Powering the Future

UNM research improves fuel cell technology

With growing pressure on conventional energy sources, researchers and companies around the world are racing to find new sources of energy. One way is to improve fuel cell technology. Fuel cells, which use electrochemical processes to turn chemical energy in hydrogen gas and oxygen into electricity, were invented in 1838. Because of the lack of necessary infrastructure, engineering challenges, and cost drawbacks, fuel cells haven't gained traction as a primary power source.

At UNM, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Plamen Atanassov is working to change that. Atanassov is involved in fuel cell research and in teaching the next generation of engineers to develop better fuel cell technology. He is leading several student teams in researching novel materials for fuel cells, bio sensors, and bio fuel cells. "We're using nanotechnology approaches to design materials to address key issues in fuel cell development," explains Atanassov. Two of those key issues are the durability and affordability of fuel cell materials.

A team of Ph.D. students working with Atanassov is addressing both factors. The students are trying to lower the cost and improve the performance of the catalytic layer in the cathode side of the fuel cell. "Our group is among many in this country that are making a very serious contribution in this research," says Atanassov. "Most of the teams, however, are from industry or the national labs. We're among the few well-recognized academic groups in the area."

Atanassov's team analyze processes, create new materials, and then run tests on a fuel cell test station that measures their success in an actual fuel cell environment. Two students are optimizing the catalyst materials, while a third is studying the interface between the materials. Atanassov and his team's nanoscale changes have big implications for a better, more sustainable way to power the future.

In 2006, the Department of Defense awarded a $3.5 million grant to UNM and its collaborators to study fuel cell research. Atanassov is the principal investigator for a research project titled, "Fundamentals and Bioengineering of Enzymatic Fuel Cells." When announcing the grant, U.S. Senator Pete Domenici said, "I commend UNM for being the recipient of this competitive research money. Studying and developing natural sources of power has become an emerging priority. This is a tremendous opportunity for UNM to advance communication mechanisms for our men and women in uniform."

Big Ideas on a Small Scale

The days of drawing large vials of blood for lab tests may soon be over, thanks to a group of engineers and researchers at UNM's Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering. The multidisciplinary team is developing microfluidic devices that require just a few drops to conduct multiple "assays," or tests, to determine whether particular biochemicals are present in a fluid. The devices would test a blood sample for a number of diseases, analyze water for different toxins, or even test air samples for the presence of bacterial spores. But their size is the real surprise - the devices are so small they are measured in microns, a scale where 1,000 micros equal one millimeter.

Gabriel López, professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, is the lead principal investigator on the project. He says that the devices would have a number of benefits. "Right now, if you need multiple blood tests, they have to take a lot of blood from you and run the tests separately. These microfluidic devices can do multiple analyses all at once. If we can made a small device that uses very small samples to do multiple tests, then they don't have to take as much blood, the analysis can be faster, and less expensive too," explains López.

The process depends on teamwork. The research group includes about 15 researchers from Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Chemistry, UNM School of Medicine, and the Center for High Technology Materials.

A five-year research project is funded by a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. López says the competition for the grant dollars was extremely intense and UNM's study was one of the largest funded by the organization.

Math in Cancer Research

In 2000, a team of medical researchers at the UNM School of Medicine collected microarrays - slides with DNA chips - from 257 children with an aggressive form of cancer called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Each microarray contained 12,625 "probe sets." Each of those probe sets essentially represented the strength of a single gene from the patient.

Professors Helman and Veroff used a mathematical model called a Bayesian network, or "Bayesian net" to find meaningful patterns in the data. In 2001, they started customizing a Bayesian network to handle the huge volume of data from the medical school's microarrays. There were more pattern possibilities than there are atoms in the universe. By the summer of 2002, the process found a pattern - an a medical discovery. "Amazingly, our Bayesian net revealed that thee was one particular gene that was extremely predictive of whether or not someone would survive their leukemia. When that gene was "expressed' - or turned on - the patient had an extremely high probability of surviving their leukemia. When it was low, the probability wasn't as good," explains Helman.

Helman's and Veroff's blending of classical mathematical theories and computer science is unique. While many researchers are looking at microarrays, few are applying Bayesian nets to analyze data like the UNM team does.

Engineers and Doctors Collaborate to Improve Medical Techniques

More than 400 broken jaws a year walk and roll through the doors of the University of New Mexico Hospital every year. Most are males, 16 to 40 years old, most are uninsured, and most are facing major surgery with plates and screws to pull the pieces back together. This assembly line of misery bothered Dr. Jon Wagner, a plastic surgeon at the trauma center.

His concern is the brute force it takes to make repairs using current methods. He must make incisions though the face to insert the titanium plates, bending them with heavy tools to fit the curve of the jaw and drilling holes in the bone to insert screws that hold the plate in place.

It is very invasive surgery and has a complication rate of up to 30 percent as the stresses of biting and chewing pull the screws loose, or dislodge the plates or create infections.

Wagner's instincts told him there had to be a better way, but tinkering in the evening in his medical lab wasn’t solving the problem. So he began talking with engineers.

Engineering Implants

Mechanical Engineering professor Tariq Khraishi (left) looked at the problem and told him it could be analyzed with standard engineering software using finite-element modeling, a computer design software the National Science Foundation has supported for years.

Wagner said that sounded like Greek to him, but he believed them when they told him they could tackle the problem with lots of information about jaws, and a very enthusiastic graduate student.

Khraishi had a master’s degree student looking for an interesting problem and Scott Lovald (right) plunged into the complexities of getting information about the stresses and strains of the human jaw from the software program.

It took three years, but Lovald, who had begun to modify the software along the way began coming up with answers. The plates didn’t have to be as heavy as the ones manufacturers recommended to bridge most fractures.

And they could be reshaped and modified to be lighter and more specialized for different kinds of fractures and patients.

Wagner now had scientific information to back up his instinct; and began using the smaller lighter plates normally used for bone fractures in the upper jaw on the bottom jaw, inserting them from inside the mouth.

That eliminated the facial scars, and the complication rate plunged. It worked so well that he has submitted a paper to the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, a scientific journal read by other surgeons.

Working with Industry

Wagner gets most of the hardware he implants in patients from one company in Germany, Stryker-Leibinger.

The company has been keeping an eye on Wager’s work and has been intrigued enough with the initial results to fund a yearly $30,000 fellowship in the UNM School of Engineering’s Mechanical Engineering Department for the next five years.

It’s the largest corporate investment in the department’s history.

Khraishi Expands His Interest

A mechanical engineering professor with even a modest amount of corporate investment can make great progress on problems, and Khraishi now has his first Stryker-Leibinger Biomechanics Fellow, Victor Caraveo, analyzing fractures under differing bite forces.

Another graduate student, Julie Kimsal, is working on a jaw fracture located in a different part of the jaw.

Khraishi is now intrigued with the idea of helping UNM surgeons solve real-life problems and he is now working with surgeons in the Neurosurgery and Orthopedic Departments to solve other problems of concern to them.

Lovald now has his master’s degree in manufacturing engineering and another degree as a Master of Business Administration.

He and another MBA student, Ryan Smith, are trying to build Satyrne Biotechnologies, a start-up company based on Lovald’s software and plate redesigns.

Lovald and Smiths team pitch for the start-up company has landed them awards at several business technology competitions.

They have just received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use one of their plates in surgical settings. With that approval, they hope to find a way to manufacture the redesigned plates so that surgeons like Wagner can actually begin using them.

Read the story in the UNM School of Engineering Fall 07 magazine (PDF).