Chad Smith

Education

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

The goal of my research is the investigation of a viable means to split water and recover hydrogen as a renewable fuel source.  In the realm of thermo-chemical water splitting technology, an attractive approach is the two-step Zn/ZnO redox cycle:

            ZnO → Zn + ½ O2  ( high-temperature solar decomposition)  (1)

            Zn + H2O →ZnO +H2 (low temperature water splitting)          (2)

My work focuses on the low temperature water splitting portion of this cycle where hydrogen is generated.  My investigation includes: determining fluidization behavior of zinc nanopowders; designing and implementing a fluidized bed reactor of zinc nanopowder to carryout the water splitting reaction at high pressures; modeling the reactor to determine the kinetic properties and transport contributions of the reaction.