Associate Professor and Co-Director, Center for Sustainable Mobility

Golisano Institute for Sustainability
Rochester Institute of Technology
111 Lomb Memorial Drive 78-2412
Rochester, NY 14623
tatasp@rit.edu
585-475-4696
http://www.sustainability.rit.edu

Curriculum vitae

Research Overview

Areas of Technical Specialization: Energy systems, fuel cells, nuclear thermal-hydraulics, neutron measurement methods, coating processes, two-phase flow, free and impinging jets, fluid mechanics instruments

Prospective Students

Teaching

Current and Recently Completed Projects

Food Processing Waste Feedstocks for Energy Production Via Anaerobic Co-Digestion; PI.

Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Waste Feedstocks; PI.

Investigation of Micro- and Macro-Scale Transport Processes for Improved Fuel Cell Performance; Co-PI.

Cooking Oil-to-Fuel Comprehensive Program; Co-PI.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Development; Co-PI.

Presentations

Trabold, T. A. "Fuel Reforming for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Durability Effects and Renewable Fuel Options." Graduate Seminar Series. Department of Chemical Engineering. Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. November 3, 2011. Guest Lecture.

Trabold, T. A. "Durability of SOFC-based Auxiliary Power Units." Advanced Energy Conference. Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center. Hyatt Regency, Buffalo, NY. October 12, 2011. Conference Presentation.

Trabold, T. A. "Fuel Cells for Mobility, Auxiliary Power and Stationary Power Systems." Guest Lecture Series. Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. September 30, 2011. Guest Lecture.

Publications

Liu, X., Lin, J., McConnaghy, K.M., Trabold, T.A., Gagliardo, J.J., Owejan, J.P., "Investigation of Channel-to-Manifold Water Transport in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells." Proceedings of the ASME 2012 6th International Conference on Energy Sustainability & 10th Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology Conference ESFuelCell2012, San Diego, CA. July 23-26, 2012.

Rankin, M.J., Trabold, T.A., Williamson, A.A., Augustine, M., "Analysis of Dairy Manure and Food Manufacturing Waste as Feedstocks for Sustainable Energy Production via Anaerobic Digestion." Proceedings of the ASME 2012 6th International Conference on Energy Sustainability & 10th Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology Conference ESFuelCell2012, San Diego, CA. July 23-26, 2012.

Lin, J., Walluk, M.R., Smith, D.F., Trabold, T.A., "Mitigation of Carbon Formation During Autothermal Reforming of Biodiesel for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications." Proceedings of the ASME 2012 6th International Conference on Energy Sustainability & 10th Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology Conference ESFuelCell2012, San Diego, CA. July 23-26, 2012.

Trabold, T.A., Lylak, J.S., Walluk, M.R., Lin, J.F., Troiani, D.R., "Measurement and analysis of carbon formation during diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cells." International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 37 (6), 5190-5201. 2012.

Owejan, J.P., Gagliardo, J.J., Reid, R.C., Trabold, T.A., "Proton transport resistance correlated to liquid water content of gas diffusion layers." Journal of Power Sources, 209 (1 ), 147–151. 2012.

Trabold, T.A., Ramchandra, R., Haselkorn, M.H., Williamson, A.A., “Analysis of waste-to-energy opportunities in the New York State food processing industry.” Proceedings of the ASME 5th International Conference on Energy Sustainability. Ed. P. Singh. Washington, D.C.: ASME, 2011.

Lin, J., Smith, D.F., Babbitt, C.W., Trabold, T.A., “Assessment of bio-fuel options for solid oxide fuel cell-based auxiliary power units.” accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology, Chicago, IL, May 16-18, 2011.

Owejan, J.P., Owejan, J.E., Gu, W., Trabold, T.A., Tighe, T.W., Mathias, M.F., “Water Transport Mechanisms in PEMFC Gas Diffusion Layers.” Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 157, B1456-B1464 (2010).

Daino, M.M., Lu, Z., LaManna, J.M., Owejan, J.P., Trabold, T.A., Kandlikar, S.G., “Through-Plane Water Transport Visualization in an Operating PEM Fuel Cell by Visible and Infrared Imaging.” Electrochem. Solid-State Lett., 14, (6), B51-B54 (2011).

