Fabien Goulay, assistant professor in West Virginia University C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry, has been awarded a $100,000 American Chemical Society—Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grant for his research uncovering new ways to produce cleaner energy sources and lower emissions.

The New Investigator Grant, which is offered to professors with research groups at institutions offering doctorates in chemistry, is a form of “seed funding” to help launch their independent research careers.

Goulay is working to reduce soot and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by lowering emissions from burning fossil fuels. His research, he said, could improve the efficiency of energy production and aid in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and lower energy costs.

Consider the complex chemistry within a car that begins when gasoline, a liquid, is vaporized into a gas. The result is heat and pressure, which are transferred into energy to make the car move.

Cars are powered using fossil fuels, which release a significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Hydrogen, Goulay said, offers a promising alternative for clean energy, but it’s produced by combustion of fossil fuels. Developing a clean source of it is key.

“Hydrogen will be a good source of energy, only if we can find a cheap and efficient way of making it,” he said.

Goulay came to WVU in 2011 and specializes in physical chemistry.

For more information, contact Fabien Goulay, at 304-293-5279 or Fabien.Goulay@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

ma/09/24/13

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