As an undergraduate student at Stanford University, I was lucky enough to study and pursue a wide variety of topics that interested me. I was attracted to environmental issues and was subsequently hooked by a major called Earth Systems. I spent several years studying biology, chemistry, and earth sciences and gaining an understanding of the natural processes that interact and drive the environment and earth system. During my studies at Stanford, including earning a masters degree in Environmental Engineering, I became more interested in moving from the scientific description of these systems to an engineering approach of shaping how we impact the natural environment, specifically with respect to energy conversion processes. As a first year graduate student at Princeton University, I embarked on a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering degree to enhance my own scientific and analytical tools for the study of energy systems while my interaction with the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies provided tools for approaching energy use in the context of its larger social and physical impacts.

Energy is an important driver of our modern world and I realized that energy use could be directed towards new and innovative technologies that could have social and environmental benefits. My choice to focus my research on fuel cells directly followed that belief. However, prior to my arrival at Princeton, there was no existing fuel cell program. So, I spoke with several interested professors and was able to spur the development of a research group. I applied for and won my Link Foundation Energy Scholarship during my first year at Princeton (1999-2000). As a Link Foundation Fellow, my research focused on approaches and barriers to increasing the operating temperature of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The elevated temperature would improve heat management and reduce CO poisoning on the anode electro catalyst, enabling higher fuel cell operating power and efficiency. Working in a chemistry laboratory to improve current membrane technology allowed me to gain a detailed understanding of the technical challenges associated with fuel cell power plants. My Link Fellowship allowed me to conduct exploratory research that led to my PhD thesis topic and supported me while our lab worked to secure additional external funding to support our research. I received my degree from Princeton in 2003.

I finished my dissertation in and I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. There I am working in the Hydrogen Pathways Program analyzing hydrogen infrastructure with energy system research and analysis tools that I acquired at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. The focus of my research is to model technical and economic aspects of developing a hydrogen supply infrastructure. The goal of this research is to identify strategies and pathways for reducing the costs associated with transitioning our transportation fleet from gasoline to hydrogen. This infrastructure transition model is being applied to develop regional case studies for hydrogen infrastructure development including a project in the state of Ohio focused on hydrogen production from coal gasification including CO2 sequestration. This regional study uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for understanding the spatial distribution of hydrogen demand, locations of primary energy feedstocks, details of the distribution system and sequestration sites. It also minimizes the cost of a network of H2 production facilities and distribution systems. Future projects will include similar analyses in other areas such as California. In addition, I will be working on another project looking at interactions between hydrogen and electricity in a future California hydrogen economy. This study will investigate the potential synergies associated with the co-production of hydrogen and electricity in power plants as well as competition associated with reliance on the same primary energy feedstocks. The working environment at ITS-Davis is ideal because there is a large, multidisciplinary group of researchers tackling various aspects of energy, environmental and transportation systems. There is also a large group of Transportation technology and policy (TTP) graduate students with whom I am able to work. I am also currently teaching a course for new graduate students on engineering, economic and policy analysis of hydrogen pathways.

My personal goals are to continue in academia, becoming a professor while continuing to focus on the broad problem of energy and the environment. Hydrogen is an ideal analysis subject because of the complexity associated with all the potential feedstocks, conversion technologies, economics and policy implications, and the challenges in characterizing the life cycle costs and emissions associated with different pathways. However, these same analytical tools can be applied to other energy systems and I would like to continue pursuing research that identifies low-cost and low-impact methods of providing energy. I believe that this work is critical for our society to make good energy choices based on solid economic and technical energy systems analyses. However, it is also clear to me that these sustainable technologies will likely not find their way to wide usage unless the technology development is accompanied by a clear shift in policy. In order to make systemic changes, we need to educate our policy makers and citizens and develop policies that place a value on minimizing pollution, CO2 emissions, resource depletion, and energy insecurity. For example, most of the benefits associated with hydrogen fuel and fuel cell vehicles are public benefits while it appears that both consumers and the vehicle and fuel industries will have to pay for these benefits through large investment and higher purchase costs. This hydrogen future may only make sense once we begin to internalize these externalities, and then, perhaps, the business and economic case can be made for transitioning our energy choices for fossil fuels to sustainable and renewable energy choices.

I would like to extend my thanks to those at the Link Foundation who have helped me in my pursuits.

Christopher Yang
Post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis
Link Foundation Energy Fellow 1999-2000