From The University of Adelaide (AU) Via “COSMOS (AU)” : “Green hydrogen produced with near 100% efficiency using seawater”

From The University of Adelaide (AU)

Via

“COSMOS (AU)”

1.31.23
Evrim Yazgin

Credit: Abstract Aerial Art / DigitalVision / Getty.

It’s not quite splitting the Red Sea, but new research into splitting seawater to produce hydrogen may be a scientific miracle that puts us on a path to replacing fossil fuels with the environmentally-friendly alternative.

“We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 percent efficiency, to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis, using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyzer,” says project leader Professor Shi-Zhang Qiao from the University of Adelaide’s School of Chemical Engineering.

Electrolysis is the process of splitting water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. So, the process itself requires energy.

The process also requires catalysts. But not all catalysts are created equal. Catalysts used in electrolysis tend to be rare precious metals like iridium, ruthenium and platinum.

Typical non-precious catalysts are transition metal oxide catalysts, for example cobalt oxide coated with chromium oxide.

The new breakthrough in splitting seawater to produce green energy was achieved by adding a layer of Lewis acid (a specific type of acid, for example chromium(III) oxide, Cr2O3) on top of the transition metal oxide catalyst.

While using cheaper materials, the process is shown to be very effective.

“The performance of a commercial electrolyzer with our catalysts running in seawater is close to the performance of platinum/iridium catalysts running in a feedstock of highly purified deionized water,” explains the University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor Yao Zheng.

Another typical part of the electrolysis process is some form of treatment of the water. For that reason, freshwater is the main source of green hydrogen. But freshwater is increasingly scarce.

So, scientists are looking to seawater, particularly in regions with long coastlines and abundant sunlight.

“We used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkalisation,” Zheng adds. “Current electrolyzers are operated with highly purified water electrolyte. Increased demand for hydrogen to partially or totally replace energy generated by fossil fuels will significantly increase scarcity of increasingly limited freshwater resources.”

Seawater electrolysis is relatively new compared to pure water electrolysis. Complications include side reactions on the electrodes, as well as corrosion.

“It is always necessary to treat impure water to a level of water purity for conventional electrolyzers including desalination and deionization, which increases the operation and maintenance cost of the processes,” Zheng says. “Our work provides a solution to directly utilize seawater without pre-treatment systems and alkali addition, which shows similar performance as that of existing metal-based mature pure water electrolyzer.”

The team hopes to scale their experiment up for commercial production in generating hydrogen fuel cells and ammonia synthesis.

Their research is published in Nature Energy.

See the full article here.

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The University of Adelaide is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university’s main campus is located on North Terrace in the Adelaide city centre, adjacent to the Art Gallery of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the State Library of South Australia.

The university has four campuses, three in South Australia: North Terrace campus in the city, Roseworthy campus at Roseworthy and Waite campus at Urrbrae, and one in Melbourne, Victoria. The university also operates out of other areas such as Thebarton, the National Wine Centre in the Adelaide Park Lands, and in Singapore through the Ngee Ann-Adelaide Education Centre.

The University of Adelaide is composed of five faculties, with each containing constituent schools. These include the Faculty of Engineering, Computer, and Mathematical Sciences (ECMS), the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of the Professions, and the Faculty of Sciences. It is a member of The Group of Eight and The Association of Commonwealth Universities. The university is also a member of the Sandstone universities, which mostly consist of colonial-era universities within Australia.

The university is associated with five Nobel laureates, constituting one-third of Australia’s total Nobel Laureates, and 110 Rhodes scholars. The university has had a considerable impact on the public life of South Australia, having educated many of the state’s leading business people, lawyers, medical professionals and politicians. The university has been associated with many notable achievements and discoveries, such as the discovery and development of penicillin, the development of space exploration, sunscreen, the military tank, Wi-Fi, polymer banknotes and X-ray crystallography, and the study of viticulture and oenology.

Research

The University of Adelaide is one of the most research-intensive universities in Australia, securing over $180 million in research funding annually. Its researchers are active in both basic and commercially oriented research across a broad range of fields including agriculture, psychology, health sciences, and engineering.

Research strengths include engineering, mathematics, science, medical and health sciences, agricultural sciences, artificial intelligence, and the arts.

The university is a member of Academic Consortium 21, an association of 20 research intensive universities, mainly in Oceania, though with members from the US and Europe. The university held the Presidency of AC 21 for the period 2011–2013 as host the biennial AC21 International Forum in June 2012.

The Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR), based at the University of Adelaide, was founded in 1973 as the Road Accident Research Unit and focuses on road safety and injury control.

From Rutgers University: “Rutgers Powers Up for Offshore Wind Energy Research”

Our Great Seal.

From Rutgers University

1.26.23
Margaret McHugh

While there are 10,000 offshore wind turbines operating between Europe and Asia, the U.S. currently has only seven, said Kris Ohleth, the keynote speaker at the symposium and director of the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind. Credit: Jeff Arban/Rutgers University.

Rutgers researchers recently shared their expertise in offshore wind energy with each other and those expected to play a key role in New Jersey’s effort to help the nation fight global warming by shifting to offshore wind energy.

“We’re well positioned to support needs of the offshore wind industry,” said Denise Hien, vice provost for research at Rutgers-New Brunswick at the Rutgers University Offshore Wind Energy Symposium.

Organized by the Rutgers Offshore Wind Collaborative, the symposium attracted nearly 200 registrants – from academics at Rutgers and other state universities, to fishermen, environmentalists, nonprofit leaders, industry representatives and government officials. Gov. Phil Murphy has set a goal for the Garden State to generate 11 gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind energy by 2040.

“The collaborative brings together the tremendous expertise at Rutgers, creating an opportunity for sharing the broad diversity of capabilities needed to achieve the governor’s goals for offshore wind energy,” said Peggy Brennan-Tonetta, senior associate director of Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) and one of the collaborative’s three leaders.

More than 40 Rutgers faculty – including experts in marine and environmental sciences, engineering, business, economics, public policy and psychology at Rutgers–Camden, Rutgers–Newark, Rutgers–New Brunswick, NJAES and Rutgers Cooperative Extension – have joined the collaborative, and participation is growing, Brennan-Tonetta said.

The symposium included five-minute “lightening talks” from 20 professors about their research. Topics included turbine technology, power storage, ocean and marine life monitoring, wind speed forecasting, supply chain development, the psychology behind acceptance of recent technology and regulations for ensuring diversity and inclusion in the offshore wind energy economy.

State Sen. Bob Smith, chair of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, said it is imperative that New Jersey lead the offshore wind energy charge to reduce greenhouse gases and save the planet. “We don’t have that many years left to get our act together,” Smith said, telling the gathering, “You’ve got to help us make wind energy viable across the country!”

Offshore wind is a limitless, renewable energy source that can reduce reliance on natural gas and coal, as well as nuclear power. The Biden administration reported the industry can slash carbon emissions and create 77,000 jobs by 2030.

New Jersey is well suited for offshore wind farms because of high winds off the coastline, a relatively shallow ocean depth that can accommodate ocean floor-based turbines, and a dense population in need of energy, Ohleth said.

The Rutgers alumna likened power distribution in the U.S. to the cardiovascular system. Fossil fuels are largely produced in the west and sent east, with New Jersey shore towns functioning as the capillaries of the system. Offshore wind energy would put a “heart” in the ocean, and reverse the flow, Ohleth said.

Symposium participants considered the technical, economic and social pros and cons of offshore wind energy development and discussed the effects on the fishing industry, tourism and marine wildlife. There is a need, they said, to build the industry workforce, get students interested in careers and provide training for minority communities and fossil fuel industry employees in order to make the transition to offshore wind energy jobs. These and other recommendations will be incorporated into a white paper for Rutgers faculty and will also be shared with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA).

Tolu Omodara, one of 13 Rutgers students to receive a NJ Wind Institute Fellowship, said she felt energized by the symposium. “This has been instructional, insightful and inspiring,” said Omodara, who is pursuing a master’s in public administration at Rutgers–Camden. “We need to create a pipeline of leaders.”

Sharonda Allen, founder and executive director of Operation Grow, Inc., a social advocacy nonprofit training young adults from marginalized communities for good-paying jobs in the solar energy field, is interested in finding out more about the job opportunities for communities that are most affected by pollution. “My question is, what are you doing to train and prepare them for jobs in this field?” she said.

Frank Florio, a retired fisherman and firefighter, said the symposium provided him a better understanding of the industry and its impacts. “Down deep, I think offshore wind energy is a good thing, but there’s so much that’s uncertain,” he said.

Eileen Murphy, vice president of government relations at New Jersey Audubon, said there are a number of factors involved in developing this renewable energy resource. “I’m focused on the environmental impacts of this, that I forget about the engineering challenges involved in getting offshore wind successfully implemented,” Murphy said.

Rutgers Oceanography Professor Josh Kohut, one of the leaders of the Rutgers Offshore Wind Collaborative, said he was fascinated to learn about social science research “on how communities and individuals are responding to the introduction of renewable energy as a response to the climate crisis.” Rutgers NJAES Cooperative Extension coastal county offices will play a key role in answering communities’ questions and concerns about offshore wind energy environmental impacts.

“The symposium catalyzed networking opportunities across the Rutgers community,” as well as with external partners, he said. Kohut said he also has been inspired to spread the word to Rutgers students about the expansive career opportunities offered by off shore wind.While there are 10,000 offshore wind turbines operating between Europe and Asia, the U.S. currently has only seven The event “was an awesome chance for the Rutgers University community to come together and learn about all these different aspects of offshore wind energy, and make important connections,” he said.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, is a leading national research university and the state’s preeminent, comprehensive public institution of higher education. Rutgers is dedicated to teaching that meets the highest standards of excellence; to conducting research that breaks new ground; and to providing services, solutions, and clinical care that help individuals and the local, national, and global communities where they live.

Founded in 1766, Rutgers teaches across the full educational spectrum: preschool to precollege; undergraduate to graduate; postdoctoral fellowships to residencies; and continuing education for professional and personal advancement.

