Research Interests:

Dr. Huang has dedicated his efforts to a variety of hydrogen related activities for the past eight years. In hydrogen production, he has developed expertise in thermochemical water splitting cycles. He has proposed and developed more than 15 innovative cycles for hydrogen production using both solar photonic energy and solar thermal energy. He is the recipient of the "Innovative Technology Award" given to U.S. researchers by the Scientific Committee of the 15^th International World Hydrogen Energy Conference (Yokohama Japan, 2004) for his conception of a novel new sulfur-ammonia water splitting cycle. He has published more than a dozen follow-up papers and has submitted two patents in this field. Dr. Huang has also engaged in hydrogen production research via other resources such as sub-quality natural gas, landfill gas and biomass. Dr. Huang has been an active researcher into hydrogen polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. His research focuses on the mitigation of fuel cell contaminants (such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and ammonia, etc). He has currently been invited to write Chapter 9, "Contamination Mitigation Strategies" of the "Fuel Cell Contamination" edited by National Research Council of Canada and to be published in June 2009 by CRC Publishers. In PEM fuel cell catalyst research he has specialized in preparing low noble metal loading and high efficiency catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction applications. Over the years, Dr Huang has explored a wide range of research areas. He has specialized in thermodynamic analyses, chemical engineering simulation and process design, photochemistry, heterogeneous catalysis and nanotechnology. These research activities have developed his recognized expertise in the preparation of high efficiency, nanosized photocatalysts for solar hydrogen production and nanosized metal alloys. In environmental research he has developed new hydrogen sulfide decomposition cycles, which produce hydrogen and elemental sulfur. He has also developed a process for converting sulfur dioxide generated by coal burning power plants into fertilizer and hydrogen.