Thomas Trabold - Featured Faculty 2018

Food waste is recognized as a major global problem, with at least 30% of food produced in the U.S. never being consumed by humans. The conventional end-of-life treatment methods fail to utilize the embodied energy and water resources of these materials, and there is now significant interest in developing cost-effective alternatives based on biochemical and thermochemical processes. Dr. Trabold and his students have analyzed the environmental benefits of anaerobic digestion, in which microorganisms convert food waste in the absence of oxygen into biogas comprised mostly of methane (CH4), useful as a renewable replacement for fossil natural gas. Recent research has focused on applying thermochemical processes of gasification and pyrolysis, whereby food waste is processed at 500–800oC under reduced oxygen conditions to yield hydrogen-rich syngas and a solid carbon material called “biochar”, suitable as a sustainable fertilizer or adsorption medium. The recently published book Sustainable Food Waste-to-Energy Systems, co-edited by Trabold and Dr. Callie Babbitt, presents various food waste conversion technologies, as well as environmental, economic and policy analyses of these systems.

The other part of Dr. Trabold’s research program involves mobile fuel cell systems that combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to produce electrical power. By using high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cell materials such as polybenzimidazole doped with phosphoric acid, the fuel cell can run at temperatures up to 200oC with tolerance for high levels of carbon monoxide. This approach avoids the need for ultra-pure hydrogen, and enables use of readily available hydrocarbon fuels as a hydrogen source. We are now using this technology to develop a fuel cell power plant for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that may have performance and durability advantages over small internal combustion engines and batteries.

Dr. Trabold’s research prior activities have had a strong application focus, resulting in over 50 U.S. and international patents. Recent Ph.D. dissertation projects have produced patent applications for a compact fuel cell systems based on an integrated propane reformer and HT-PEM fuel cell stack, and novel printing inks using biochar as a sustainable replacement for carbon black. Future research will contribute to fuel cells that run on renewable hydrogen derived from waste biomass resources, to ultimately develop energy systems that minimize cost and net greenhouse gas emissions.

Thomas Trabold
Associate Professor and Department Head
Golisano Institute for Sustainability