Rutgers University is a public land-grant research university based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen’s College, and today it is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey (after Princeton University), and one of the nine U.S. colonial colleges that were chartered before the American War of Independence. In 1825, Queen’s College was renamed Rutgers College in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, whose substantial gift to the school had stabilized its finances during a period of uncertainty. For most of its existence, Rutgers was a private liberal arts college but it has evolved into a coeducational public research university after being designated The State University of New Jersey by the New Jersey Legislature via laws enacted in 1945 and 1956.

Rutgers today has three distinct campuses, located in New Brunswick (including grounds in adjacent Piscataway), Newark, and Camden. The university has additional facilities elsewhere in the state, including oceanographic research facilities at the New Jersey shore. Rutgers is also a land-grant university, a sea-grant university, and the largest university in the state. Instruction is offered by 9,000 faculty members in 175 academic departments to over 45,000 undergraduate students and more than 20,000 graduate and professional students. The university is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the Association of American Universities and the Universities Research Association. Over the years, Rutgers has been considered a Public Ivy.

Research

Rutgers is home to the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science, also known as RUCCS. This research center hosts researchers in psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, electrical engineering, and anthropology.

It was at Rutgers that Selman Waksman (1888–1973) discovered several antibiotics, including actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, grisein, neomycin, fradicin, candicidin, candidin, and others. Waksman, along with graduate student Albert Schatz (1920–2005), discovered streptomycin—a versatile antibiotic that was to be the first applied to cure tuberculosis. For this discovery, Waksman received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952.

Rutgers developed water-soluble sustained release polymers, tetraploids, robotic hands, artificial bovine insemination, and the ceramic tiles for the heat shield on the Space Shuttle. In health related field, Rutgers has the Environmental & Occupational Health Science Institute (EOHSI).

Rutgers is also home to the RCSB Protein Data bank, “…an information portal to Biological Macromolecular Structures’ cohosted with the San Diego Supercomputer Center. This database is the authoritative research tool for bioinformaticists using protein primary, secondary and tertiary structures worldwide….”

Rutgers is home to the Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension office, which is run by the Agricultural and Experiment Station with the support of local government. The institution provides research & education to the local farming and agro industrial community in 19 of the 21 counties of the state and educational outreach programs offered through the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Office of Continuing Professional Education.

Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR) is the largest university based repository in the world and has received awards worth more than $57.8 million from the National Institutes of Health. One will fund genetic studies of mental disorders and the other will support investigations into the causes of digestive, liver and kidney diseases, and diabetes. RUCDR activities will enable gene discovery leading to diagnoses, treatments and, eventually, cures for these diseases. RUCDR assists researchers throughout the world by providing the highest quality biomaterials, technical consultation, and logistical support.

Rutgers–Camden is home to the nation’s PhD granting Department of Childhood Studies. This department, in conjunction with the Center for Children and Childhood Studies, also on the Camden campus, conducts interdisciplinary research which combines methodologies and research practices of sociology, psychology, literature, anthropology and other disciplines into the study of childhoods internationally.

Rutgers is home to several National Science Foundation IGERT fellowships that support interdisciplinary scientific research at the graduate-level. Highly selective fellowships are available in the following areas: Perceptual Science, Stem Cell Science and Engineering, Nanotechnology for Clean Energy, Renewable and Sustainable Fuels Solutions, and Nanopharmaceutical Engineering.

Rutgers also maintains the Office of Research Alliances that focuses on working with companies to increase engagement with the university’s faculty members, staff and extensive resources on the four campuses.

As a ’67 graduate of University College, second in my class, I am proud to be a member of

Alpha Sigma Lamda, National Honor Society of non-tradional students.

From The Department of Energy: “Biden-Harris Administration Announces $47 Million to Develop Affordable Clean Hydrogen Technologies”

From The Department of Energy

1.27.23

Funding Will Reduce Costs and Improve the Performance of Critical Hydrogen Infrastructure and Fuel Cell Technologies, Support DOE’s “Hydrogen Shot”.

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), today announced up to $47 million in funding to accelerate the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of affordable clean hydrogen technologies. Projects funded under this opportunity will reduce costs, enhance hydrogen infrastructure, and improve the performance of hydrogen fuel cells—advancing the Department’s Hydrogen Shot goal of reducing the cost of clean hydrogen to $1 per kilogram within a decade.

U.S. DOE Hydrogen Shot

Achieving these cost reductions will accelerate the use of clean hydrogen across multiple sectors, strengthening our energy security while supporting President Biden’s ambitious goals of a 100% clean electric grid by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

“Clean hydrogen is a versatile fuel essential to achieving President Biden’s vision of an equitable clean energy economy rooted in reliability and affordability,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “This funding will advance cutting-edge research and drive down technology costs to help unlock the full potential of clean hydrogen energy—providing another valuable resource to combat the climate crisis while creating economic opportunities in communities across the country.”

Clean hydrogen—which is produced with zero or near-zero emissions—is set to play a vital future role in reducing emissions from some of the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors of our economy, including industrial and chemical processes and heavy-duty transportation. Reducing emissions in these sectors will be especially beneficial for disadvantaged communities that have suffered disproportionately from local air pollution in the past. While hydrogen technologies have come a long way over the last several years, costs and other challenges to at-scale adoption need to be addressed for clean hydrogen to realize its full potential. 

This funding opportunity, which is administered by DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), focuses on RD&D of key hydrogen delivery and storage technologies as well as affordable and durable fuel cell technologies. Fuel cell RD&D projects will focus particularly on applications for heavy-duty trucks, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and eliminate tailpipe emissions that are harmful to local air quality. These efforts will work in concert with hydrogen-related activities funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs and an upcoming funding opportunity for RD&D to advance electrolysis technologies and improve the manufacturing and recycling of critical components and materials.

For all topic areas, DOE envisions awarding financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately two to four years. DOE encourages applicant teams that include stakeholders within academia, industry, and national laboratories across multiple technical disciplines. Teams are also encouraged to include representation from diverse entities such as minority-serving institutions, labor unions, community colleges, and other entities connected through Opportunity Zones.

The application process will include two phases: a Concept Paper phase and a Full Application phase. Concept papers are due on February 24, 2023, and full applications are due on April 28, 2023.

Learn more about this funding opportunity, HFTO, and the draft DOE National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap.

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The The United States Department of Energy is a cabinet-level department of the United States Government concerned with the United States’ policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material. Its responsibilities include the nation’s nuclear weapons program; nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy; energy conservation; energy-related research; radioactive waste disposal; and domestic energy production. It also directs research in genomics. the Human Genome Project originated in a DOE initiative. DOE sponsors more research in the physical sciences than any other U.S. federal agency, the majority of which is conducted through its system of National Laboratories. The agency is led by the United States Secretary of Energy, and its headquarters are located in Southwest Washington, D.C., on Independence Avenue in the James V. Forrestal Building, named for James Forrestal, as well as in Germantown, Maryland.

Formation and consolidation

In 1942, during World War II, the United States started the Manhattan Project, a project to develop the atomic bomb, under the eye of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After the war in 1946, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was created to control the future of the project. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 also created the framework for the first National Laboratories. Among other nuclear projects, the AEC produced fabricated uranium fuel cores at locations such as Fernald Feed Materials Production Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1974, the AEC gave way to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which was tasked with regulating the nuclear power industry and the Energy Research and Development Administration, which was tasked to manage the nuclear weapon; naval reactor; and energy development programs.

The 1973 oil crisis called attention to the need to consolidate energy policy. On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (Pub.L. 95–91, 91 Stat. 565, enacted August 4, 1977), which created the Department of Energy. The new agency, which began operations on October 1, 1977, consolidated the Federal Energy Administration; the Energy Research and Development Administration; the Federal Power Commission; and programs of various other agencies. Former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, who served under Presidents Nixon and Ford during the Vietnam War, was appointed as the first secretary.

President Carter created the Department of Energy with the goal of promoting energy conservation and developing alternative sources of energy. He wanted to not be dependent on foreign oil and reduce the use of fossil fuels. With international energy’s future uncertain for America, Carter acted quickly to have the department come into action the first year of his presidency. This was an extremely important issue of the time as the oil crisis was causing shortages and inflation. With the Three-Mile Island disaster, Carter was able to intervene with the help of the department. Carter made switches within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in this case to fix the management and procedures. This was possible as nuclear energy and weapons are responsibility of the Department of Energy.

Recent

On March 28, 2017, a supervisor in the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy asked staff to avoid the phrases “climate change,” “emissions reduction,” or “Paris Agreement” in written memos, briefings or other written communication. A DOE spokesperson denied that phrases had been banned.

In a May 2019 press release concerning natural gas exports from a Texas facility, the DOE used the term ‘freedom gas’ to refer to natural gas. The phrase originated from a speech made by Secretary Rick Perry in Brussels earlier that month. Washington Governor Jay Inslee decried the term “a joke”.

Facilities

The Department of Energy operates a system of national laboratories and technical facilities for research and development, as follows:

Ames Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
National Energy Technology Laboratory
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratories
Savannah River National Laboratory
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

Other major DOE facilities include
Albany Research Center
Bannister Federal Complex
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory – focuses on the design and development of nuclear power for the U.S. Navy
Kansas City Plant
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory – operates for Naval Reactors Program Research under the DOE (not a National Laboratory)
National Petroleum Technology Office
Nevada Test Site
New Brunswick Laboratory
Office of River Protection
Pantex
Radiological and Environmental Laboratory
Y-12 National Security Complex
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
Other:

Pahute Mesa Airstrip – Nye County, Nevada, in supporting Nevada National Security Site

From The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) : “National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium Announces U.S. Offshore Wind Supply Chain Road Map”

From The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

1.23.23

Today, the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC) released a report identifying how the United States can develop a robust and equitable domestic supply chain required to achieve the national offshore wind target of 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

A two-phase study led by NREL explores gaps, opportunities, and development pathways for a domestic offshore wind energy supply chain. Photo from Siemens AG.

This report describes how the United States could develop a fully domestic offshore wind energy supply chain. It discusses barriers that could prevent or delay supply chain expansion and offers potential solutions that could help overcome these challenges. The report highlights major considerations for developing resilient, sustainable, and equitable manufacturing capabilities. Finally, it estimates the number of required major component manufacturing facilities, ports, and vessels that would need to be developed by 2030 under a domestic supply chain scenario that supports an annual deployment of 4-6 GW per year. This scenario also guides discussion regarding the investment, development time, and workforce growth that could be required to develop a domestic offshore wind supply chain.