Trabold, T.A., Owejan, J.P., Gagliardo, J.J., Jacobson, D.L., Hussey, D.S., Arif, M., “Use of Neutron Imaging for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) Performance Analysis and Design.” in Handbook of Fuel Cells: Advances in Electrocatalysis, Materials, Diagnostics and Durability, Volumes 5 & 6, Vielstich, W. et al. (Eds.), John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester, UK, pp. 658-672 (2009).

Patents

Co-inventor of 27 U.S. patents and 45 patents-pending, and 8 international patents, including:

Whitehead, L.C., Falta, S.R., Trabold, T.A., Owejan, J.P., Tighe, T.W., “Water removal features for PEMFC stack manifolds.” U.S. Patent 8,168,340. May 1, 2012.

Trabold, T.A., Falta, S.R., Rapaport, P.A., Datta, R.L., Dadheech, G.Y., “Bipolar plate hydrophilic treatment for stable fuel cell stack operation at low power.” U.S. Patent 8,053,133. November 8, 2011.

Owejan, J.P., Tighe, T.W., Trabold, T.A., Rock, J.A., “Water removal system for non-reactive regions in PEMFC stacks.” U.S. Patent 8,034,502. October 11, 2011.

Vyas, G., Trabold, T.A., Gaarenstroom, S.W., “Method to make conductive hydrophilic fuel cell element.” U.S. Patent 8,029,943. October 4, 2011.

Winter, G., Vyas, G., Trabold, T.A., Datta, R.L., “Hydrophilic coating for fuel cell bipolar plate and methods of making the same.” U.S. Patent 7,935,381. May 3, 2011.

Trabold, T.A., Owejan, J.P., Spencer, S.J., Rock, J.A., Dadheech, G.V., “Bipolar plate with inlet and outlet water management features.” U.S. Patent 7,901,832. March 8, 2011.

Vyas, G., Abd Elhamid, M.H., Mikhail, Y.M., Trabold, T.A., “Surface engineering of bipolar plate materials for better water management.” U.S. Patent 7,897,295. March 1, 2011.

Owejan, J.P., Falta, S.R., Rapaport, P.A., Trabold, T.A., Tighe, T.W., Whitehead, L.C., “Water removal channel for PEM fuel cell stack headers.” U.S. Patent 7,862,936. January 4, 2011.

Trabold, T.A. and Falta, S.R., “Fuel cell flooding detection.” U.S. Patent 7,781,118, August 24, 2010.

Owejan, J.P., Ji, C., Trabold, T.A., Cartwright, M., Goebel, S.G., “Water blocking layer and wicking reservoir for PEMFC.” U.S. Patent 7,749,637. July 6, 2010.

Tighe, T.W., Owejan, J.P., Darga, D.J., Rapaport, P.A., Rock, J.A., Trabold, T.A., “Bifurcations of flow channels in bipolar plate flowfields.” U.S. Patent 7,718,298. May 18, 2010.

Vyas, G., Trabold, T.A., Abd Elhamid, M.H., Mikhail, Y.M., Gordon, R., Pang, D., “Fuel cell component having a durable conductive and hydrophilic coating.” U.S. Patent 7,550,222. June 23, 2009.

Trabold, T.A., “PEM fuel cell stack with coated flow distribution network.” U.S. Patent 7,306,874, December 11, 2007.

Trabold, T.A., Schoeneweiss, M.R. and Scozzafava, M., “Methods for forming a catalyst coating on a base board,” Japanese Patent JP3825019B2. September 20, 2006.

Trabold, T.A., Owejan, J.P., “Flow field geometries for improved water management.” U.S. Patent 7,087,337. August 8, 2006.

Trabold, T.A., Schoeneweiss, M.R., “PEM fuel cell stack without gas diffusion media.” U.S. Patent 6,916,573, July 12, 2005.

Trabold, T.A., Dunham, R.F. and Hammond, J.M., “Coating die with laser position sensors.” U.S. Patent 6,863,730. March 8, 2005.

Trabold, T.A., Dunham, R.F. and Hammond, J.M., “Coating process for coating die with laser position sensors.” U.S. Patent 6,706,315. March 16, 2004.

Trabold, T.A., “Multi-layer slot coating die with selective ultrasonic assist.” U.S. Patent 6,702,195. March 9, 2004.