fuel into electrical energy and heat. Nicholas? research is in increasing the efficiency of fuel cells, which can operate on fuels that vary from hydrogen, biogas, gasoline, natural gas and jet fuel to methane.
The end result would be fuel cells that reduce the environmental impact of the hydrocarbon-based economy, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and generate more power using biofuels, hydrogen or solar.
Nicholas said one of the most daunting obstacles to commercialization is the lack of SOFC anode catalysts that perform well at temperatures below 600 degrees Celsius. He thinks the materials are already available and will explore mixed ionic electronic-conducting lanthanum strontium chromium magnesium oxides. His future research interests include looking at stress to address performance of materials in more than just fuel cells.
Nicholas noted that educational outreach is also part of the grant, including the 2014 MSU Girl Scout STEM Demo Day on Feb. 1 in the MSU Engineering Building. The day is aimed at introducing K-12 girls to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math disciplines.