This project is a partnership between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Business Network for Offshore Wind, DNV, the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

“The opportunity to create a resilient and equitable domestic supply chain is one of the most exciting aspects of our offshore wind goals,” said Matt Shields, Senior Offshore Wind Analyst at NREL. “This supply chain would increase our chances of meeting the 30 GW by 2030 target, create a huge number of jobs and economic benefits, and most importantly, position the sector for sustainable growth beyond 2030. This report identifies critical actions that we need to take as an industry to develop the supply chain quickly, but also strategically and equitably.”

“Developing our nation’s vast offshore wind resources will provide reliable clean energy to coastal communities and help us reach our climate goals. It also presents a significant opportunity to create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and expand domestic manufacturing across the country,” said Alejandro Moreno, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. “With the help of the roadmap laid out in this report, we can catalyze progress to realize this immense potential.”

“A manufacturing supply chain is already emerging in more than a dozen locations up and down the U.S. coast in support of the offshore wind industry, which will lead to thousands of well-paying jobs,” said Ross Gould, vice president for Supply Chain Development and Research at the Business Network for Offshore Wind. “To meet our ambitious clean energy national goals, American manufacturers must play a larger role to accelerate our transition. This road map lays out the challenges and collaborative actions needed to bring more domestic companies into the supply chain and the opportunity those businesses bring to building out the U.S. offshore wind industry.”

“To fully realize the potential of offshore wind energy in the United States, it is important we understand the gaps and needs of the current offshore wind supply chain. By understanding the needs of the industry, we can target investments to local businesses and workforce which create economic opportunities while achieving our goals of cleaner, more reliable energy. MEA is proud to participate in a study that brings us closer to realizing the economic and environmental promise of offshore wind,” said Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul Pinsky.

NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “Offshore wind is a cornerstone of New York’s clean energy transition that will deliver nine gigawatts by 2035, and grow a high-tech industry that will attract billions in investments and thousands of family-sustaining jobs. This report is the result of significant private-public collaboration and lays out a pathway to cultivate a long-term domestic supply chain here in the U.S.”

The full project summary will be released by NOWRDC in late winter of 2023.

See the full article here.
Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Most of EERE’s new investments directly support deployments or demonstrations of technologies that show viable pathways for achieving EERE’s five programmatic priorities:

Decarbonizing the electricity sector.
Decarbonizing transportation across all modes: air, sea, rail, and road.
Decarbonizing the industrial sector.
Reducing the carbon footprint of buildings.
Decarbonizing the agriculture sector, specifically focused on the nexus between energy and water.

Learn more about EERE’s mission.

EERE’s research and development activities are organized among the following three pillars:

Energy Efficiency

Renewable Energy

Sustainable Transportation

From The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) : “Alaska’s Salmon Hub and DOE Explore Hydropower’s Potential to Meet the Region’s Energy and Resiliency Needs”

From The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

1.17.23

Dillingham, Alaska, and its 2,250 residents reside on the banks of Nushagak Bay at the mouth of the Nushagak River. The town is not connected to Alaska’s statewide road system and the only way to reach Dillingham is by boat or plane. Its isolated location on an arm of the Bering Sea means that everyday necessities, such as fuel, food, and other supplies, aren’t easy to access. This remote inlet of Bristol Bay is also home to the world’s largest run of sockeye salmon, making a reliable and resilient energy system critical to meeting the ever-growing global demand for wild Alaskan salmon.

This graphic describes the benefits of the proposed hydroelectric facility and shows Dillingham’s location in relation to the proposed facility, as well as where Dillingham is located within the state of Alaska.
Graphic by the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Dillingham’s local utility, Nushagak Electric and Telephone Cooperative (NETC), has put clean, affordable, and reliable energy at the center of its community’s resilience goals. Diesel fuel currently powers the town, but with costly fuel prices and climate concerns rising, renewable energy is a priority for the member-owned and -operated cooperative that provides Dillingham’s electric, telephone, cable television, and internet services.

To help Dillingham reach its energy goals, NETC applied for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) in 2021 and was selected to receive technical assistance in evaluating the environmental and economic impacts of a potential run-of-river hydroelectric project.

“We’ve participated in wind energy studies, looked at other options, like natural gas conversion and solar, which are great for supplementing other sources of renewable energy,” said Bob Himschoot, NETC’s recently retired CEO and general manager. “But data shows that hydropower is the golden ticket for Dillingham. This project has the potential to replace up to 1.5 million gallons of diesel fuel annually while providing a surplus of power to Dillingham and nearby villages year round.”

After reviewing more than 60 years of U.S. Geological Survey stream flow data, NETC identified a location on the Nuyakuk River that hosts ideal conditions for a low-impact, run-of-river hydropower project. The site is located about 60 miles northeast of Dillingham within the boundaries of Wood-Tikchik State Park.

The site’s geological characteristics make it special. Located on a bend in the river, the chosen spot is perfect for minimally diverting the river’s flow; in other words, this hydropower facility wouldn’t involve a dam. Instead, the potential hydropower project would use a diversion feature upstream of the bend to redirect some of the river’s flow. The water would pass through about a quarter mile of pipes and into a powerhouse where the electricity would be generated—all of which would be on land. Once the water passes through the powerhouse, it would then return to the river downstream of the bend.

This aerial image shows the site location for a potential hydroelectric project on the Nuyakuk River near Dillingham, Alaska. Some water would be diverted upstream of the bend, run through land-based pipes, and be reintroduced to the natural river downstream of the bend. Photo from the Nushagak Electric and Telephone Cooperative.

Rapid waterfalls are also key to this location—a 28-foot drop in elevation occurs rapidly through a series of falls situated on a half-mile stretch in the river. Together, the elevation drop and waterfalls make the site nearly unbeatable for a low-impact, run-of-river project. The change in elevation allows water to travel downhill, enabling the facility to generate more power—providing a plentiful source of year-round power to Dillingham and five neighboring towns (Koliganek, Stuyahok, Ekwok, Levelock, and Aleknagik). And because the water is so turbulent in this area, salmon and other fish are unlikely to spawn there, meaning the impact on fish populations, and the ecosystem in general, would be minimal.

“We’re in this Catch-22 where we want to protect and preserve the environment while also moving the salmon industry forward, knowing that it’s going to require more energy,” said Will Chaney, NETC’s current CEO and general manager. “Currently, more energy means more diesel, which is costly for our cooperative members and for the environment. So, we want to rely on less impactful, alternative energy sources while also preserving the salmon and our home.”

Dillingham Taps Into Technical Assistance

Rapid waterfalls rush down a half-mile stretch of the Nuyakuk River, the site location near Dillingham, Alaska, for a potential hydroelectric project. Photo from the DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories.

ETIPP has connected NETC with experts—from economists to hydrologists to regional partners at the Renewable Energy Alaska Project—who can help Dillingham reach its energy resilience and environmental goals. Since 2021 researchers at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories have been working with NETC to develop an economic decision-making support tool that allows the cooperative to understand and assess the potential economic impacts of this hydropower project.

Mark Weimar, an economist at PNNL, created the spreadsheet-based tool and tailored it to meet Dillingham’s unique needs. It allows users to explore how different assumptions, including stream flow and water diversion limits, may interact with each other. For example, the user can assess how the hydropower project might offset residential and commercial diesel fuel consumption in different scenarios by inputting a specific climate condition, the quantity of fish, or the level of energy demand.

“From my standpoint, it’s really nice to be a part of something that has instant purpose,” said Weimar. “Research projects normally take effect maybe 10 to 30 years down the line. This decision-making tool allows us to see immediate results that include many nuanced factors. Not only will the tool help Dillingham decide whether to move forward with the hydropower project, but it will also help NETC make operational decisions down the line if the project does move forward.”

To help users arrange inputs and read outputs in the intricate spreadsheet, the team created a slide deck, which acts as a tutorial for those using the tool.

To make the tool more inclusive and accessible, the ETIPP technical assistance team is also developing a front-end graphical user interface (GUI) that makes it easier for users to explore different scenarios. The GUI is intended to enable anyone in the community to play with different assumptions using a simpler version of the spreadsheet.

“This work is really a community-driven effort,” said Thushara Gunda, a hydrologist at Sandia. “As a cooperative, NETC is really mindful of its stakeholders’ needs and actively includes the entire community in technical conversations, project milestones, and future plans. It’s been incredibly inspiring to be part of that.”

Just Around the River Bend: What’s Next for NETC and Dillingham

Dillingham’s ETIPP technical assistance project concluded in December 2022, after which NETC will spend two years studying various economic and environmental impacts of the proposed run-of-river facility (as part of the federal process for evaluating potential hydropower projects).

NETC can then input the results of those studies into the decision-making tool and more thoroughly evaluate the impacts of various scenarios. If the results show the project would positively affect the region by strengthening its energy resiliency and overall self-sufficiency (while avoiding any impact to the subsistence fishing community), then NETC will take the first steps to begin construction—keeping Dillingham’s regional stakeholders involved throughout.

Given the isolated terrain and licensing logistics, a finished facility could take up to eight to 10 years, but once it’s complete, the hydropower project would provide reliable power to Dillingham and even more remote communities that rely on NETC.

The renewable energy generated by the hydropower facility could also support more onshore fish processing. Preparing and packaging caught fish for consumers is very energy-intensive and has contributed to the region’s new and growing energy demands, requiring local utility companies to double their power production during the two-month processing season. If Dillingham can build and power local processing plants using energy from the river, then fish processing could lower economic and environmental costs. More Dillingham-based facilities could provide more jobs for the region’s residents—while also giving the community greater independence and presence in the salmon market.

This hydropower project could also help Dillingham establish a stronger connection to the rest of the world. In building the transmission lines (which will carry the electricity from the hydropower facility to the various nearby communities), NETC also plans to install fiber-optic cable to improve access to high-speed internet. Increased broadband access can help support communications needs and provide opportunities for the communities to grow both socially and economically for generations to come.

