Author: grahambj

Clean Energy News

Key CERC Research
Photovoltaic Thin Film
Photocatalytic Detoxification and Disinfection
Solar Thermal Power
Hydrogen Production and Storage
Combined Power/Cooling Thermo-dynamic Cycle
Rectenna Solar Energy Conversion
Biomass and Biofuels
Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Inside this issue:

HHO	2
Eyes + Ears	2
Solar Car	2
Got Solar?	3
Excelling	3
Honors	3
Pan-American	4

As part of USF’s “Research One,” an annual celebration of research, discovery and innovation, the College of Engineering’s Research Day showcased poster presentations from students and investigator groups during October 2009. The event served as an open house attracting visitors from across the university and community for information exchange and collaborations.
CERC students and post doctoral fellows presented several posters:
“Clean Energy Research Center at the USF” (Dr. Sarada Kuravi)
“Parametric Study of a Combined Power and Cooling Thermodynamic Cycle …” (Gökmen Demirkaya, Ricardo Vasquez Padilla)
“Tunnel Diodes Fabricated using Self-Assembled Alkanethiol Films on Au” (Mike Celestin, Dr. Subbu Krishnan)

At the

Tampa Grassroots Solar

Number 5

WINTER 2009

The largest grassroots solar event in history took place in October, with USF’s SMART students hosting the National Solar Tour.
Some of the many solar tour sites across the Tampa Bay included a home with solar panels in Seminole Heights, a restaurant with a solar thermal cooling system in Brandon and an energy-efficient home in Temple Terrace.
This was the first time the event was held in the Tampa Bay Region. It is the 14th annual solar tour nationwide, organized by the American Solar Energy Society. More than 150,000 people visited 5,000 buildings in communities across the country during the tour weekend.
Before Tampa’s guided bus tour set off from the USF CERC labs, CERC director Elias Stefanakos gave opening remarks which were followed by demonstrations on installing solar systems and their cost benefits.
Local dignitaries attending the event included State Rep. Fiasano’s legislative aide, Tampa City Councilor Mary Mulhern and Hillsborough County Commissioners.
The tour offered a chance to see how the community uses solar energy, improves energy efficiency and takes advantage of other sustainable technologies to reduce monthly utility bills and tackle climate change. US Congresswoman Kathy Castor endorsed the tour stressing how crucial it is to support alternative sources of energy.
Sponsors included Tampa Bay Sierra Club and WMNF-FM. The USF student group SMART focuses on solar and renewable energy technologies.

Celebrating Research

Gökmen Demirkaya talks to
CERC’s Dr. Burton Krakow.

Page #

The
solution
to the
looming
energy
crisis is
right
before
our
eyes —
and
directly
above
our
heads.

HHO Games and Expo

Undergraduate Timberland Pham demonstrates CERC’s hydrogen toy car.

Three hydrogen-minded scientists from the USF School of Engineering's Clean Energy Research Center presented seminars and day-long displays of advanced onboard hydrogen generator technology during all three days of the HHO Games in July.
The non-profit HHO Games & Exposition celebrate the vast potential of HHO, or “hydrogen-on-demand.” HHO organizers aim at saving the American and world economies by putting 40% of their energy cost back in the pockets of ordinary people. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus hosted the event.

Dr. Sesha Srinivasan and engineers Michael Niemann and Pabitra Choudhury discussed and demonstrated the lightweight lithium-boron hydride onboard hydrogen generator they have completed as part of a Dept. of Energy research investigation. It was the first time the public had a chance to see what may be the future of onboard hydrogen, if America chooses the Hydrogen Highway as its future destination.

