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student profile
Jessica O'Brien
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Class of 2009
Fulton Fellowship
Efficient, cost-effective production has so far eluded efforts toward a hydrogen economy. The research that Jessica O’Brien is doing in her second year as a graduate student in the Chemical Engineering Department in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering involves hydrogen separation, one foundational piece in the overall efficiency puzzle.
O’Brien’s research entails the synthesis of molecular sieve zeolite membranes, as well as the study of gas transport and separation properties of those membranes. “We’re basically developing the infrastructure for the use of hydrogen,” O’Brien says. “We all know the benefits of the end use of hydrogen as a fuel, but what we’re really going for is setting up the foundation.”
“We’re developing membranes that are able to separate hydrogen from carbon dioxide, so we’re actually breaking apart a gas stream into its various components. To do that, you need really special membranes with really small pores,” in the range of 0.5 nanometers. The work is “groundbreaking in the sense that these materials don’t really exist yet. We’re engineering them for a purpose that can’t be achieved any other way right now, so it’s really exciting,” she says.
“This is cutting-edge research,” says Jerry Lin, the chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering. “The current technology cannot produce hydrogen in a cost-effective manner. It’s a major effort in developing nanoscale materials for membrane reactor systems for hydrogen production.”
O’Brien, a Fulton Fellow, presented a paper at the North American Membrane Society in Chicago in May 2006, and she has received an invitation to present another paper at the 2007 International Zeolite Conference in Beijing.