A junior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Andrew Swoboda, recently won a $10,000 scholarship for his research in reducing the amount of platinum needed to make hydrogen fuel cells, reducing the overall cost of production. He is making an effort to cut the cost of alternative energy that could help reduce the demand for mountaintop removal coal mining and other dirty sources. Meanwhile, his elected official, VA state Senator Richard Saslaw, has been an obstacle to investing in energy efficiency measures that would also reduce the demand for coal. Last year he was the decisive vote to block efficiency legislation in committee.
There’s no doubt that energy efficiency is the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to meet Virginia’s energy needs and create jobs, which is why it’s one of our top priorities this year in Virginia. Do you think hydrogen fuel cells have a place in making the switch to a clean energy future?
From the Vienna Connection:
Contributing to Clean Energy
Local high schooler improves fuel cell, wins scholarship.By
All fuel cells require platinum as a catalyst material, about 0.5 mg of platinum per square centimeter. “The problem with hydrogen fuel cells that are around right now is that when they are plated, a lot of platinum, which is a catalyst metal, is wasted,” said Swoboda. “We thought if we could minimize the amount of platinum, we could reduce the cost.”
By altering how the platinum is plated using Pulse Electrochemical Deposition, Swoboda and Lindeborg managed to reduce use of platinum from 0.5 mg per centimeter to about 0.2727 per centimeter.
Jonathon Burk, Swoboda and Lindeborg’s mentor during the project, said he was impressed. “AJ and Ryan are very bright students who had the desire to learn and experience science unlike students that I have taught in a college level laboratory course. They were like a sponge absorbing all the knowledge about fuel cells out of my head. I had an amazing time working with these guys and in the process I even learned something. “
SWOBODA described how he carried out his research. “We made a bunch of different samples using different parameters that we wanted to vary to see which one would be the best,” he said. “After we analyzed all the samples, we picked which parameters we wanted to use in making the actual fuel cell and we made three hydrogen fuel cells we actually tested in the lab to see their performance.” He described the final fuel cell as being “better than half of the commercial fuel cell but we used half the amount of platinum.”
Despite the potential significance of this discovery, Swoboda warned not to draw too much from it. “It’s still a work in progress, it’s not anywhere close to being done,” he said. “It feels pretty awesome. Once it kind of all slowed down and went back to our normal lives, it’s a pretty big accomplishment.”
Eileen Swoboda, AJ’s mother, said, “We’re unbelievably pleased for AJ and that the whole thing was totally unexpected and a fantastic experience.”
In addition to his research, AJ Swoboda is in National Honor Society, on the soccer team and in Team America Rocketry Challenge. “It comes down to time management. OK, I’m coming home and I have an hour, can I do any homework so I have an hour to spare when I’m at home?” said AJ Swoboda about how he manages it all. “It’s not terribly bad if you can manage your time efficiently.”
AJ Swoboda also had a published book, “What Seniors Write at America’s Best High School,” a collection of 75 college application essays from Thomas Jefferson. He gave advice for writing college essays: “I’m not an expert at all, but I’d say you need to be true, you don’t want to fabricate anything,” he said, “just say something that touched you during your life or had some kind of emotional impact.”
ABOUT HIS FUTURE, AJ Swoboda has ideas, but he isn’t set on any particular path. “Right now, I’m really interested in engineering, I’ve taken some electives at Thomas Jefferson that are geared towards engineering and this hydrogen fuel cell project is related to engineering. I’m not sure where that’ll take me but right now that’s what I think I’ll be doing in the future,” he said. “I haven’t thought that deeply into my career because that’s way out there.”
AJ Swoboda isn’t set on where he’d like his scholarship to take him. The Siemens corporation gives more than $7 million annually in scholarships; in particular, the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology awards “exceptional achievement in science, math and technology,” according to Siemens.
AJ Swoboda said he is thankful to those who made winning the prize possible. “My school has been really supportive of this whole Siemens thing,” he said. “The whole experience of being able to go and talk to other kids that are like you about your project and talk to other people that are actually researching the same stuff…I don’t know. It’s just a good experience to have.”
