Advanced Energy Initiative - Annual Report 2011 by WVU Research

DIRECTOR’S LETTER An Innovative Plan for the Business of AEI

US-China Energy

In October, 2010, the Business Plan for the Advanced Energy Institute was approved at the Fall 2010 meeting of AEI’s prestigious National Advisory Board. The Business Plan is an operational strategy and implementation document that identifies the resources, support systems and infrastructure that will accelerate the drive to atain the goals identified in 2008’s “Strategic Plan for the Advanced Energy Initiative.” The strategy brands WVU as an energy and environmental university, and increases the capacity of WVU to compete successfully for large, multi-million dollar, federal research grants.

Discovery; engagement; and innovation: three words that define the scope and

purpose of the work that the men and women researchers of West Virginia University undertake on a daily basis. The University’s Advanced Energy Initiative particularly embodies those words as more than 150 researchers focus on discovering new uses for old fuels; new solutions to old problems; and new technologies to advance energy innovation to help solve America’s energy challenges. The value of awards for energy and associated environmental research has increased each year since the AEI was formed in August of 2008. The funding for energy research in 2011 was $30.9 million compared with $28.8 million in funding in 2010, an increase of 7.3 percent. However, in the last half of 2011, it became increasingly apparent that funding for new research was being reduced and would be more difficult to obtain. This reduction in new energy research funding will almost certainly continue through 2012 and 2013. But WVU and AEI intend to build upon the successes of the past as we continue to search for answers for the future. These are challenging but exciting times in energy research. At AEI, we are confident that the research being done at WVU will lead to technologies, solutions, products and services that will strengthen West Virginia’s economy and help respond to the world’s growing energy needs. Major research highlights and success stories are contained on the following pages of this report. However, there are significant accomplishments that I am proud to bring to your attention in this brief introduction. 2

In 2010, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that a US-China coal research consortium led by West Virginia University will receive $12.5 million over the next five years to accelerate research on clean coal and carbon capture and storage. U.S. consortium partners have committed up to an additional $12.5 million in matching funds for a total $25 million program.

Energy Research Teams, Policy Programs and New Energy Research Faculty One of the key AEI achievements of the past year of which I am particularly proud was the development of interdisciplinary energy research teams and expansion of WVU’s energy policy program. Twenty-eight proposals were received from newly formed on-campus research teams in response to the release of two requests for proposals and four finalists were selected for funding beginning in July, 2011. The College of Law has hired James VanNostrand as the Director of the WVU College of Law’s Center for Energy and Sustainability, Law and Policy. In addition, the Provost has announced that ten (10) new energy faculty positions have been approved for FY 2012. These positions represent an example of “cluster hiring” in a field and will ultimately have a significant impact on energy research at WVU. More details about these key steps and other significant AEI developments follow on these pages. I invite you to learn even more about AEI by visiting our new web site - http://energyresearch.wvu.edu/.

The U.S.-China Advanced Coal Technology Consortium will focus on achieving rapid progress in clean coal and carbon capture technology development, demonstration and enhancement – work that should lead to new export opportunities for U.S. companies while helping reduce global carbon emissions. The consortium of researchers is taking the approach that providing clear and strong intellectual property protection and sharing is the best way to stimulate the creation of new technologies for using energy to power the economy while protecting the environment.

Joseph Kozuch

Director

Fletcher, director of the WVU-based US-China Energy Center – a component of the university’s Advanced Energy Initiative – leads the consortium. In addition to WVU and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the consortium includes Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the University of Wyoming, University of Kentucky, Indiana University, the World Resources Institute, the US-China Clean Energy Forum, General Electric, Duke Energy, LP Amina and Babcock & Wilcox.

With the stroke of a pen in August 2011, West Virginia University Professor Jerald J. Fletcher and Huazhong University of Science and Technology Professor Zheng Chuguang affirmed the groundbreaking intellectual property agreement contained in the Technology Management Plan of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center’s Advanced Coal Technology Consortium. 3

AEI PARTNERS

WVU NETL team to receive “Oscar of Innovation” for fuel cell work

Clements helps launch regional energy research consortium

“Pooling research skills and talents to work on America’s energy problems helps create a scientific workforce of unparalleled potential” — WVU President James P. Clements R&D Magazine today ( June 22) named the work as one of the “100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.” Previous R&D 100 Award winners include such innovations as HDTV and the automated teller machine. Fuel cells are devices that generate electricity through a chemical reaction. They use hydrogen as fuel and little more than water is produced as a byproduct. NETL and WVU experts have been concentrating on a variation of the fuel cell known as a solid oxide fuel cell in a quest for a coating that can prolong the life of individual components and lower the cost of using fuel cells in large-scale power generation. Solid oxide fuel cells offer advantages because, unlike a wide range of other fuel cells that operate exclusively on hydrogen, they can also use fossil fuels, butane, methanol, other petroleum products and gases from biomass or coal and still only produce water and a small amount of carbon dioxide as a byproduct. 4

However, the stumbling block has been the life expectancy of the solid oxide fuel cells that must be stacked or bundled together to work. High temperatures and chemical reactions served to make the process expensive because of the need for frequent replacement of parts. That made the cost of the electricity produced in the process too high to be feasible. The NETL-WVU team developed a special coating to drastically reduce that wear and tear and thus make the solid oxide fuel cell more feasible for producing large-scale power. Xingbo Liu, associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, was the principal investigator and co-developed the technology with NETL colleagues and funding. He was assisted by his Ph.D. student Junwei Wu. Liu explained that the new product could make solid oxide fuel cells viable for the first time by preventing the corrosion of the interconnects that are a critical part of the technology.

