Su
Ha (Ph.D.)
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Assistant
Professor
Chemical
Engineering Department
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Office: EE/ME
#B53
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Email: suha@wsu.edu
·
Phone: 509-335-3786
Research Interests
Low
Temperature Fuel Cell Catalysis
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Reforming
Catalysis for H2 Production
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Fuel
Cell Diagnosis
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My
research group’s general interests lie in the area of energy generations from alternative
fuels in a variety of ways. Among them,
we especially focus on generating hydrogen gas from bio-fuels and abundant natural gases,
developing a liquid organic fuel cell that directly converts the chemical
energy of small organic molecules to electrical power, and working with natural enzymes to produce electrical
power from
sugars. In hydrogen generation research,
the objective is to efficiently generate hydrogen gas from bio-ethanol and
natural gases by synthesizing novel nanoparticle
catalysts for use in hydrogen fuel cells. If they can become viable and less
costly, hydrogen fuel cells could be hugely more efficient than internal
combustion engines for cars, and the only waste product is water. In liquid organic fuel cell research, my
research group has been developing fuel cells that produce electrical power
from the simple organic molecules, creating a prototype which successfully ran
a cell phone. Using these simple liquid
organic molecules allows for developing portable fuel cells that permit the
people to use laptops for days rather than hours without being connected to ac
power. My group is also working to use
natural enzymes to catalyze reactions to get energy from natural fuel, such as
glucose. The enzymes are collected and immobilized on tiny carbon nanotubes which produce an electric power. By using enzymes
at the nano-scale, my group hopes to increase
efficiency and reduce the costs of producing energy. Finally, my group applies Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique to investigate
the mass transport behaviors of water and fuel in a working PEM fuel cell.
- Developing coke resistant, sulfur tolerant and efficient cobalt and molybdenum based reforming catalysts for hydrogen production.
- Developing efficient and cost effective catalysts for low temperature fuel cells
- Developing high performing and stable nanobiocatalysts by immobilizing enzymes on various nanomaterials including carbon nanotube (CNT).
- Applying Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique to perform in-situ performance diagnosis of fuel cells
Biographical Information
Dr.
Ha received degrees in chemical engineering from
Selected Publications
- Lin, S.; Kim, D.; Ha, S. Hydrogen production from ethanol
steam reforming over supported cobalt catalysis. Submitted to Catalysis Letters.
- Flores, O.; Ha, S. Activity and stability of Mo2C
for isooctane steam reforming. Submitted to Catalysis Today.
- Jung, W.;Ha, S. Impedance
Electrochemical Spectroscopic Study of Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells. Journal of Power Sources (2007), 173(1),
53-59.
- Lin, S.; Ha, S.; Thomson, W. Steam reforming of methanol using
supported Mo2C catalysts.
Applied Catalysis A (2006), 318, 121-127.
- Fischback, M.; Youn, J.; Zhao, X.; Wang,
P.; Park, H.; Chang, H.; Kim, J.; Ha, S.
Miniature Biofuel Cells
with Improved Stability under Continuous Operation. Electroanalysis (2006), 18, 2016-2022.
- Ha, S.; Dunbar, Z.; Masel, R. I.
Characterization of High Performing Passive
Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell. Journal of Power
Sources (2006), 158(1), 129-136.
- Larsen, R.; Ha, S.; Zakzeski, J.;Masel, R. I. Unusually active palladium based
catalysts for the electrooxidation of formic
acid. Journal of Power Sources
(2006), 157(1), 78-84.
- Ha, S.; Larsen, R.;
Masel, R. I. Performance
characterization of Pd/C nanocatalyst for direct
formic acid fuel cells. Journal
of Power Sources (2005), 144(1), 28-34.
- Ha, S.; Dunbar, Z.; Masel, R. I.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Microscopy of
Operating Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell.
Proceedings
of the ACS National Meeting (2005), 230th.