Chemical Engineering Seminar
Abstract: Controlling CO₂ levels in the air is essential to sustaining human life in space, on land, and under sea. In this presentation, I will describe how I first began working on CO₂ removal by pressure swing adsorption as an aerospace engineer in the late 1990s, then left the field to focus on hydroxide exchange membrane (HEM a.k.a. AEM) fuel cells after returning to academia, only to revisit it about twenty years later through a shorted membrane fuel cell that we invented at the University of Delaware.
In electrochemical cells, shorting is usually something to avoid. We, however, turned it into an advantage by using shorting to eliminate expensive core components such as metal bipolar plates and transform the conventional three-layer fuel cell structure into a simple membrane. This enabled us to modularize the system into a spiral-wound configuration with an exceptionally high surface-area-to-volume ratio, making it particularly well suited for space and undersea applications, where space is at a premium, while the all-plastic construction significantly reduces weight and cost.
In this presentation, I will also highlight our more recent work on CO₂ removal from the air using battery chemistry (RepAir) and hydrogen pump chemistry, approaches that could significantly lower costs and expand the practical use of these technologies in addressing global climate challenges.
Bio: Yushan Yan is the Henry B. du Pont Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Founding Director of the Center for Clean Hydrogen at the University of Delaware. He previously served as Founding Associate Dean for Research and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware, Department Chair at the University of California, Riverside, and Senior Staff Engineer and Project Leader at AlliedSignal.
His research focuses on green hydrogen, fuel cells, and carbon capture using polymer hydroxide exchange membranes (HEM a.k.a. AEM). He is the recipient of major honors from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Electrochemical Society, and the International Zeolite Association, and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Electrochemical Society. He is also a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, Founder and CEO of Versogen, and Cofounder of RepAir.
He received his B.S. in Chemical Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.