“ETIPP is the kind of program that encourages communities like Dillingham to take advantage of new opportunities that set them up for success,” said Rob Jordan, an Alaska-based microgrid coordinator at Renewable Energy Alaska Project. “Most importantly, NETC and the ETIPP technical assistance team’s goals fit into a greater continuum of work that is going on in the Dillingham community, and it’s all moving toward sustainability and reliability of the community’s existing values and assets.”

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Most of EERE’s new investments directly support deployments or demonstrations of technologies that show viable pathways for achieving EERE’s five programmatic priorities:

Decarbonizing the electricity sector.
Decarbonizing transportation across all modes: air, sea, rail, and road.
Decarbonizing the industrial sector.
Reducing the carbon footprint of buildings.
Decarbonizing the agriculture sector, specifically focused on the nexus between energy and water.

Learn more about EERE’s mission.

EERE’s research and development activities are organized among the following three pillars:

Energy Efficiency

Renewable Energy

Sustainable Transportation

From The University of Toronto (CA): “Using quantum-inspired computing University of Toronto Engineering and Fujitsu discover improved catalyst for clean hydrogen”

From The University of Toronto (CA)

12.16.22 [Just today in social media.]
Tyler Irving

U of T Engineering PhD candidates Jehad Abed (left) and Hitarth Choubisa with a vial of the newly synthesized catalyst for hydrogen production, which was discovered with the help of a new quantum-inspired computing technique (Photo by Tyler Irving)

Researchers from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Fujitsu have developed a new way of searching through ‘chemical space’ for materials with desirable properties.

The technique has resulted in a promising new catalyst material that could help lower the cost of producing clean hydrogen.

The discovery represents an important step toward more sustainable ways of storing energy, including from renewable but intermittent sources, such as solar and wind power.

“Scaling up the production of what we call “green hydrogen” is a priority for researchers around the world because it offers a carbon-free way to store electricity from any source,” says Ted Sargent, a professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering and senior author on a new paper published in Matter [below].

Graphical abstract from the science paper.

“This work provides proof-of-concept for a new approach to overcoming one of the key remaining challenges, which is the lack of highly active catalyst materials to speed up the critical reactions.”

Today nearly all commercial hydrogen is produced from natural gas. The process produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct: if the CO2 is vented to the atmosphere the product is known as “grey hydrogen,” but if the CO2 is captured and stored, it is called “blue hydrogen.”

By contrast, “green hydrogen” is a carbon-free method that uses a device known as an electrolyzer to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The hydrogen can later be burned or reacted in a fuel cell to regenerate the electricity. However, the low efficiency of available electrolyzers means that most of the energy in the water-splitting step is wasted as heat, rather than being captured in the hydrogen.

U of T Engineering PhD candidates Jehad Abed (left) and Hitarth Choubisa with an electrolyzer capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The newly discovered catalyst could increase the efficiency of this reaction (Photo by Tyler Irving)

Researchers around the world are racing to find better catalyst materials that can improve this efficiency. But because each potential catalyst material can be made of several different chemical elements, combined in a variety of ways, the number of possible permutations quickly becomes overwhelming.

“One way to do it is by human intuition, by researching what materials other groups have made and trying something similar, but that’s pretty slow,” says department of materials science and engineering PhD candidate Jehad Abed, one of two co-lead authors on the new paper.

“Another way is to use a computer model to simulate the chemical properties of all the potential materials we might try, starting from first principles. But in this case, the calculations get really complex, and the computational power needed to run the model becomes enormous.”

To find a way through, the team turned to the emerging field of quantum-inspired computing. They made use of the “Digital Annealer”, a tool that was created as the result of a long-standing collaboration between U of T Engineering and Fujitsu Research. This collaboration has also resulted in the creation of the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory at the University of Toronto.

“The Digital Annealer is a hybrid of unique hardware and software designed to be highly efficient at solving combinatorial optimization problems,” says Hidetoshi Matsumura, senior researcher at Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) Inc.

“These problems include finding the most efficient route between multiple locations across a transportation network, or selecting a set of stocks to make up a balanced portfolio. Searching through different combinations of chemical elements to a find a catalyst with desired properties is another example, and it was a perfect challenge for our Digital Annealer to address.”

In the paper the researchers used a technique called “cluster expansion” to analyze a truly enormous number of potential catalyst material designs – they estimate the total as a number on the order of hundreds of quadrillions. For perspective, one quadrillion is approximately the number of seconds that would pass by in 32 million years.

The results pointed toward a promising family of materials composed of ruthenium, chromium, manganese, antimony and oxygen, which had not been previously explored by other research groups.

The team synthesized several of these compounds and found that the best of them demonstrated a mass activity –  a measure of the number of reactions that can be catalyzed per mass of the catalyst – that was approximately eight times higher than some of the best catalysts currently available.

The new catalyst has other advantages too: it operates well in acidic conditions, which is a requirement of state-of-the-art electrolyzer designs. Currently, these electrolyzers depend on catalysts made largely of iridium, which is a rare element that is costly to obtain. In comparison, ruthenium, the main component of the new catalyst, is more abundant and has a lower market price.

There is more work ahead for the team: for example, they aim to further optimize the stability of the new catalyst before it can be tested in an electrolyzer. Still, the latest work serves as a demonstration of the effectiveness of the new approach to searching chemical space.

“I think what’s exciting about this project is that it shows how you can solve really complex and important problems by combining expertise from different fields,” says electrical and computer engineering PhD candidate Hitarth Choubisa, the other co-lead author of the paper.

“For a long time, materials scientists have been looking for these more efficient catalysts, and computational scientists have been designing more efficient algorithms, but the two efforts have been disconnected. When we brought them together, we were able to find a promising solution very quickly. I think there are a lot more useful discoveries to be made this way.”

Science paper:
Matter

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The The University of Toronto (CA) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen’s Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King’s College, the oldest university in the province of Ontario.

Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution.

As a collegiate university, it comprises eleven colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The university also operates two satellite campuses located in Scarborough and Mississauga.

University of Toronto has evolved into Canada’s leading institution of learning, discovery and knowledge creation. We are proud to be one of the world’s top research-intensive universities, driven to invent and innovate.

Our students have the opportunity to learn from and work with preeminent thought leaders through our multidisciplinary network of teaching and research faculty, alumni and partners.

The ideas, innovations and actions of more than 560,000 graduates continue to have a positive impact on the world.

Academically, the University of Toronto is noted for movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known collectively as the Toronto School.

The university was the birthplace of insulin and stem cell research, and was the site of the first electron microscope in North America; the identification of the first black hole Cygnus X-1; multi-touch technology, and the development of the theory of NP-completeness.

The university was one of several universities involved in early research of deep learning. It receives the most annual scientific research funding of any Canadian university and is one of two members of the Association of American Universities outside the United States, the other being McGill(CA).

The Varsity Blues are the athletic teams that represent the university in intercollegiate league matches, with ties to gridiron football, rowing and ice hockey. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University of Toronto’s University College in November 1861.

The university’s Hart House is an early example of the North American student centre, simultaneously serving cultural, intellectual, and recreational interests within its large Gothic-revival complex.

The University of Toronto has educated three Governors General of Canada, four Prime Ministers of Canada, three foreign leaders, and fourteen Justices of the Supreme Court. As of March 2019, ten Nobel laureates, five Turing Award winners, 94 Rhodes Scholars, and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the university.

Early history

The founding of a colonial college had long been the desire of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and founder of York, the colonial capital. As an University of Oxford (UK)-educated military commander who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, Simcoe believed a college was needed to counter the spread of republicanism from the United States. The Upper Canada Executive Committee recommended in 1798 that a college be established in York.

On March 15, 1827, a royal charter was formally issued by King George IV, proclaiming “from this time one College, with the style and privileges of a University … for the education of youth in the principles of the Christian Religion, and for their instruction in the various branches of Science and Literature … to continue for ever, to be called King’s College.” The granting of the charter was largely the result of intense lobbying by John Strachan, the influential Anglican Bishop of Toronto who took office as the college’s first president. The original three-storey Greek Revival school building was built on the present site of Queen’s Park.

Under Strachan’s stewardship, King’s College was a religious institution closely aligned with the Church of England and the British colonial elite, known as the Family Compact. Reformist politicians opposed the clergy’s control over colonial institutions and fought to have the college secularized. In 1849, after a lengthy and heated debate, the newly elected responsible government of the Province of Canada voted to rename King’s College as the University of Toronto and severed the school’s ties with the church. Having anticipated this decision, the enraged Strachan had resigned a year earlier to open Trinity College as a private Anglican seminary. University College was created as the nondenominational teaching branch of the University of Toronto. During the American Civil War the threat of Union blockade on British North America prompted the creation of the University Rifle Corps which saw battle in resisting the Fenian raids on the Niagara border in 1866. The Corps was part of the Reserve Militia lead by Professor Henry Croft.

Established in 1878, the School of Practical Science was the precursor to the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering which has been nicknamed Skule since its earliest days. While the Faculty of Medicine opened in 1843 medical teaching was conducted by proprietary schools from 1853 until 1887 when the faculty absorbed the Toronto School of Medicine. Meanwhile the university continued to set examinations and confer medical degrees. The university opened the Faculty of Law in 1887, followed by the Faculty of Dentistry in 1888 when the Royal College of Dental Surgeons became an affiliate. Women were first admitted to the university in 1884.

A devastating fire in 1890 gutted the interior of University College and destroyed 33,000 volumes from the library but the university restored the building and replenished its library within two years. Over the next two decades a collegiate system took shape as the university arranged federation with several ecclesiastical colleges including Strachan’s Trinity College in 1904. The university operated the Royal Conservatory of Music from 1896 to 1991 and the Royal Ontario Museum from 1912 to 1968; both still retain close ties with the university as independent institutions. The University of Toronto Press was founded in 1901 as Canada’s first academic publishing house. The Faculty of Forestry founded in 1907 with Bernhard Fernow as dean was Canada’s first university faculty devoted to forest science. In 1910, the Faculty of Education opened its laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools.