Clements appeared in Pittsburgh to celebrate the launch of the Regional University Alliance, sponsored by the National Energy Technology Center co-located in Pittsburgh and Morgantown. RUA is dedicated to developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. He appeared along with the chancellor/presidents of consortium members the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University and Virginia Tech, and the vice president of research for Carnegie Mellon University to discuss options for meeting critical U.S. energy challenges. “The five universities participating in the RUA are acutely aware of their responsibilities to help make people’s lives better in our individual states, our region, and the nation,” Clements said. The NETL Regional University Alliance presents very skilled and productive researchers at five prestigious regional universities with the uncommon opportunity to make lives better by helping – together – to solve stubborn energy problems with national and even global implications. At the same time, as university researchers, individuals from these RUA institutions engage with

students to convey not only knowledge about new energy-related discoveries, but also knowledge about how to discover. In that way, we lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s scientific discoveries that lead to tomorrow’s innovations.” The partnership leverages facilities, specialty equipment, professional staff, and other resources, which accelerates the development and deployment of innovative energy and environmental technology. The commercialization of these technologies will invigorate the economy with new high-tech and manufacturing jobs—jobs that will be well-suited for the skilled workforce that results from engagement in the cutting-edge, collaborative research of NETL-RUA. NETL-RUA strives to increase its impact on resolving the Nation’s energy challenges and to provide more significant contributions to the economy, both regionally and nationally. The collaborative efforts of the Alliance produce greater results than what could have been achieved by any of the individual organizations acting alone. 5

FY 2010 HIGHLIGHTS this technology. Because so few of these plants have been built, the center will allow engineers, technology managers and operators to obtain experience in the operation of these plants prior to actual construction.”

foreign oil and contributing to cleaner air, but it will also be an incredibly valuable teaching tool when training first responders, automotive technicians, consumers and high school and college students.”

The real-time operator training system will be combined with an Invensys-built threedimensional virtual reality environment. The immersive training system, or ITS, will enable trainees to interact with the simulated 3-D facility to study and learn various aspects of plant operation, control, and safety.

In fact, the NAFTC staff immediately put the new vehicle into service at its Professional Development Meeting in July at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine. NAFTC members from universities, community colleges and high schools participated in a day-long training session that focused on the Volt and Eaton Corporation’s charging stations.

novel simulators for coal power plants West Virginia University Chemical Engineering Professor Richard Turton has been at the forefront of the development of a new facility to promote the adoption of clean-coal power plant technology. He and his colleague, Stephen E. Zitney of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, are leading the first-of-a-kind advanced virtual energy simulation training and research effort that they call the AVESTAR™ Center. The AVESTAR™ Center will operate two identical simulator facilities, one at the WVU National Research Center for Coal and Energy and another at NETL’s Morgantown site. The real-time dynamic simulator, much like the simulator that an airplane pilot trains on, is designed to teach power plant personnel how to operate an integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC, power plant complete with carbon capture capability. “IGCC power plants are relatively rare,” said Turton. “There are less than 10 similar plants operating or being constructed in the states, with several more in China and Europe. The simulator gives the DOE and WVU an opportunity to showcase 6

The profile explains that Anderson grew up the son of a fossil fuel engineer and, after leaving Appalachia to earn a Ph.D. from MIT, returned to West Virginia. Anderson has explained that the approach to reach the geothermal opportunities involves drilling into the earth in an area with hot or warm rocks, pumping water through those rocks to bring the heated water back to the surface and using that water to heat buildings or generate electricity. U.S. geothermal resources have been generally restricted to isolated areas of the west, where rocks are hot at relatively shallow depths and where some states already use geothermal energy for heating and electricity.

WVU’s geothermal work featured in Sierra Club magazine alternative fuel vehicles training The National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium of West Virginia University recently added a high-tech vehicle to its collection of tools used to train and enlighten first responders, public decision makers and potential consumers about alternative fuel vehicles. NAFTC will hit the road with a 2011 Chevy Volt when its experts pursue an aggressive schedule to advance the public’s knowledge about alternative fuel vehicles through a program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NAFTC Executive Director Al Ebron said the vehicle, “not only will help us promote the importance of electric drive vehicles in lessening our dependence on

The Advanced Electric Drive Vehicle Education Program is managed by the NAFTC. The program will generate and disseminate a variety of outreach and education efforts including training and curricula for first responders, automotive technicians, educators, electrical infrastructure engineers, consumers and other related groups.

