Asbury University Chemistry majors Silas Behnke ’26 and Ethan Douglas Sherman ’27 recently presented research at the Tri-State Catalysis Society 2025 Annual Symposium.
“I’m incredibly proud of all Silas and Ethan have accomplished working with One Scientific and The Shepherd Chemical Company,” said faculty advisor and Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Wilson Shafer. “If you give them a tough problem, they will take it and run.”
Behnke worked with One Scientific on a project titled, “Thermo-catalytic Production of Hydrogen Under a Magnetic Field.”
“This project seeks to understand the mechanism behind a new method of hydrogen production,” Behnke said. “The end goal of this project is to bring accessible energy to remote regions of the world, providing a sustainable medium for energy storage and getting away from batteries that are full of heavy metals.”
According to Behnke, “Experimental trials support the viability of magnetic-field-assisted catalysis in hydrogen evolution and highlight its potential for scalability in industrial applications. The study provides compelling evidence for an alternative production paradigm in which hydrogen can be generated sustainably, thus contributing to global decarbonization efforts and supporting future clean energy infrastructure.”
Sherman worked with The Shepherd Chemical Company on a project titled, “Chromatographic and Infrared Analysis of Molybdenum Octoate.”
“Molybdenum Octoate is the precursor to an important catalyst used in the petroleum industry. However, its molecular structure is unknown,” Sherman said. “We (meaning Dr. Wilson Shafer, Dr. Rob Hart from Shepherd Chemical, and alumna Katherine Stanley ’24, and I) set out to see if the molecule actually had multiple forms, which would explain the difficulty of pinning its shape down so far.”
Sherman and his colleagues approached the project from two directions: Dr. Hart and Stanley created computer models, while Dr. Shafer, Sherman, and Sarah Straith (a high-school student interested in the project) used the technique of cation-exchange chromatography to separate the mixture (a thick black liquid) into separate “fractions,” which ranged in color from dark red to yellow to blue. The team obtained FT-IR (Fourier-transform infrared) and Raman spectra of the separate fractions.
“I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of a much larger project and have loved the hands-on work,” Behnke said. “I’ve been grateful for the freedom of curiosity that we have while working on this project. The opportunity to present this research was also a great opportunity to be asked questions that I’d not considered before and to form more well-rounded ideas regarding processes and design.”
Asbury University plays a pivotal role in a cutting-edge project to produce clean hydrogen energy. Partnering with Virginia Tech and Cincinnati-based Shepherd Chemical, the Shaw School of Sciences received $320,000 to help develop innovative methods for breaking down methane into hydrogen. This three-year initiative seeks to create scalable, carbon-free hydrogen production, revolutionizing the clean energy landscape. Learn more.
The Shaw School of Sciences offers 14 majors and six minors, including biology, chemistry, and physics. The Walt and Rowena Shaw Collaborative Learning Center (Shaw CLC) offers 11 laboratories, with spaces dedicated to eDNA research, cell and molecular biochemistry, ecology and environmental science, physics, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, instrumentation, biology preparation, chemistry preparation, and collaborative innovation.