World wars and post-war years

The First and Second World Wars curtailed some university activities as undergraduate and graduate men eagerly enlisted. Intercollegiate athletic competitions and the Hart House Debates were suspended although exhibition and interfaculty games were still held. The David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill opened in 1935 followed by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in 1949. The university opened satellite campuses in Scarborough in 1964 and in Mississauga in 1967. The university’s former affiliated schools at the Ontario Agricultural College and Glendon Hall became fully independent of the University of Toronto and became part of University of Guelph (CA) in 1964 and York University (CA) in 1965 respectively. Beginning in the 1980s reductions in government funding prompted more rigorous fundraising efforts.

Since 2000

In 2000 Kin-Yip Chun was reinstated as a professor of the university after he launched an unsuccessful lawsuit against the university alleging racial discrimination. In 2017 a human rights application was filed against the University by one of its students for allegedly delaying the investigation of sexual assault and being dismissive of their concerns. In 2018 the university cleared one of its professors of allegations of discrimination and antisemitism in an internal investigation after a complaint was filed by one of its students.

The University of Toronto was the first Canadian university to amass a financial endowment greater than c. $1 billion in 2007. On September 24, 2020 the university announced a $250 million gift to the Faculty of Medicine from businessman and philanthropist James C. Temerty- the largest single philanthropic donation in Canadian history. This broke the previous record for the school set in 2019 when Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman jointly donated $100 million for the creation of a 750,000-square foot innovation and artificial intelligence centre.

Research

Since 1926 the University of Toronto has been a member of the Association of American Universities a consortium of the leading North American research universities. The university manages by far the largest annual research budget of any university in Canada with sponsored direct-cost expenditures of $878 million in 2010. In 2018 the University of Toronto was named the top research university in Canada by Research Infosource with a sponsored research income (external sources of funding) of $1,147.584 million in 2017. In the same year the university’s faculty averaged a sponsored research income of $428,200 while graduate students averaged a sponsored research income of $63,700. The federal government was the largest source of funding with grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council amounting to about one-third of the research budget. About eight percent of research funding came from corporations- mostly in the healthcare industry.

The first practical electron microscope was built by the physics department in 1938. During World War II the university developed the G-suit- a life-saving garment worn by Allied fighter plane pilots later adopted for use by astronauts.Development of the infrared chemiluminescence technique improved analyses of energy behaviours in chemical reactions. In 1963 the asteroid 2104 Toronto was discovered in the David Dunlap Observatory (CA) in Richmond Hill and is named after the university. In 1972 studies on Cygnus X-1 led to the publication of the first observational evidence proving the existence of black holes. Toronto astronomers have also discovered the Uranian moons of Caliban and Sycorax; the dwarf galaxies of Andromeda I, II and III; and the supernova SN 1987A. A pioneer in computing technology the university designed and built UTEC- one of the world’s first operational computers- and later purchased Ferut- the second commercial computer after UNIVAC I. Multi-touch technology was developed at Toronto with applications ranging from handheld devices to collaboration walls. The AeroVelo Atlas which won the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition in 2013 was developed by the university’s team of students and graduates and was tested in Vaughan.

The discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921 is considered among the most significant events in the history of medicine. The stem cell was discovered at the university in 1963 forming the basis for bone marrow transplantation and all subsequent research on adult and embryonic stem cells. This was the first of many findings at Toronto relating to stem cells including the identification of pancreatic and retinal stem cells. The cancer stem cell was first identified in 1997 by Toronto researchers who have since found stem cell associations in leukemia; brain tumors; and colorectal cancer. Medical inventions developed at Toronto include the glycaemic index; the infant cereal Pablum; the use of protective hypothermia in open heart surgery; and the first artificial cardiac pacemaker. The first successful single-lung transplant was performed at Toronto in 1981 followed by the first nerve transplant in 1988; and the first double-lung transplant in 1989. Researchers identified the maturation promoting factor that regulates cell division and discovered the T-cell receptor which triggers responses of the immune system. The university is credited with isolating the genes that cause Fanconi anemia; cystic fibrosis; and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease among numerous other diseases. Between 1914 and 1972 the university operated the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories- now part of the pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis. Among the research conducted at the laboratory was the development of gel electrophoresis.

The University of Toronto is the primary research presence that supports one of the world’s largest concentrations of biotechnology firms. More than 5,000 principal investigators reside within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the university grounds in Toronto’s Discovery District conducting $1 billion of medical research annually. MaRS Discovery District is a research park that serves commercial enterprises and the university’s technology transfer ventures. In 2008, the university disclosed 159 inventions and had 114 active start-up companies. Its SciNet Consortium operates the most powerful supercomputer in Canada.

From The University of Michigan: “Cheap and sustainable hydrogen through solar power”

From The University of Michigan

1.4.23
Kate McAlpine
(734) 647-7087
kmca@umich.edu

Withstanding high temperatures and the light of 160 suns a new catalyst is 10 times more efficient than previous sun-powered water-splitting devices of its kind.

A More Efficient Method for Harvesting Hydrogen.

A new kind of solar panel developed at the University of Michigan has achieved 9% efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen—mimicking a crucial step in natural photosynthesis. Outdoors, it represents a major leap in the technology, nearly 10 times more efficient than solar water-splitting experiments of its kind.

But the biggest benefit is driving down the cost of sustainable hydrogen. This is enabled by shrinking the semiconductor, typically the most expensive part of the device. The team’s self-healing semiconductor withstands concentrated light equivalent to 160 suns.

Peng Zhou uses a large lens to concentrate sunlight onto the water-splitting catalyst. Outdoors, the device was ten times more efficient than previous efforts at solar water splitting. Image credit: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering, Communications and Marketing.

Currently humans produce hydrogen from the fossil fuel methane using a great deal of fossil energy in the process. However, plants harvest hydrogen atoms from water using sunlight. As humanity tries to reduce its carbon emissions, hydrogen is attractive as both a standalone fuel and as a component in sustainable fuels made with recycled carbon dioxide. Likewise, it is needed for many chemical processes, producing fertilizers for instance.

“In the end, we believe that artificial photosynthesis devices will be much more efficient than natural photosynthesis, which will provide a path toward carbon neutrality,” said Zetian Mi, U-M professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering who led the study reported in Nature [below].

A close-up of the panel with the semiconductor catalyst and water inside. Bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen travel up the slope to be separated in the canister (maybe). Photo: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering, Communications and Marketing.

The outstanding result comes from two advances. The first is the ability to concentrate the sunlight without destroying the semiconductor that harnesses the light.

“We reduced the size of the semiconductor by more than 100 times compared to some semiconductors only working at low light intensity,” said Peng Zhou, U-M research fellow in electrical and computer engineering and first author of the study. “Hydrogen produced by our technology could be very cheap.”

And the second is using both the higher energy part of the solar spectrum to split water and the lower part of the spectrum to provide heat that encourages the reaction. The magic is enabled by a semiconductor catalyst that improves itself with use, resisting the degradation that such catalysts usually experience when they harness sunlight to drive chemical reactions.

Ishtiaque Ahmed Navid, a doctoral student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, operates the molecular beam epitaxy device in which he grew the semiconductor that harnesses sunlight to split water. Image credit: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering, Communications and Marketing.

In addition to handling high light intensities, it can thrive in high temperatures that are punishing to computer semiconductors. Higher temperatures speed up the water splitting process, and the extra heat also encourages the hydrogen and oxygen to remain separate rather than renewing their bonds and forming water once more. Both of these helped the team to harvest more hydrogen.

For the outdoor experiment, Zhou set up a lens about the size of a house window to focus sunlight onto an experimental panel just a few inches across. Within that panel, the semiconductor catalyst was covered in a layer of water, bubbling with the hydrogen and oxygen gasses it separated.

The catalyst is made of indium gallium nitride nanostructures, grown onto a silicon surface. That semiconductor wafer captures the light, converting it into free electrons and holes—positively charged gaps left behind when electrons are liberated by the light. The nanostructures are peppered with nanoscale balls of metal, 1/2000th of a millimeter across, that use those electrons and holes to help direct the reaction.

Peng Zhou, right, and Yuyang Pan, first year PhD student, observe the machine in which the semiconductor nanowires are grown. Image credit: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering, Communications and Marketing.

A simple insulating layer atop the panel keeps the temperature at a toasty 75 degrees Celsius, or 167 degrees Fahrenheit, warm enough to help encourage the reaction while also being cool enough for the semiconductor catalyst to perform well. The outdoor version of the experiment, with less reliable sunlight and temperature, achieved 6.1% efficiency at turning the energy from the sun into hydrogen fuel. However, indoors, the system achieved 9% efficiency.

The next challenges the team intends to tackle are to further improve the efficiency and to achieve ultrahigh purity hydrogen that can be directly fed into fuel cells.

Some of the intellectual property related to this work has been licensed to NS Nanotech Inc. and NX Fuels Inc., which were co-founded by Mi. The University of Michigan and Mi have a financial interest in both companies.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization Innovation Hub, the Blue Sky Program in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, and by the Army Research Office.

Science paper:
Nature

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please support STEM education in your local school system

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Originally, founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, 20 years before the Michigan Territory officially became a state, the University of Michigan is the state’s oldest university. The university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus. Since its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university campus has expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined area of more than 34 million gross square feet (781 acres or 3.16 km²), and has two satellite campuses located in Flint and Dearborn. The University was one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities.

Considered one of the foremost research universities in the United States, the university has very high research activity and its comprehensive graduate program offers doctoral degrees in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as well as professional degrees in business, medicine, law, pharmacy, nursing, social work and dentistry. Michigan’s body of living alumni (as of 2012) comprises more than 500,000. Besides academic life, Michigan’s athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Wolverines. They are members of the Big Ten Conference.

At over $12.4 billion in 2019, Michigan’s endowment is among the largest of any university. As of October 2019, 53 MacArthur “genius award” winners (29 alumni winners and 24 faculty winners), 26 Nobel Prize winners, six Turing Award winners, one Fields Medalist and one Mitchell Scholar have been affiliated with the university. Its alumni include eight heads of state or government, including President of the United States Gerald Ford; 38 cabinet-level officials; and 26 living billionaires. It also has many alumni who are Fulbright Scholars and MacArthur Fellows.

