UNM Leads Team Exploring Ethanol Use for Hydrogen Economy

University of New Mexico Today
December 19, 2008

UNM Associate Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Plamen Atanassov is leading a team exploring the possibility of putting biofuel into a fuel cell, research that takes a step toward hydrogen rather than petroleum based economy. Biofuels are considered a renewable energy source since they are plant-based rather than petroleum-based.

Atanassov, director of the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies, said, “We would link the world of biofuels with the world of fuel cells.”

A major grant from the Department of Energy’s EPSCoR program brought together research faculty from UNM, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech and Eastern New Mexico University as well as researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Labs to explore the possibility of making usable fuel cells from ethanol to produce electricity.
The grant is about $750,000 per year for up to six years. Students at the universities will work directly with research faculty on a cutting edge problem vital to the future of the United States. Student participation will range from undergraduates to post doctoral research.

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