Andres Hernandez Gonzalez '24, a mechanical engineering concentrator at the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been an undergraduate researcher with the Harvard-China Project for more than two years. He earned a spot in the 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Assistantships program, where he worked on "Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia as Energy Carriers." He has since been employed as a Research Assistant, where he helps Dr. Haiyang Lin, postdoctoral fellow, with research on hydrogen. He shares more about his research and experience at HCP.
"My favorite conversations at Harvard have all been on the future of energy systems. For a long time now I have been interested in hydrogen, which evolved early in my college career. During the pandemic there was plenty of free time to explore and research alternative fuel sources, and I enjoyed learning about what SEAS offers in the energy sector – particularly the work from professors like Dr. Michael McElory and Dr. Michael Aziz.
The research we are working on at the Harvard-China Project is exploring cost calculations that can be used to determine the total costs for transporting hydrogen via pipelines from a location of production to a location of consumption. This is a small piece of our overall research: trying to determine the best method to develop hydrogen infrastructure in particular locations. We are going from a single station producing its own hydrogen to a wide network of gas pipeline supply stations and finally comparing the costs and feasibility of the infrastructure. We have been adding on to the research from the 2022 summer and we do this to tell the full story of hydrogen.
Throughout this research I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Hayiang Lin. He has been an integral part in my mentor system with whom I always come to with questions and he responds with guidance. Not only that, he is a very caring and very inviting person who promotes a welcoming environment. He has greatly impacted my experience in a positive way. I am thankful for having a mentor like Dr. Lin and for everyone else at HCP.
Research challenges always present themselves at inconvenient times; however they also present new opportunities. One of my favorites has been creating models using Matlab to determine the lowest cost for hydrogen. This has been exciting because we finally connect all the work that has been done before to produce actual results based on our own calculations. We took the cost equations and, using our own inputs, developed and optimized the system. This shows how much hydrogen would cost to be produced and transported based on a hypothetical infrastructure layout. When both the numbers and the validation methods line up this becomes a very satisfying moment.
As I approach my senior year, I know that the time will fly by. I have hopes of achieving some great things and have set two main goals. The first is that I actually want to become an expert on hydrogen. As the world transitions to newable resources, I hope that my work here with HCP and my research to come in the future will allow me to be a resource. In addition, being a mechanical engineer with an entrepreneurial mindset, I hope to eventually own a business where I can apply both my expertise and engineering knowledge."