Eyes and Ears on the Media

Yogi Goswami (CERC) was interviewed as a solar energy expert on Tampa Bay’s Fox TV 13 “Good Day Tampa Bay” in October 2009. Fox was following up on President Obama’s visit to solar photovoltaic utility array in Arcadia, Florida.
Sesha Srinivasan (CERC) was interviewed by WUSF 89.7 News about CERC’s research into using polymers as storage material for hydrogen, in July 2009. Storing hydrogen is not easy due to its being very difficult to compress. CERC’s research may make hydrogen powered cars commercially available in the near future.
John Wolan (Chemical Engineering) hosted “Refuse to Energy” a call-in environmental talk show on

WMNF 88.5 radio, in July 2009. Generally discussing using biomass for fuel, listeners called in with questions ranging from hydrogen power to using animal waste. The stimulating discussions show Tampa Bay’s energy proactiveness and interest in our sustainability efforts.

Clean Energy
is Green Energy

Solar Car Visits USF

The X0F1 on the road.

A three-wheeled solar powered car whizzed through Tampa in May, making a sun-stop at the Clean Energy Research Center at USF’s Research Park. Students and professors peppered designer and driver Marcelo da Luz with technical questions about his flying-saucer-shaped vehicle. The car reaches 75 mph with a 0 to 50 mph acceleration in 6 seconds. It’s power source are 893 mono-crystalline solar cells; storing energy in 26 lithium ion batteries. It can travel 300 miles on a sunny day, and 130 miles at night with a full battery charge.
The presentation was hosted by USF’s SMART (“Students for the Marketing and Advancement of Renewable Technology”) club. For more information on the solar car, see: http://www.xof1.com/

Clean Energy News

Number 5

Page #

Got Solar?

A featured home on Tampa Bay’s first Solar Tour in October was a newly solar powered home with a photovoltaic system, solar hot water heater, back-up batteries and solar attic fans. Also showcased was the first LEED Gold certified home in Florida, located in St. Petersburg. Over all more than a dozen homes and buildings in the greater Tampa Bay area were featured as part of the 14th Annual ASES National Solar Tour.
“The tour gives locals a glimpse at how an increasing number of families are going solar,” said Jamie Trahan, Tampa’s tour coordinator. “Its part of a national collaboration to help Americans address a critical problem while introducing them to an array of clean, effective solutions that generate ongoing economic and environmental rewards,” she explained.
Organized by the USF CERC’s Students for the Marketing and Advancement of Renewable Technologies (SMART) and the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society, the tour introduced communities to solar technologies and other alternative energy.

Just some of the interested folks who attended the Tampa Tour of Solar homes.

PV panels grace the roof of one of the tour houses.

Excelling Students

CERC graduate student Pabitra Choudhury (Chemical Engineering) obtained his Ph.D. in September 2009, for his dissertation “Theoretical and experimental study of solid state complex borohydride hydrogen storage materials.”
Anthony d’Angelo, a CERC undergraduate, presented “Advanced Hydride Materials for Hydrogen Storage” at the 2009 NSF Tampa Interdisciplinary Environmental Research (TIER) and Advanced Materials Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) expo in July 2009. Anthony’s CERC sponsors were Sesha Srinivasan and Michael Niemann.

Anthony d’Angelo

USF serves more than 39,000 students and offers 228 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and doctoral levels including doctor of medicine.

Honors, Activities and Promotions

Ralph Fehr (Electrical Engineering) won the T&D World Magazine Power Engineering Instructor of the Month in recognition of teaching excellence in the power engineering field.
Vinay Gupta (Chemical Engineering) won the 2009 Jerome Krivanek Distinguished Teacher Award, from the USF Office of the Provost and Faculty Senate.

Babu Joseph (Chemical Engineering) was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, in June 2009.
USF, through CERC, was an official cosponsor of the “Hydrogen Production and Storage 2009 Forum,” held in Washington, DC, Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2009.

Sesha Srinivasan (CERC) promoted to Assistant Professor at Tuskegee Univ., Tuskegee, Alabama.
Vishnu Nanduri (Ind’l & Mgmnt. Syst. Eng.) promoted to Assistant Professor at Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

We will miss you Sesha!

