Hydrogen fuel cells powered a team of U undergraduate students to victory on Nov. 16.
A team of 25 U students placed first in this year’s American Institute of Chemical Engineers chem-e-car competition at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga. The car, which had to be fueled by a chemical process, was not much larger than a shoebox and traveled nearly 84 feet carrying 244 milliliters of water. The team won $2,000 for the U’s Department of Chemical Engineering. They also won a prize for most consistent car, as their car almost reached the finish line during each of its two runs.
Victor Crane, a senior in chemical engineering and head of the chem-e-car team, was one of the five students on the U’s team who was able to attend the actual event in Atlanta. The U’s team beat out 32 other universities from around the world.
“[Winning] was the best feeling I’ve felt as an undergraduate at the U,” Crane said. “It was really nerve-wracking to be there because there were schools like Cornell, the Unviersity of Puerto Rico and Purdue. They’re all good and known for chemical engineering.”
Brisa Zavala, a sophomore in chemical engineering and member of the team, said the win came as a shock.
“We couldn’t believe we had won,” she said. “We had gone to the competition maybe expecting first and hoping to be in the top five. It took a while to sink in.”
The U’s chem-e-car team worked on the car throughout the school year. According to their web page, the team meets officially once per month during Spring and Fall Semester, and members work individually and in groups throughout the school year to design and build the car.
Crane said he volunteered for the club because he wanted to be involved in his degree outside of his classroom. He also wanted to meet new people interested in chemical engineering. Zavala said she has been interested in joining the team ever since she visited the U’s campus during high school and saw the team doing a demonstration with their car.
“It never felt like a chore,” Zavala said. “We would go in over the weekend and work on the reaction and sometimes meet over the week. It was really fun.”
Zavala was a member of the car’s reaction team, who were charged with making the car’s stopping mechanism work perfectly with an iodine clock reaction. Crane said the reaction is what cuts the power to the car’s engine.
One of the goals of the competition is to get students familiar with alternative fuel sources for vehicles. While the U’s car ran off of hydrogen fuel cells, some were powered by other kinds of alternative fuel sources, such as a chemical peroxide reaction and ethanol gas.
Zavala said since her team won this year, the competition will be held on the U’s campus next year.
“Hopefully,” Crane said, “we’ll be able to win on our home base.”
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