Maybe, as the 26-year-old PhD student in chemical engineering toils in a lab on the second floor of the new five-story, $42-million dollar Engineering 6 building at the University of Waterloo, he’ll discover something to replace the use of plutonium in fuel cells.
Something a lot more abundant. Something a lot cheaper than thousands of dollars per gram. Something common and stable that would make reactions run quicker.
Something less hazardous. Something like, let’s say, molecules from banana-peels.
Imagine banana peels replacing pricey plutonium.
“If you could somehow replace plutonium with banana peels — that would be a home run,” says Higgins, a Waterloo grad from London. “That would be a grand slam.”
There is a plastic banana peel doorstop as Higgins walks into the lab wearing worn white sneakers.
But,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, on this day, the 6-foot-6 grad student shows off a tiny flask of fine black powder being tested to see how it will react in fuel cells. It’s called Graphine.
“It’s pretty hot right now in the scientific community,” Higgins said.
Chemical engineering is hot stuff at Waterloo these days too. Fifty-four years ago, it was one of the founding departments of the university, a breakaway shard from what is now Wilfrid Laurier University.
Much has changed over time for a program that began in a small farmhouse and now towers over a strip mall off Phillip Street.
Thanks to Engineering 6 and its 115-thousand square feet of labs and classes, the program is no longer housed entirely in the Douglas Wright Engineering Building, the first facility to go up on the Waterloo campus in 1958.
A handful of students has multiplied in this petri dish of Pollyannas and polymers.
The department now has 800 undergraduate students, 155 grad students, 35 faculty, 15 staff and more than 4,000 alumni. Research funding tops $5-million a year.
Some things haven’t changed with the program over time.
“What was exciting about the early days was that it was extremely dynamic,” said Tom Fahidy, a 77-year-old professor emeritus who came to the chemical engineering program in 1964. “We were always encouraged to do new things.”
And adapt with the times too.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,
In the 1950s,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, chemical engineering was the “economic darling” of its day. Waterloo’s department quickly began developing new processes for the petrochemical and rubber industries, then cornerstones of the region’s economy.
Today, the approach is different.
It’s not just about increasing efficiency in performance. It’s also about solving some of society’s pressing environmental issues in research facilities orbiting a huge ventilation shaft rising through the middle of the new Engineering 6 building.
Researchers are working on technology to recycle scrap tires. Higgins looks for new materials to make fuel cells more reliable for use in cars, buses and backup power systems. Environmental catalysis labs on the same floor as Higgins look for improved methods of cleaning up emissions from diesel engines.
If Higgins is successful in improving fuel cells, diesel engine research may be pointless.
“Your job is to put that other lab out of business,” chemical engineering department chair Tom Duever told Higgins.
Higgins was good at math and chemistry in high school. That’s why he got into chemical engineering. He graduated but came back to get his PhD.
“A lot of people in my program go to work for the oil companies,” said Higgins, now in his seventh year at Waterloo. “I wanted to steer off, do something more substantial.”
So he devotes his time to making better fuel cells for a better tomorrow.
One day, fuel cells may fade into insignificance too as new options emerge.
Even entire disciplines can fall out of favour in a program, just as Waterloo abandoned the study of metallurgy 20 years ago as student interest waned and faculty retired.
Environmental engineering, with a chemical specialization,As a professional manufacturer of China ceramic tile in China, was introduced to fill the void. Biochemical and biomedical engineering have also emerged.
Eric Blondeel, a 25-year-old grad student from Calgary, works with German exchange student Andreas Wagner in another lab at Engineering 6. Their mission is to take infected cells from the Fall Armyworm and attempt to produce influenza vaccine at a rapid pace. Currently, such a vaccine must be grown in chicken eggs, one egg at a time.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,
A speedy response to the next global pandemic may depend on their work.
Meanwhile, third-year undergrad student Erin Matheson is just back from a co-op work term in Calgary with Canadian Natural Resources, one of the largest independent crude oil and natural gas producers in the world.
Maybe she’ll develop new ways for companies to get at oil without having to drill new holes — build a better straw, as it were.
