An interdisciplinary group of students from Missouri University of Science
and Technology won a hydrogen student
design contest on March 31, beating teams from 22 other colleges and
universities from around the world to develop and design hydrogen applications
for airports.

The international competition sought the best proposal for using hydrogen
technologies to solve critical issues at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in
Columbia, South Carolina. The teams were asked to imagine they had $3 million
to address a variety of challenges faced by airports, such as air and water
quality, noise pollution, energy efficiency and safety and security.

The competition was sponsored by the South Carolina Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Alliance, the U.S. Department of Energy, Chevron, Sacramento Municipal Utility
District, Natural Resources Canada and American Wind Power and Hydrogen.

Each design was required to include necessary safety, economic and
environmental analyses; as well as a feasible marketing and education campaign.
Each team’s design was also required to use current technology so that the
airport could, in theory, implement the plan by 2009.

“This victory by the Missouri S&T team was the result of much hard and
creative work by the student team members,” says advisor Dr. John Sheffield,
professor of mechanical engineering at Missouri S&T. “The judges were very
impressed with the amount of detail on the wide range of hydrogen technologies
that our team provided in the design, as well as our strong focus on public
education and outreach.”

In 2004, Missouri S&T students received an honorable mention for their
design of a hydrogen fueling station in the first University Student Hydrogen
Design Contest.

Members of the hydrogen design student competition team include:

• Michael Steven Borrini of St. Louis, a December 2007 mechanical
engineering graduate

• Gustavo D’Agnese of St. Charles, Mo., a senior in mechanical
engineering

• Javier E. Garcia Joo of Lima, Peru, a graduate student in mechanical
engineering

• Matthew David Richardson of St. Louis, a December 2007 mechanical
engineering graduate

• Jadranko Sarar of Kansas City, Mo., a senior in mechanical engineering

• Mathew Thomas of Kottayam, Kerala, India, a graduate student in mechanical
engineering

• Fanny E. Valencia Juscamaita of Lima, Peru, a former visiting scholar and
chemical engineering student