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For Fun Sometimes I just put a map in the saddlebag, get on the bike and ride till I'm hungry or thirsty, pull out the map, figure out where I am, and ride to the nearest town. I've discovered the neatest little towns this way. And met some people this way too!

Read the synopsis of my novel.

See some of my random, assorted photos at: Other Photos

See some of my people pictures at: People Pics

Read poetry at: Poetry

Read my resume at: Resume

One of my favorite destinations in the U.S. is Southern Utah. The scenery is fantastic and there are many things for the outdoorsperson - hiking, kayaking, off-roading, and rock climbing to name a few.

Some of my work

The rates of reactions involving free radicals have been studied for decades by a technique known as resonance fluorescence. When I began studying these types of reactions, I was the first to discover that the technique could also be used to determine the rates of quenching of excited-state free radicals. I then used this technique to measure the rates of quenching of excited hydroxyl radicals by a number of different alkanes. I discovered that the rates of these quenching processes are correlated with bond dissociation energies of the alkanes. I then reviewed literature values for the rates of quenching of excited hyrdroxyl radicals by a series of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) and discovered that these quenching rates are also correlated to the bond dissociation energies of the CFC’s. I believe this is evidence that quenching of excited hydroxyl radicals by these compounds occurs via chemical reaction. However, if these are chemical reactions, they are not only a new class of chemical reaction, they would also be the fastest chemical reactions ever discovered. These would be a potentially important class of chemical reactions because they would represent a new removal process for stratospheric CFC’s and will help to eliminate future holes in the earth’s ozone layer.

I invented a remote sensor for measuring pollution in the exhaust of on-road vehicles. Patent #5,591,975 and Patent #5,797,682. The remote sensor is able to measure the exhaust pollution of vehicles while they are driving on the road. The measurements are complete within 0.5 seconds of the car driving by the sensor - without any inconvenience to the driver. This device was developed into a commercial device known as Smog Dog, which has been used in research studies around the world. (See a photo of Smog Dog in action at: Smog Dog). In 1992, I organized and managed the largest study of vehicle exhaust emissions ever conducted up to that time. During that study, we measured the emissions of over 50,000 vehicles as they drove past remote sensors. The vehicles we identified as having high emissions were stopped by the police and the drivers asked to voluntarily participate in our study. For those that agreed to participate, their vehicle was given conventional emissions tests and then, if necessary, repaired. All free of charge to the owners. An on-line abstract of one of the many reports that came out of this study can be found here: Remote Sensing Study. (This must've been scanned by OCR and not proofread - grammatical errors not mine).

The study was a joint effort of the U.S. EPA, the State of Michigan, and the Big 3 - GM, Ford, and Chrysler. From my research of vehicle exhaust pollution, I developed a “model” that described the distribution of emission levels from in-use vehicles. I presented my findings in written testimony to the United States Senate. Later, Dr. Ross of the University of Michigan’s Physics Department published his own work, plotting distributions as I had done and dubbing it the “Stephens Plot”. Thank you Dr. Ross.

As a footnote, environmentalists and politicians created a brouhaha over Smog Dog. The state of Arizona passed a law requiring their use for identifying high emitting vehicles, then subsequently repealed the law. It ended up in court. See the story at: The Judge Speaks

Using infrared absorbances of vehicle exhaust hydrocarbons, I demonstrated the theoretical capability of an infrared device (used in conjunction with an FID) to rapidly measure the ozone-forming reactivity of vehicle exhaust.

Cars on the road today use internal combustion engines that derive power from the conversion of gasoline to (primarily) water and CO2, a greenhouse gas. Fuel cell vehicles offer the potential of eliminating the emission of CO2 and eliminating vehicles as one source of global warming. Rather than burning gasoline, a fuel cell vehicle catalytically combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, and in the process, generate electricity which is used by electric motors that propel the vehicle. Hence, fuel cell vehicles will emit only water - a compound that cycles rapidly through the atmosphere and is already abundantly present.

However, for fuel cell vehicles to ever be commercially viable four major problems must be overcome. They are 1) developing a method to produce hydrogen from renewable and non-greenhouse gas producing processes, 2) developing the infrastructure to distribute hydrogen, 3) reducing the cost of fuel cells to a price level that make them viable for automobiles, and 4) developing a way to store enough hydrogen on-board a vehicle so that vehicle range can meet consumer demand.

Unlike gasoline, hydrogen is a gaseous compound. Consequently, it is difficult to store enough on a vehicle to provide a 300 mile or so range, typical of today's vehicles. Automakers are considering several options to solve this problem. One option is to store hydrogen in high-pressure tanks. To date, it hasn't been possible to store enough hydrogen in this fashion to provide the desired range. Also, high pressure tanks are expensive and potentially dangerous. It also requires a significant amount of energy to compress hydrogen. Another option is to liquify hydrogen and store the liquid hydrogen on the vehicle in cryogenic tanks. These tanks would not need to sustain the pressures of high pressure gas tanks previously mentioned, but would require insulation to maintain the hydrogen at extremely low temperatures. These systems can provide the desired range, but liquification of hydrogen requires a lot of energy - almost 1/3 of the energy content of the hydrogen itself. Another problem is that cryogenic storage systems are very expensive. And lastly, they also have one significant shortcoming - it is impossible to prevent the hydrogen from slowly boiling away. I'd hate to return from a long trip only to find my car at the airport without any fuel. Another option that is being actively researched are "hydride" materials. The most promising of these are metallic compounds that react with hydrogen in a reversible fashion - that is, by manipulating conditions such as pressure and temperature it's possible to make these compounds alternately absorb and release hydrogen. These compounds would reside in a "fuel" tank on the vehicle. A driver would stop in a hydrogen filling station and add hydrogen to the tank. The hydrogen would react with the metallic storage material to become a hydride. After driving away, heat would be added to the hydride and hydrogen would be released for use by the fuel cell. Although many potential candidate materials have been identified, to date no metallic hydride has been found that fully meets the demanding requirements of a fuel cell vehicle. My latest professional challenge is working to resolve the problems of hydrogen storage.