May 2002

Senior’s research at DOE engages problem of renewable energy

What now? That's the question facing many undergraduates as Commencement nears. One student feeling few pangs of uncertainty, however, is Scott Warren, a chemistry major who has his future firmly focused on a scientific issue of staggering proportions.

Warren, a senior from Portland, Oregon, spent his last two summers, as well as his final semester break, working as an intern and researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. From the beginning, his time and energies were directed into the ongoing research of hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, as an unlimited and environmentally friendly energy source.

Later this year, Warren will continue his research as part of a Ph.D. program, either at Princeton or Cornell. “I had heard that choosing between graduate schools is more difficult than the application process, and I’ve found that to be very true,” he said. Once he completes his doctoral program, Warren’s first career step might depend on the extent to which hydrogen research has progressed in the interim. “I wouldn’t mind going right back to the NREL,” he said. “It’s a very exciting place with great people and a great working atmosphere.”

Another career possibility is the private, commercial sector, working for a company involved in production of hydrogen as an energy source. “Opinions vary widely as to how quickly the technology will develop,” Warren said. “As I was visiting graduate schools, I spoke with one professor who felt he was within a year or two of a solution to the problems of hydrogen production. Others take what I think is a more realistic view, which is that hydrogen production could be an important part of the U.S. economy within the next 10 to 20 years.”

Research focuses on using renewable resources, such as biomass, wind, and solar energy, to extract hydrogen from water. The ultimate goal is development of technologies to extract hydrogen in quantities large enough, and at costs cheap enough, to compete with traditional energy sources. In theory, hydrogen could be used to fuel vehicles and aircraft and provide power for homes, offices, and industries, all with little or no negative impact on the environment.

Warren’s NREL research focused on the use of “porphyrins” as a coating for solar panels that collect energy and transfer electricity into water for hydrogen extraction. Porphyrins, a class of compounds with both organic and metallic components, show promise as a way to improve the efficiency of the extraction process. Warren’s first mentor at the NREL proposed this particular avenue of research. “I was given an outline and started doing the research. I’ve had some definite success. It’s original research and very exciting.”

As one of more than 300 summer interns funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), Warren was required to write a 10-page paper on his research. His paper was one of 10 chosen for a poster presentation at a February meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. “The conference was phenomenal,” Warren said. “I had the chance to attend seminars by top scientists from all over the world, on topics ranging from brain imaging to world population issues to quantum mechanics.”

— David Holden