Sustainable and Scalable Thermochemistry for Hydrogen Production

All dates for this event occur in the past.

Scott Lab E141
201 W. 19th Avenue Columbus, OH 43210
Columbus, OH 43210
United States

Shang Zhai image

Seminar Speaker: Shang Zhai, Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State

Abstract: 

One of the biggest challenges for the 21st century is to meet people’s growing need for affordable energy, while mitigating climate change by decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at Gigaton (Gt) scale. Thermochemical processes are the only type of Gt-scale processes developed by human beings up to today. I believe it is imperative to create scalable and sustainable thermochemical processes to transform energy and chemical industries.

Cheap and GHG-free hydrogen is a critical missing piece to address the climate challenge. I will firstly present material design strategies and technoeconomics of thermochemical splitting of water. At the materials level, we tuned solid-solid phase transformation in high entropy oxides and ferrite oxides to give many times higher water/CO2 splitting capacity than conventional materials. Additionally, I will show our recent work on methane pyrolysis to produce high-value solid carbon and H2. Specifically, we regenerated the coked catalyst to achieve semi-continuous methane pyrolysis.

Currently, we are developing materials and system for GHG-neutral thermochemical processes, with collaborations to integrate thermal sciences, materials science, process systems engineering, and life-cycle analysis.

Bio: 

Shang Zhai is passionate about applying thermal sciences, materials science, and reaction engineering to revolutionary energy technologies for a sustainable future. He earned his B.Eng. in Building Technology from Tsinghua University, China in 2014. Shang obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (advisor: Pr. Arun Majumdar) and a Ph.D. Minor in Materials Science and Engineering (co-advisor: Pr. William Chueh) from Stanford University in 2020. He then became a postdoctoral fellow working with Pr. Majumdar and Pr. Cargnello at Stanford.

In 2022, Dr. Zhai joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (with joint appointment in the School of Earth Sciences) at The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor (webpage: https://u.osu.edu/zhai/). He is developing his research group and teaches an undergraduate thermodynamics class.

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