Blue Hydrogen the focus of a Multi-University Student Design Competition
Each year, fourth-year McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering students take on a capstone project in CHE 473K. Known simply as “Plant” to seniors, they are tasked with designing and evaluating a relevant chemical process. At the end of their project, students make a recommendation to their management, in this case their professor and teaching assistant, as to whether their process design achieved the technical and economic objectives of their proposed client. During this exercise, students apply everything they’ve learned from their first CHE course Introduction to Computing (210) to their penultimate core courses in Separations (363) and Reactor Design (372).
This year’s problem statement, written by Associate Professor of Practice, David T. Dalle Molle, focuses on blue hydrogen production and serves as the AIChE National Student Design Contest problem used by chemical engineering departments across the country. “Not only will students apply creative problem-solving strategies to come up with a feasible design,” Dalle Molle said, “they must also address health, safety, and environmental considerations all while assessing the economics of their process.”
Brian Korgel, director of UT’s Energy Institute, emphasized the value of this focus, “The spring 2025 problem statement provides the perfect opportunity to educate our future leaders to not only improve process efficiencies and drive profits for the companies they will work for, but to also create more sustainable energy technology solutions that benefit society."
Professor Korgel, who also serves on the Texas Hydrogen Production Policy Council and as the academic lead for the Gulf Coast HyVelocity Hydrogen Hub, found this student design problem particularly well-aligned with Texas’ growing role in the hydrogen economy. From a brief discussion a year ago between Dalle Molle and Korgel, the Blue Hydrogen Regional Student Design Competition/Symposium took life.
On May 2, The University of Texas at Austin will host student teams from chemical engineering departments across three Texas universities: UT Austin, The University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Houston. Two teams from each participating school will compete for the best Blue Hydrogen Process Design, presenting their semester-long work to a panel of six judges and hydrogen practitioners from companies active in the growing Hydrogen economy: Air Products, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, Dow, ExxonMobil and Technip Energies. $7,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top-performing teams.
“It's exciting that our university is hosting this timely and relevant educational competition,” Korgel said. “This competition will educate more than 200 graduating students across these three universities in Texas and position them well to help drive our region as the global leader in hydrogen use and production.”
Engineering students, and anyone interested in learning more about this energy sector, are invited to attend:
Blue Hydrogen Student Design Competition
Friday, May 2, 2025
GLT 1.102/1.106
Student Presentations | 9:00-12:15PM
Industry Round Table | 1:00-2PM
Awards Ceremony | 2:00-2:30PM
