How do we efficiently store hydrogen for use as fuel when it behaves differently under certain conditions? Alauddin Ahmed, an associate research scientist in mechanical engineering, has been using resources provided by ITS’s Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team to answer this exact question in an effort to increase hydrogen’s usability as a promising vehicular fuel.
The density of hydrogen gas is very low per unit volume; this presents a challenge when trying to store large amounts of the gas in a car to be used as fuel leading to more frequent trips to refuel and ultimately a higher reliance on cars that burn gasoline. Ahmed theorized that using computational analysis, he could identify which materials would be able to store the most amount of hydrogen gas under variable conditions. In order to complete the computational analysis, he was in need of high performance computing resources: enter ARC.
With the help of ARC’s Lighthouse service, a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster that allows researchers to place their own hardware within ARC’s HPC environment, Ahmed was able to run calculations for 100,000 different materials to learn how efficient they would be when storing hydrogen. Using machine learning, he went on to run over one million calculations on the same 100,000 materials to understand how their efficiency is affected by changes in temperature and pressure. Completing such a large number of calculations by hand or even using the average computer would be nearly impossible. Using ARC’s resources, Ahmed has been able to discover the most efficient materials for storing hydrogen at different temperatures and pressures, initially identifying the top three materials for hydrogen storage at the time (there have since been additional discoveries, and Ahmed’s identified materials currently rank at two, three, and four in terms of storage efficiency). Ahmed and his co-authors have published their findings in several high-profile environmental science journals, including Nature Communications and Energy & Environmental Science.
“Without Advanced Research Computing services, it would not be possible to complete my work.”
Alauddin Ahmed, assistant research scientist in mechanical engineering
Alauddin Ahmed’s use of Advanced Research Computing resources is a perfect example of the importance of offering high-performance computing services to researchers across campus. His work in identifying the most efficient materials for storing and managing hydrogen, as well as his work with carbon capture and management, materials discovery and design, and artificial intelligence recently earned him a Research Faculty Recognition Award from the Office of Vice President for Research.