Clean Energy Research Center

College of Engineering
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Avenue
Mail Stop ENB 118
Tampa, FL 33620

Phone: 813-974-7322
Fax: 813-974-2050
E-mail: solar@eng.usf.edu

Big Ideas . . . Big Opportunities

The Clean Energy Research Center’s mission is scientific research, technical and infrastructure development and information transfer. CERC is involved in fundamental investigations into new environmentally clean energy courses and systems — hydrogen, fuel cells, solar energy conversion and biomass utilization — that meet the needs of both the electric power and transportation sectors.
For more information contact :
Director: Prof. Lee Stefanakos
stefanak@eng.usf.edu
Co-Director: Prof. Yogi Goswami goswami@eng.usf.edu

We’re on the web!
http://cerc.eng.usf.edu/

Inducted into Pan American Academy of Engineering

Prof. Yogi Goswami was inducted into the Pan American Academy of Engineering in Mexico City during September 2009. Members are chosen based on their outstanding contributions in the field of engineering and in consciously working toward bettering the quality of life.
Goswami’s work has made pioneering contributions in solar energy utilization. Goswami’s research and technology contributions earned his induction into the Academy. Goswami was presented with a Member Medallion at the ceremony.
The Pan American Academy of Engineering (Academia Panamericana de Ingeniería) was founded in Panama in 2000, by the Pan American Federation of Engineering Societies in recognition that in the Americas, social progress and economic welfare depends largely on the intelligent use of technology and the activities of the people who created it: Engineers.
Membership in the Academy is a great honor and is based on the validity of the ethical, academic and professional merits and contributions to the progress of engineering.
For more information about the Pan American Academy of Engineering, please see:
http://www.apingenieria.org/indexen.htm

CERC co-director Yogi Goswami.

Solar energy has become big business in Florida in the past three years, with the state’s planned investment in solar energy crossing the $1B mark this Spring.

Posters graphically display CERC’s
ongoing
research.

Three hydrogen-minded scientists from the USF School of Engineering's Clean Energy Research Center presented seminars and day-long displays of advanced onboard hydrogen generator technology during all three days of the HHO Games in July.
The non-profit HHO Games & Exposition celebrate the vast potential of HHO, or hydrogen-on-demand. HHO organizers aim at saving the American and world economy by putting 40% of their energy cost back in the pockets of ordinary people. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus hosted the event.
Dr. Sesha Srinivasan and graduate-school engineers Michael Niemann and Pabitra Choudhury discussed and demonstrated the lightweight lithium-boron hydride onboard hydrogen generator they have completed as part of a Dept. of Energy research investigation. It was the first time the public had a chance to see what may be the future of onboard hydrogen, if America chooses the Hydrogen Highway as its future destination.

CERC graduate students Michael Celestin and Huijuan Chen explain CERC research to middle schoolers.

Promotions
Sesha Srinivasan, of the Clean Energy Research Center, promoted to Assistant professor of Physics at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
Vishnu Nanduri, of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, joined the energy research team promoting to Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Students
CERC graduate student Pabitra Choudhury (Chemical Engineering) obtained his Ph.D. in September 2009, for his dissertation “Theoretical and experimental study of solid state complex borohydride hydrogen storage materials.”
CERC graduate student Dhionny Strauss (Electrical Engineering) presented “Solar Energy” at the Sustainability Innovation Seminar for Municipalities Forum in June 2009, in Tampa. The forum brought together speakers from the Florida Governor’s Office, the USF, Greenhouse Communities and Constellation Energy. The forum focused on long term sustainability plans, solar energy, carbon reduction, hydrogen technologies, wetlands, water and sewer treatment and well as state programs.
Anthony d’Angelo, a CERC undergraduate, presented “Advanced Hydride Materials for Hydrogen Storage” at the 2009 NSF Tampa Interdisciplinary Environmental Research (TIER) and Advanced Materials Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) expo in July 2009. Anthony’s CERC sponsors were Sesha Srinivasan and Michael Niemann.

Renewable energy generated from the sun, biomass and ocean currents can supply a great portion of Florida's energy needs.

Joined by USF Assoc. Vice President for Global Strategies, Linda Whiteford (center), students gathered prior to their departure to Dubai. CERC’s Huijuan Chen is pictured 2nd from the right in the second row.