Research

Michigan is one of the founding members (in the year 1900) of the Association of American Universities. With over 6,200 faculty members, 73 of whom are members of the National Academy and 471 of whom hold an endowed chair in their discipline, the university manages one of the largest annual collegiate research budgets of any university in the United States. According to the National Science Foundation, Michigan spent $1.6 billion on research and development in 2018, ranking it 2nd in the nation. This figure totaled over $1 billion in 2009. The Medical School spent the most at over $445 million, while the College of Engineering was second at more than $160 million. U-M also has a technology transfer office, which is the university conduit between laboratory research and corporate commercialization interests.

In 2009, the university signed an agreement to purchase a facility formerly owned by Pfizer. The acquisition includes over 170 acres (0.69 km^2) of property, and 30 major buildings comprising roughly 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m^2) of wet laboratory space, and 400,000 square feet (37,000 m^2) of administrative space. At the time of the agreement, the university’s intentions for the space were not set, but the expectation was that the new space would allow the university to ramp up its research and ultimately employ in excess of 2,000 people.

The university is also a major contributor to the medical field with the EKG and the gastroscope. The university’s 13,000-acre (53 km^2) biological station in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan is one of only 47 Biosphere Reserves in the United States.

In the mid-1960s U-M researchers worked with IBM to develop a new virtual memory architectural model that became part of IBM’s Model 360/67 mainframe computer (the 360/67 was initially dubbed the 360/65M where the “M” stood for Michigan). The Michigan Terminal System (MTS), an early time-sharing computer operating system developed at U-M, was the first system outside of IBM to use the 360/67’s virtual memory features.

U-M is home to the National Election Studies and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. The Correlates of War project, also located at U-M, is an accumulation of scientific knowledge about war. The university is also home to major research centers in optics, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, wireless integrated microsystems, and social sciences. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Life Sciences Institute are located at the university. The Institute for Social Research (ISR), the nation’s longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, is home to the Survey Research Center, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Center for Political Studies, Population Studies Center, and Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research. Undergraduate students are able to participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.

The U-M library system comprises nineteen individual libraries with twenty-four separate collections—roughly 13.3 million volumes. U-M was the original home of the JSTOR database, which contains about 750,000 digitized pages from the entire pre-1990 backfile of ten journals of history and economics, and has initiated a book digitization program in collaboration with Google. The University of Michigan Press is also a part of the U-M library system.

In the late 1960s U-M, together with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, founded the Merit Network, one of the first university computer networks. The Merit Network was then and remains today administratively hosted by U-M. Another major contribution took place in 1987 when a proposal submitted by the Merit Network together with its partners IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan won a national competition to upgrade and expand the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) backbone from 56,000 to 1.5 million, and later to 45 million bits per second. In 2006, U-M joined with Michigan State University and Wayne State University to create the the University Research Corridor. This effort was undertaken to highlight the capabilities of the state’s three leading research institutions and drive the transformation of Michigan’s economy. The three universities are electronically interconnected via the Michigan LambdaRail (MiLR, pronounced ‘MY-lar’), a high-speed data network providing 10 Gbit/s connections between the three university campuses and other national and international network connection points in Chicago.

From The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] (CH): “A step towards solar fuels out of thin air”

From The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] (CH)

1.4.23
Hillary Sanctuary

EPFL chemical engineers have invented a solar-powered artificial leaf, built on a novel electrode which is transparent and porous, capable of harvesting water from the air for conversion into hydrogen fuel. The semiconductor-based technology is scalable and easy to prepare.

A step towards solar fuels out of thin air.

A device that can harvest water from the air and provide hydrogen fuel—entirely powered by solar energy—has been a dream for researchers for decades. Now, EPFL chemical engineer Kevin Sivula and his team have made a significant step towards bringing this vision closer to reality. They have developed an ingenious yet simple system that combines semiconductor-based technology with novel electrodes that have two key characteristics: they are porous, to maximize contact with water in the air; and transparent, to maximize sunlight exposure of the semiconductor coating. When the device is simply exposed to sunlight, it takes water from the air and produces hydrogen gas. The results are published on 4 January 2023 in Advanced Materials [below].

What’s new? It’s their novel gas diffusion electrodes, which are transparent, porous and conductive, enabling this solar-powered technology for turning water – in its gas state from the air – into hydrogen fuel.

“To realize a sustainable society, we need ways to store renewable energy as chemicals that can be used as fuels and feedstocks in industry. Solar energy is the most abundant form of renewable energy, and we are striving to develop economically-competitive ways to produce solar fuels,” says Sivula of EPFL’s Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials and principal investigator of the study.

Inspiration from a plant’s leaf

In their research for renewable fossil-free fuels, the EPFL engineers in collaboration with Toyota Motor Europe, took inspiration from the way plants are able to convert sunlight into chemical energy using carbon dioxide from the air. A plant essentially harvests carbon dioxide and water from its environment, and with the extra boost of energy from sunlight, can transform these molecules into sugars and starches, a process known as photosynthesis. The sunlight’s energy is stored in the form of chemical bonds inside of the sugars and starches.

The transparent gas diffusion electrodes developed by Sivula and his team, when coated with a light harvesting semiconductor material, indeed act like an artificial leaf, harvesting water from the air and sunlight to produce hydrogen gas. The sunlight’s energy is stored in the form of hydrogen bonds.

Instead of building electrodes with traditional layers that are opaque to sunlight, their substrate is actually a 3-dimensional mesh of felted glass fibers.

Marina Caretti, lead author of the work, says, “Developing our prototype device was challenging since transparent gas-diffusion electrodes have not been previously demonstrated, and we had to develop new procedures for each step. However, since each step is relatively simple and scalable, I think that our approach will open new horizons for a wide range of applications starting from gas diffusion substrates for solar-driven hydrogen production.”

From liquid water to humidity in the air

Sivula and other research groups have previously shown that it is possible to perform artificial photosynthesis by generating hydrogen fuel from liquid water and sunlight using a device called a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. A PEC cell is generally known as a device that uses incident light to stimulate a photosensitive material, like a semiconductor, immersed in liquid solution to cause a chemical reaction. But for practical purposes, this process has its disadvantages e.g. it is complicated to make large-area PEC devices that use liquid.

Sivula wanted to show that the PEC technology can be adapted for harvesting humidity from the air instead, leading to the development of their new gas diffusion electrode. Electrochemical cells (e.g. fuel cells) have already been shown to work with gases instead of liquids, but the gas diffusion electrodes used previously are opaque and incompatible with the solar-powered PEC technology.

Now, the researchers are focusing their efforts into optimizing the system. What is the ideal fiber size? The ideal pore size? The ideal semiconductors and membrane materials? These are questions that are being pursued in the EU Project “Sun-to-X”, which is dedicated to advance this technology, and develop new ways to convert hydrogen into liquid fuels.

_______________________________________________________
Making transparent, gas-diffusion electrodes

In order to make transparent gas diffusion electrodes, the researchers start with a type of glass wool, which is essentially quartz (also known as silicon oxide) fibers and process it into felt wafers by fusing the fibers together at high temperature. Next, the wafer is coated with a transparent thin film of fluorine-doped tin oxide, known for its excellent conductivity, robustness and ease to scale-up. These first steps result in a transparent, porous, and conducting wafer, essential for maximizing contact with the water molecules in the air and letting photons through. The wafer is then coated again, this time with a thin-film of sunlight-absorbing semiconductor materials. This second thin coating still lets light through, but appears opaque due to the large surface area of the porous substrate. As is, this coated wafer can already produce hydrogen fuel once exposed to sunlight.

The scientists went on to build a small chamber containing the coated wafer, as well as a membrane for separating the produced hydrogen gas for measurement. When their chamber is exposed to sunlight under humid conditions, hydrogen gas is produced, achieving what the scientists set out to do, showing that the concept of a transparent gas- diffusion electrode for solar-powered hydrogen gas production can be achieved.

While the scientists did not formally study the solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency in their demonstration, they acknowledge that it is modest for this prototype, and currently less than can be achieved in liquid-based PEC cells. Based on the materials used, the maximum theoretical solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of the coated wafer is 12%, whereas liquid cells have been demonstrated up to 19% efficient.
_______________________________________________________

Science paper:
Advanced Materials
See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

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EPFL campus

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] (CH) is a research institute and university in Lausanne, Switzerland, that specializes in natural sciences and engineering. It is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, and it has three main missions: education, research and technology transfer.

The QS World University Rankings ranks EPFL(CH) 14th in the world across all fields in their 2020/2021 ranking, whereas Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranks EPFL(CH) as the world’s 19th best school for Engineering and Technology in 2020.

EPFL(CH) is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland; the sister institution in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zürich [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich] (CH). Associated with several specialized research institutes, the two universities form The Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Domain) [ETH-Bereich; Domaine des Écoles Polytechniques Fédérales] (CH) which is directly dependent on the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. In connection with research and teaching activities, EPFL(CH) operates a nuclear reactor CROCUS; a Tokamak Fusion reactor; a Blue Gene/Q Supercomputer; and P3 bio-hazard facilities.

ETH Zürich, EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) [École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne](CH), and four associated research institutes form The Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Domain) [ETH-Bereich; Domaine des Écoles polytechniques fédérales] (CH) with the aim of collaborating on scientific projects.

The roots of modern-day EPFL(CH) can be traced back to the foundation of a private school under the name École Spéciale de Lausanne in 1853 at the initiative of Lois Rivier, a graduate of the École Centrale Paris (FR) and John Gay the then professor and rector of the Académie de Lausanne. At its inception it had only 11 students and the offices were located at Rue du Valentin in Lausanne. In 1869, it became the technical department of the public Académie de Lausanne. When the Académie was reorganized and acquired the status of a university in 1890, the technical faculty changed its name to École d’Ingénieurs de l’Université de Lausanne. In 1946, it was renamed the École polytechnique de l’Université de Lausanne (EPUL). In 1969, the EPUL was separated from the rest of the University of Lausanne and became a federal institute under its current name. EPFL(CH), like ETH Zürich (CH), is thus directly controlled by the Swiss federal government. In contrast, all other universities in Switzerland are controlled by their respective cantonal governments. Following the nomination of Patrick Aebischer as president in 2000, EPFL(CH) has started to develop into the field of life sciences. It absorbed the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in 2008.

