Shahzad Akbar

University Professor Helps Develop Clean Green Battery

Those old household batteries that get tossed into the trash can—instead of the recycling bin—end up in landfills where their toxic metals leak into the soil and water, contaminating the environment and threatening human health. So scientists, like Dr. Shahzad Akbar, are working toward developing a cleaner, more environmentally friendly technology that might replace chemical batteries in future.
  
A computer engineering professor at Virginia State University, Akbar joined a team of scientists led by Dr. Zhiyu Hu at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn., this summer, in an ongoing effort to convert chemical energy into electricity using nanotechnology. The project aims to generate electricity from renewable fuel such as methanol without using conventional combustion. Instead, new nano-constructed materials would be used to react with the methanol and oxygen to generate heat.

Akbar’s involvement in the project was supported by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Education Institutions Faculty Summer Research Program, which is sponsored jointly by ORNL and by Oak Ridge Associated Universities. The program is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, ORNL’s partner for science education.

Akbar’s contribution involves developing new nano-constructed thin film materials — less than 1 percent of the width of a human hair — and testing their properties suitable for the generation of electricity from heat. He also helps to set up scientific equipment to monitor the flow of methanol and air mixtures to generate electrical power, and he records electrical voltages produced under varying operating conditions.

“The summer research experience at ORNL has benefited me not only by providing me the opportunity to engage in thermoelectric research with facilities and equipment not available at my university but also by establishing valuable contacts with world renowned researchers in the field,” he said.

Originally from Pakistan, Akbar has lived in many parts of the United States but now calls Richmond, Va., home, where he lives with his wife and two young boys. Akbar obtained his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University, a master’s degree from MIT, and a bachelor’s degree from Lafayette College. He spent many years working in industry at IBM and Siemens before joining the academic community and conducting research at national labs.