Or maybe that oil will become insignificant and Matheson’s work will become unnecessary if Higgins finds a way to make fuel cells more stable, efficient and cheaper.
Something a lot more abundant. Something a lot cheaper than thousands of dollars per gram. Something common and stable that would make reactions run quicker.
Something less hazardous. Something like, let’s say, molecules from banana-peels.
Imagine banana peels replacing pricey plutonium.
“If you could somehow replace plutonium with banana peels — that would be a home run,” says Higgins, a Waterloo grad from London. “That would be a grand slam.”
There is a plastic banana peel doorstop as Higgins walks into the lab wearing worn white sneakers.
But,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, on this day, the 6-foot-6 grad student shows off a tiny flask of fine black powder being tested to see how it will react in fuel cells. It’s called Graphine.
“It’s pretty hot right now in the scientific community,” Higgins said.
Chemical engineering is hot stuff at Waterloo these days too. Fifty-four years ago, it was one of the founding departments of the university, a breakaway shard from what is now Wilfrid Laurier University.
Much has changed over time for a program that began in a small farmhouse and now towers over a strip mall off Phillip Street.
Thanks to Engineering 6 and its 115-thousand square feet of labs and classes, the program is no longer housed entirely in the Douglas Wright Engineering Building, the first facility to go up on the Waterloo campus in 1958.
A handful of students has multiplied in this petri dish of Pollyannas and polymers.
The department now has 800 undergraduate students, 155 grad students, 35 faculty, 15 staff and more than 4,000 alumni. Research funding tops $5-million a year.
Some things haven’t changed with the program over time.
“What was exciting about the early days was that it was extremely dynamic,” said Tom Fahidy, a 77-year-old professor emeritus who came to the chemical engineering program in 1964. “We were always encouraged to do new things.”
And adapt with the times too.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,
In the 1950s,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, chemical engineering was the “economic darling” of its day. Waterloo’s department quickly began developing new processes for the petrochemical and rubber industries, then cornerstones of the region’s economy.
Today, the approach is different.
It’s not just about increasing efficiency in performance. It’s also about solving some of society’s pressing environmental issues in research facilities orbiting a huge ventilation shaft rising through the middle of the new Engineering 6 building.
Researchers are working on technology to recycle scrap tires. Higgins looks for new materials to make fuel cells more reliable for use in cars, buses and backup power systems. Environmental catalysis labs on the same floor as Higgins look for improved methods of cleaning up emissions from diesel engines.
If Higgins is successful in improving fuel cells, diesel engine research may be pointless.
“Your job is to put that other lab out of business,” chemical engineering department chair Tom Duever told Higgins.
Higgins was good at math and chemistry in high school. That’s why he got into chemical engineering. He graduated but came back to get his PhD.
“A lot of people in my program go to work for the oil companies,” said Higgins, now in his seventh year at Waterloo. “I wanted to steer off, do something more substantial.”
So he devotes his time to making better fuel cells for a better tomorrow.
One day, fuel cells may fade into insignificance too as new options emerge.
Even entire disciplines can fall out of favour in a program, just as Waterloo abandoned the study of metallurgy 20 years ago as student interest waned and faculty retired.
Environmental engineering, with a chemical specialization,As a professional manufacturer of China ceramic tile in China, was introduced to fill the void. Biochemical and biomedical engineering have also emerged.
Eric Blondeel, a 25-year-old grad student from Calgary, works with German exchange student Andreas Wagner in another lab at Engineering 6. Their mission is to take infected cells from the Fall Armyworm and attempt to produce influenza vaccine at a rapid pace. Currently, such a vaccine must be grown in chicken eggs, one egg at a time.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,
A speedy response to the next global pandemic may depend on their work.
Meanwhile, third-year undergrad student Erin Matheson is just back from a co-op work term in Calgary with Canadian Natural Resources, one of the largest independent crude oil and natural gas producers in the world.
Maybe she’ll develop new ways for companies to get at oil without having to drill new holes — build a better straw, as it were.
Or maybe that oil will become insignificant and Matheson’s work will become unnecessary if Higgins finds a way to make fuel cells more stable, efficient and cheaper.
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