In 1946, there were 360 students. In 1969, EPFL(CH) had 1,400 students and 55 professors. In the past two decades the university has grown rapidly and as of 2012 roughly 14,000 people study or work on campus, about 9,300 of these being Bachelor, Master or PhD students. The environment at modern day EPFL(CH) is highly international with the school attracting students and researchers from all over the world. More than 125 countries are represented on the campus and the university has two official languages, French and English.

Organization

EPFL is organized into eight schools, themselves formed of institutes that group research units (laboratories or chairs) around common themes:

School of Basic Sciences
Institute of Mathematics
Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering
Institute of Physics
European Centre of Atomic and Molecular Computations
Bernoulli Center
Biomedical Imaging Research Center
Interdisciplinary Center for Electron Microscopy
MPG-EPFL Centre for Molecular Nanosciences and Technology
Swiss Plasma Center
Laboratory of Astrophysics

School of Engineering

Institute of Electrical Engineering
Institute of Mechanical Engineering
Institute of Materials
Institute of Microengineering
Institute of Bioengineering

School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Institute of Architecture
Civil Engineering Institute
Institute of Urban and Regional Sciences
Environmental Engineering Institute

School of Computer and Communication Sciences

Algorithms & Theoretical Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Computational Biology
Computer Architecture & Integrated Systems
Data Management & Information Retrieval
Graphics & Vision
Human-Computer Interaction
Information & Communication Theory
Networking
Programming Languages & Formal Methods
Security & Cryptography
Signal & Image Processing
Systems

School of Life Sciences

Bachelor-Master Teaching Section in Life Sciences and Technologies
Brain Mind Institute
Institute of Bioengineering
Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research
Global Health Institute
Ten Technology Platforms & Core Facilities (PTECH)
Center for Phenogenomics
NCCR Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

College of Management of Technology

Swiss Finance Institute at EPFL
Section of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship
Institute of Technology and Public Policy
Institute of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship
Section of Financial Engineering

College of Humanities

Human and social sciences teaching program

EPFL Middle East

Section of Energy Management and Sustainability

In addition to the eight schools there are seven closely related institutions

Swiss Cancer Centre
Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM)
Centre for Advanced Modelling Science (CADMOS)
École Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL)
Campus Biotech
Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuro-engineering
Swiss National Supercomputing Centre

From The California Institute of Technology: “Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into Orbit in January”

From The California Institute of Technology

1.2.23
Robert Perkins
(626) 395‑1862
rperkins@caltech.edu

Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD). Credit: Caltech.

In January 2023, the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) is poised to launch into orbit a prototype, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), which will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.

Space solar power provides a way to tap into the practically unlimited supply of solar energy in outer space, where the energy is constantly available without being subjected to the cycles of day and night, seasons, and cloud cover.

The launch, currently slated for early January, represents a major milestone in the project and promises to make what was once science fiction a reality. When fully realized, SSPP will deploy a constellation of modular spacecraft that collect sunlight, transform it into electricity, then wirelessly transmit that electricity over long distances wherever it is needed—including to places that currently have no access to reliable power.

Engineers carefully lower the DOLCE portion of the Space Solar Power Demonstrator onto the Vigoride spacecraft built by Momentus. Credit: Caltech/Space Solar Power Project.

A Momentus Vigoride spacecraft carried aboard a SpaceX rocket on the Transporter-6 mission will carry the 50-kilogram SSPD to space. It consists of three main experiments, each tasked with testing a different key technology of the project:

DOLCE (Deployable on-Orbit ultraLight Composite Experiment): A structure measuring 6 feet by 6 feet that demonstrates the architecture, packaging scheme and deployment mechanisms of the modular spacecraft that would eventually make up a kilometer-scale constellation forming a power station;
ALBA: A collection of 22 different types of photovoltaic (PV) cells, to enable an assessment of the types of cells that are the most effective in the punishing environment of space;
MAPLE (Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment): An array of flexible lightweight microwave power transmitters with precise timing control focusing the power selectively on two different receivers to demonstrate wireless power transmission at distance in space.

An additional fourth component of SSPD is a box of electronics that interfaces with the Vigoride computer and controls the three experiments.

Space Solar Power Demonstrator

SSPP got its start in 2011 after philanthropist Donald Bren, chairman of Irvine Company and a lifetime member of the Caltech Board of Trustees, learned about the potential for space-based solar energy manufacturing in an article in the magazine Popular Science. Intrigued by the potential for space solar power, Bren approached Caltech’s then-president Jean-Lou Chameau to discuss the creation of a space-based solar power research project. In 2013, Bren and his wife, Brigitte Bren, a Caltech trustee, agreed to make the donation to fund the project. The first of the donations (which will eventually exceed $100 million) was made that year through the Donald Bren Foundation, and the research began.

“For many years, I’ve dreamed about how space-based solar power could solve some of humanity’s most urgent challenges,” Bren says. “Today, I’m thrilled to be supporting Caltech’s brilliant scientists as they race to make that dream a reality.”

The rocket will take approximately 10 minutes to reach its desired altitude. The Momentus spacecraft will then be deployed from the rocket into orbit. The Caltech team on Earth plans to start running their experiments on the SSPD within a few weeks of the launch.

DOLCE unfolding

Some elements of the test will be conducted quickly. “We plan to command the deployment of DOLCE within days of getting access to SSPD from Momentus. We should know right away if DOLCE works,” says Sergio Pellegrino, Caltech’s Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Professor of Civil Engineering and co-director of SSPP. Pellegrino is also a senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA.

How Does Wireless Power Transfer Work?

Other elements will require more time. The collection of photovoltaics will need up to six months of testing to give new insights into what types of photovoltaic technology will be best for this application. MAPLE involves a series of experiments, from an initial function verification to an evaluation of the performance of the system under different environments over time. Meanwhile, two cameras on deployable booms mounted on DOLCE and additional cameras on the electronics box will monitor the experiment’s progress, and stream a feed back down to Earth. The SSPP team hopes that they will have a full assessment of the SSPD’s performance within a few months of the launch.

Numerous challenges remain: nothing about conducting an experiment in space—from the launch to the deployment of the spacecraft to the operation of the SSPD—is guaranteed. But regardless of what happens, the sheer ability to create a space-worthy prototype represents a significant achievement by the SSPP team.

(L to R) Sergio Pellegrino, Harry Atwater, and Ali Hajimiri, the principal investigators of the Space Solar Power Project. Credit: Caltech.

“No matter what happens, this prototype is a major step forward,” says Ali Hajimiri, Caltech’s Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering and co-director of SSPP. “It works here on Earth, and has passed the rigorous steps required of anything launched into space. There are still many risks, but having gone through the whole process has taught us valuable lessons. We believe the space experiments will provide us with plenty of additional useful information that will guide the project as we continue to move forward.”

Although solar cells have existed on Earth since the late 1800s and currently generate about 4 percent of the world’s electricity (in addition to powering the International Space Station), everything about solar power generation and transmission needed to be rethought for use on a large scale in space. Solar panels are bulky and heavy, making them expensive to launch, and they need extensive wiring to transmit power. To overcome these challenges, the SSPP team has had to envision and create new technologies, architectures, materials, and structures for a system that is capable of the practical realization of space solar power, while being light enough to be cost-effective for bulk deployment in space, and strong enough to withstand the punishing space environment.

“DOLCE demonstrates a new architecture for solar-powered spacecraft and phased antenna arrays. It exploits the latest generation of ultrathin composite materials to achieve unprecedented packaging efficiency and flexibility. With the further advances that we have already started to work on, we anticipate applications to a variety of future space missions,” Pellegrino says.

“The entire flexible MAPLE array, as well as its core wireless power transfer electronic chips and transmitting elements, have been designed from scratch. This wasn’t made from items you can buy because they didn’t even exist. This fundamental rethinking of the system from the ground up is essential to realize scalable solutions for SSPP,” Hajimiri says.

The prototype antenna sheet for the power transmitter array that demonstrates the unit’s flexibility. Each orange square on the yellow tile is an antenna to be driven by a single transmitter. Credit: Lance Hayashida/Caltech.

The entire set of three prototypes within the SSPD was envisioned, designed, built, and tested by a team of about 35 individuals. “This was accomplished with a smaller team and significantly fewer resources than what would be available in an industrial, rather than academic, setting. The highly talented team of individuals on our team has made it possible to achieve this,” says Hajimiri.

Those individuals, however—a collection of graduate students, postdocs, and research scientists—now represent the cutting edge in the burgeoning space solar power field. “We’re creating the next generation of space engineers,” says SSPP researcher Harry A. Atwater, Caltech’s Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, and director of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, a research institute dedicated to using sunlight to make liquid products that could be used for industrial chemicals, fuels, and building materials or products.

Success or failure from the three testbeds will be measured in a variety of ways. The most important test for DOLCE is that the structure completely deploys from its folded-up configuration into its open configuration. For ALBA, a successful test will provide an assessment of which photovoltaic cells operate with maximum efficiency and resiliency. MAPLE’s goal is to demonstrate selective free-space power transmission to different specific targets on demand.

“Many times, we asked colleagues at JPL and in the Southern California space industry for advice about the design and test procedures that are used to develop successful missions. We tried to reduce the risk of failure, even though the development of entirely new technologies is inherently a risky process,” says Pellegrino.

SSPP aims to ultimately produce a global supply of affordable, renewable, clean energy. More about SSPP can be found on the program’s website.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Caltech campus

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university in Pasadena, California. The university is known for its strength in science and engineering, and is one among a small group of institutes of technology in the United States which is primarily devoted to the instruction of pure and applied sciences.

The California Institute of Technology was founded as a preparatory and vocational school by Amos G. Throop in 1891 and began attracting influential scientists such as George Ellery Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes, and Robert Andrews Millikan in the early 20th century. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910 and the college assumed its present name in 1920. In 1934, The California Institute of Technology was elected to the Association of American Universities, and the antecedents of National Aeronautics and Space Administration ‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which The California Institute of Technology continues to manage and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under Theodore von Kármán.

