April 23, 2008

Economic, environmental issues put spotlight on alternative energy

Hydrogen Symposium 2008, on April 24 and 25, will feature keynote lectures, presentations and poster sessions dealing with various aspects of hydrogen production, distribution and storage. Talks and poster presentations will focus on hydrogen-related technologies, including those that could power future cars and fuel cells and generate electricity for homes and businesses, says Jay Gore, the Reilly University Professor of Engineering and director of the university's Energy Center.

Public and private sector representatives participating in the symposium include researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors R&D and Planning Center, Praxair Inc., the Scripps Research Institute, Case Western Reserve University, 3M Co., the University of Tennessee, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"There is no escaping hydrogen," said Mahdi M. Abu-Omar, symposium chair and a Purdue professor of chemistry. "We will ultimately get our energy from the sun, and the best renewable source of fuel will be hydrogen produced from water and sunlight. However, the grand challenge for hydrogen fuel utilization is storage. Much basic research is needed to enable the hydrogen economy. This year's symposium will highlight scientific developments at the cutting edge in hydrogen research."

Timothee Pourpoint, co-chair of the symposium and a senior research scientist in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is leading research at a new hydrogen facility funded by General Motors Corp. to develop a hydrogen-storage system for future cars. The Hydrogen Systems Laboratory is located at the university's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories.

A news release about the symposium is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2008a/080319GoreHydrogen.html.

Writers:  Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Elizabeth K. Gardner, (765) 494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu

Sources: Jay Gore, (765) 494-2122, gore@purdue.edu

Mahdi Abu-Omar, (765) 494-5302, mabuomar@purdue.edu

Timothee Pourpoint, (765) 494-1541, timothee@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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