The global economy is always changing, with industry becoming more demanding and more globalized. Young students, and engineering students in particular, need to be prepared for not only ever increasing skill requirements but also for collaborating with people and cultures from all over the world.
Zayira Quiroz, the global programs coordinator for the Division of Global Engagement at University of Louisiana at Lafayette said, “We all need to have this global mindset, it doesn’t matter what major or what you’re learning, because we are becoming more globalized every day.”
This is why UL Lafayette has chosen to collaborate with Chile’s University of Magallanes to create a new student exchange program.
The program known as the Collaborative Research and Knowledge Exchange in Sustainable Energy will involve some online instruction for both the American and Chilean students before the UL Lafayette students spend 10 days in Chile, later followed by Chilean students’ 10 day visit to Lafayette.
During their trip, the two cohorts will get to participate in activities where they will get to learn more about their hosts’ culture. Students will be accompanied by Dr. Terrence Chambers, the director of UL Lafayette’s Green Hydrogen Center of Excellence and the Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy Center.
They will be able to explore the local landscape by visiting the Torres del Paine National Park which features incredible forests, glaciers, and one of the most stunning mountain ranges in the hemisphere.
Students will also get to experience traditional cuisine, music and dance and will truly be able to immerse themselves in Chilean culture.
One of the other objectives of the exchange is for UL Lafayette to learn more about photovoltaic green hydrogen which is one of University Magallanes’ specialities. Hydrogen is an incredibly common and useful substance capable of fueling anything from cars to space crafts.
Since creating hydrogen fuel only involves splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, you don’t have to worry about any harmful emissions since the only byproduct is oxygen, hence the “green” in green hydrogen.
However, you still need electricity for the reaction, which is why to make the process even more eco-friendly, solar power is used to split the hydrogen and oxygen. This is where the word photovoltaic comes from, photo meaning light, voltaic meaning related to electricity.
While hydrogen energy is clean and renewable, there are some disadvantages, mainly cost-related. Electrolysis, the process of splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, is relatively expensive. Hydrogen is also highly volatile and flammable, making transporting and storing it difficult and expensive.
The cost of using green hydrogen has been a barrier to its implementation and the development of appropriate infrastructure, but there has been a rapid increase in green hydrogen projects recently. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 41 governments have a hydrogen strategy in place, with China leading in development and installation of electrolysers, making up over half of the world’s total.
Various other governments have also begun to offer funding to green hydrogen projects, though actual implementation of those funds and overall progress has been slow, with inflation only adding to that hindrance. Still, according to Reuters, “Hydrogen-dedicated renewable energy capacity is expected to grow by 45 GW between 2022 and 2028.”
This exchange could not only give UL Lafayette crucial information for its own green hydrogen program but could give students equally important experience.
“Once they graduate and have international experience, it will reflect when they start looking for jobs,” said Quiroz. Experience that will be indispensable for when those students enter the globalized workforce.