The California Institute of Technology has six academic divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering. Its 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is located approximately 11 mi (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. First-year students are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduates remain in the on-campus House System at The California Institute of Technology. Although The California Institute of Technology has a strong tradition of practical jokes and pranks, student life is governed by an honor code which allows faculty to assign take-home examinations. The The California Institute of Technology Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division III’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).

As of October 2020, there are 76 Nobel laureates who have been affiliated with The California Institute of Technology, including 40 alumni and faculty members (41 prizes, with chemist Linus Pauling being the only individual in history to win two unshared prizes). In addition, 4 Fields Medalists and 6 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with The California Institute of Technology. There are 8 Crafoord Laureates and 56 non-emeritus faculty members (as well as many emeritus faculty members) who have been elected to one of the United States National Academies. Four Chief Scientists of the U.S. Air Force and 71 have won the United States National Medal of Science or Technology. Numerous faculty members are associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to a 2015 Pomona College study, The California Institute of Technology ranked number one in the U.S. for the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a PhD.

Research

The California Institute of Technology is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity”. Caltech was elected to The Association of American Universities in 1934 and remains a research university with “very high” research activity, primarily in STEM fields. The largest federal agencies contributing to research are National Aeronautics and Space Administration; National Science Foundation; Department of Health and Human Services; Department of Defense, and Department of Energy.

In 2005, The California Institute of Technology had 739,000 square feet (68,700 m^2) dedicated to research: 330,000 square feet (30,700 m^2) to physical sciences, 163,000 square feet (15,100 m^2) to engineering, and 160,000 square feet (14,900 m^2) to biological sciences.

In addition to managing NASA-JPL/Caltech , The California Institute of Technology also operates the Caltech Palomar Observatory; The Owens Valley Radio Observatory;the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory; the W. M. Keck Observatory at the Mauna Kea Observatory; the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory at Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington; and Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Corona del Mar, California. The Institute launched the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at The California Institute of Technology in 2006; the Keck Institute for Space Studies in 2008; and is also the current home for the Einstein Papers Project. The Spitzer Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center located on The California Institute of Technology campus, is the data analysis and community support center for NASA’s Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope [no longer in service].

Caltech Palomar Observatory. Credit:The California Institute of Technology, Altitude 1,713 m (5,620 ft), located in San Diego County, California.

California Institute of Technology The Owens Valley Radio Observatory, Owens Valley, California, Altitude 1,222 m (4,009 ft). Credit: Caltech.

W.M. Keck Observatory two ten meter telescopes operated by California Institute of Technology and The University of California, at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawai’i, altitude 4,207 m (13,802 ft). Credit: Caltech.

Caltech /MIT Advanced aLigo. Credit: Caltech.

Caltech/MIT Advanced aLigo Hanford, WA installation. Credit: Caltech.

Caltech/MIT Advanced aLigo detector installation Livingston, LA. Credit: Caltech.

The California Institute of Technology partnered with University of California at Los Angeles to establish a Joint Center for Translational Medicine (UCLA-Caltech JCTM), which conducts experimental research into clinical applications, including the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer.

The California Institute of Technology operates several Total Carbon Column Observing Network stations as part of an international collaborative effort of measuring greenhouse gases globally. One station is on campus.

From Rutgers University: “Rutgers Launches Collaborative to Harness University Expertise to Support Offshore Wind Energy Development”

Our Great Seal.

From Rutgers University

12.20.22

Shutterstock.

Rutgers has launched the Offshore Wind Collaborative to coordinate and build expertise in offshore wind research across the university community and to support workforce development pathways to employment in this industry.

Leading the establishment of the collaborative is Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, director of the Office of Resource and Economic Development at Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, along with Josh Kohut, professor, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, School of Environmental Biological Sciences, and Wade Trappe, professor and Associate Dean for Academics, School of Engineering.

More than 40 faculty members from across Rutgers’s campuses in New Brunswick, Camden and Newark have committed to the Offshore Wind Collaborative, bringing a wide range of disciplines and expertise including marine sciences, environmental science, engineering, materials science, supply-chain, and public policy, as well as economics, psychology and other social sciences. Rutgers is well positioned to establish the collaborative environment and knowledge-sharing needed to foster the growth of a wind-based economy in New Jersey.

New Jersey is poised to be a strong player in the emerging sector in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. The state’s Offshore Wind Strategic Plan, approved in 2020, guides the establishment of the offshore wind industry to benefit New Jersey residents. It is a core strategy of the state’s Energy Master Plan, which identifies the most ambitious and cost-effective ways of reaching 100 percent clean energy by 2050.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Wind Institute awarded the Rutgers OffShore Wind Collaborative a one-year, $125,000 grant as part of the University Initiatives to Advance Offshore Wind program. Brennan-Tonetta, Trappe and Kohut serve as co-investigators University Initiatives program, which includes three projects:

Offshore Wind Energy Symposium, a free event on Jan. 12 that will bring together industry, government and academic leaders to discuss challenges and opportunities, as well as build community engagement in offshore wind. A summary report based on information from the symposium will be used by NJEDA to develop recommendations on the government’s role in development of the offshore wind sector.
Educational Initiatives for a Resilient Offshore Wind Economy in New Jersey, will develop and deliver modular curricula across various technical, business, environmental, engineering and policy topics related to offshore wind. The modules will be designed to be integrated into a wide range of current Rutgers courses and for presentation as standalone programs.
Community Events and Shared Learning opportunities via three in-person community-building events at Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-New Brunswick, with the primary goal of exploring opportunities in the offshore wind sector.

NJEDA also provided a $282,000 grant to Rutgers to create the New Jersey Wind Institute Fellowship Program to support student research in topics that further the growth of offshore wind as well as build student and faculty advisor expertise in offshore wind research and innovation in the state. Chelsie Riche, assistant director for research and experiential education in the Office of Academic Affairs, serves as the principal investigator for the Rutgers Fellowship Program.

Rutgers is one of four higher education institutions in the state, including Rowan University, Montclair State University and New Jersey Institute of Technology, to offer its undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to conduct paid, independent research related to offshore wind. Open to students across all fields of study, the yearlong fellowship program was launched in Fall 2022 and includes 13 undergraduate and graduate student fellows at Rutgers.

Learn more about the Offshore Wind Collaborative and the Wind Institute Fellowship Program.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, is a leading national research university and the state’s preeminent, comprehensive public institution of higher education. Rutgers is dedicated to teaching that meets the highest standards of excellence; to conducting research that breaks new ground; and to providing services, solutions, and clinical care that help individuals and the local, national, and global communities where they live.

Founded in 1766, Rutgers teaches across the full educational spectrum: preschool to precollege; undergraduate to graduate; postdoctoral fellowships to residencies; and continuing education for professional and personal advancement.

Rutgers University is a public land-grant research university based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen’s College, and today it is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey (after Princeton University), and one of the nine U.S. colonial colleges that were chartered before the American War of Independence. In 1825, Queen’s College was renamed Rutgers College in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, whose substantial gift to the school had stabilized its finances during a period of uncertainty. For most of its existence, Rutgers was a private liberal arts college but it has evolved into a coeducational public research university after being designated The State University of New Jersey by the New Jersey Legislature via laws enacted in 1945 and 1956.

Rutgers today has three distinct campuses, located in New Brunswick (including grounds in adjacent Piscataway), Newark, and Camden. The university has additional facilities elsewhere in the state, including oceanographic research facilities at the New Jersey shore. Rutgers is also a land-grant university, a sea-grant university, and the largest university in the state. Instruction is offered by 9,000 faculty members in 175 academic departments to over 45,000 undergraduate students and more than 20,000 graduate and professional students. The university is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the Association of American Universities and the Universities Research Association. Over the years, Rutgers has been considered a Public Ivy.

Research

Rutgers is home to the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science, also known as RUCCS. This research center hosts researchers in psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, electrical engineering, and anthropology.

It was at Rutgers that Selman Waksman (1888–1973) discovered several antibiotics, including actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, grisein, neomycin, fradicin, candicidin, candidin, and others. Waksman, along with graduate student Albert Schatz (1920–2005), discovered streptomycin—a versatile antibiotic that was to be the first applied to cure tuberculosis. For this discovery, Waksman received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952.

Rutgers developed water-soluble sustained release polymers, tetraploids, robotic hands, artificial bovine insemination, and the ceramic tiles for the heat shield on the Space Shuttle. In health related field, Rutgers has the Environmental & Occupational Health Science Institute (EOHSI).

Rutgers is also home to the RCSB Protein Data bank, “…an information portal to Biological Macromolecular Structures’ cohosted with the San Diego Supercomputer Center. This database is the authoritative research tool for bioinformaticists using protein primary, secondary and tertiary structures worldwide….”

Rutgers is home to the Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension office, which is run by the Agricultural and Experiment Station with the support of local government. The institution provides research & education to the local farming and agro industrial community in 19 of the 21 counties of the state and educational outreach programs offered through the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Office of Continuing Professional Education.

Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR) is the largest university based repository in the world and has received awards worth more than $57.8 million from the National Institutes of Health. One will fund genetic studies of mental disorders and the other will support investigations into the causes of digestive, liver and kidney diseases, and diabetes. RUCDR activities will enable gene discovery leading to diagnoses, treatments and, eventually, cures for these diseases. RUCDR assists researchers throughout the world by providing the highest quality biomaterials, technical consultation, and logistical support.

Rutgers–Camden is home to the nation’s PhD granting Department of Childhood Studies. This department, in conjunction with the Center for Children and Childhood Studies, also on the Camden campus, conducts interdisciplinary research which combines methodologies and research practices of sociology, psychology, literature, anthropology and other disciplines into the study of childhoods internationally.

Rutgers is home to several National Science Foundation IGERT fellowships that support interdisciplinary scientific research at the graduate-level. Highly selective fellowships are available in the following areas: Perceptual Science, Stem Cell Science and Engineering, Nanotechnology for Clean Energy, Renewable and Sustainable Fuels Solutions, and Nanopharmaceutical Engineering.

Rutgers also maintains the Office of Research Alliances that focuses on working with companies to increase engagement with the university’s faculty members, staff and extensive resources on the four campuses.

As a ’67 graduate of University College, second in my class, I am proud to be a member of

Alpha Sigma Lamda, National Honor Society of non-tradional students.