The work of Brian Anderson, assistant professor of chemical engineering in WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, to explore the potential for a geothermal energy bonanza in West Virginia was highlighted in the Sierra Club’s print and online magazine. The magazine ran a visual feature explaining how recent scientific findings found that the Mountain State sits on top of a geothermal hot spot 2.4 miles down that could theoretically provide 18,890 megawatts of energy in the future. WVU’s Anderson is at work with a $1.2 million grant from the US Department of Energy to assess “enhanced geothermal systems.” Anderson is profiled in a side story augmenting the graphic that depicts the location of the West Virginia geothermal pocket, the potential it holds for powering homes and businesses and the difficulties ahead in accessing that potential.

In the eastern U.S., rocks under the earth are not as hot. Anderson and his colleagues will investigate new methods of using the lower-temperature eastern resources, some involving the use of geothermal resources in combination with other forms of renewable energy such as biomass.

to take a role in developing this energy. “We would establish ourselves as a serious collaborator on a fusion experiment,” Scime said. Success in this experiment could lead to involvement on more experiments, allowing WVU to become a part of the big picture of the journey to harness this type of energy. “The idea of being able to control thermonuclear reactions and therefore have a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy is attractive,” Scime said. “As physicists, many of us want to make a difference in the world, and, clearly, solving the energy problems of the world is making a pretty big difference.” But the experiment that could get WVU’s foot in the door has an element of risk. “It is a gamble in a sense,” Scime said. “We have calculated as much as we can calculate for this experiment, and we think it will work.”

“We are leading the effort to integrate what we learn into national energy deployment models,” Anderson said when the grant award was announced. “If we can realize the full geothermal potential of the high-temperature resources in the west and the lower-temperature geothermal resources in the east, it will make a huge difference in the overall energy picture of our country.”

WVU broadens energy research to include innovative fusion experiment WVU Physics Department Chair Earl Scime and a team of students are embarking on an experiment that is part of a larger quest to develop hydrogen fusion energy. This world goal has the scope of the moon race, he says, and he sees this experiment, if successful, as WVU’s chance

River water quality analysis WVU through research, reason, and a great deal of cooperation from coal companies along the Monongahela River, demonstrated how “a little science goes a long way” in correcting a potential water quality issue without costing jobs or increasing anyone’s electricity or sewage rates. When the Monongahela River experienced a rise in levels of what experts call Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the late summer of 2008 to a point where it exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s secondary drinking water standards for taste and smell, WVU experts went to work with the coal industry to create, organize and implement a voluntary, non-regulatory process that turned the situation around.

China’s search for clean fuel leads to to WVU In its worldwide search for transportation fuel, China is turning to WVU for cleaner, affordable, domestic options. A team led by WVU Chemical Engineer Elliot Kennel will be conducting experiments to convert biomass and coal to transportation fuel under a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and using equipment donated by the Lu’ an Group, a Chinese energy business enterprise. China has one of the world’s fastest growing automotive markets. According to the Energy Information Administration’s International Energy Outlook 2010, car sales in China surged by nearly 50 percent in 2009 while sales through 2010 were expected to slow to a 7- to 10-percent. Experts predict that the growing demand will strain world oil markets. The $304,000 project is one of several under a recent $1.2 million award to the WVU US-China Energy Center from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy to study the long term environmental and economic impacts of coal liquefaction in China. The US-CEC is a joint program of WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and the National Research Center for Coal and Energy.

wvu researchers take to the air to get the facts on coal extraction West Virginia University researchers are taking to Mountain State skies to gather and share critical data about coal mining so that lawmakers, government regulators, private industry and industry associations all have the unbiased scientific information they need to make informed and responsible decisions about the future of the energy business in West Virginia. To the researchers at WVU’s Natural Resource Analysis Center in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, the ongoing discussion about the environmental impacts associated with the extraction of America’s most abundant natural resource is all about facts. Using global positioning, a twin engine aircraft, and a laseroriented data collection and analysis system known as LiDAR that is so sensitive it can detect the height of a basketball sitting in a vacant parking lot from thousands of feet, WVU experts are flying over West Virginia’s coal fields to gather facts about topography, hydrology, geology and other factors affected by mountaintop, surface and underground mining. “This is important information for the coal industry to have and it is critical information for environmental regulators to have,” Paul Kinder, a research scientist with the Analysis Center explained. “With these data sets, regulators can make sure companies are complying with their restoration obligations and private industry can demonstrate how they are doing their part.”

High levels of TDS are not generally considered primary pollutants in that they are not usually associated with health effects. However, they are used as an indication of aesthetic characteristics of drinking water and as an indicator of the presence of a broad array of chemical contaminants. There was concern in 2008 that there were increasing concentrations of salts in the Monongahela River and that drinking water supplies and industrial users would be affected. WVU’s Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU’s Water Research Institute, and his team went to work by performing a study of the upper Mon and its major tributaries. He said a strategic monitoring program was put in place for the Mon watershed that sampled water quality along the River and its tributaries every two weeks. The main stem of the Mon was sampled at four stations from near McKeesport PA to just above the Morgantown Utility Board water intake in Morgantown. The results of the study suggested a way to manage TDS in the Mon. Ziemkiewicz reasoned that the most easily managed component of the TDS picture was the active deep coal mines. “Why not reduce pumping of the deep mines during the dry period, store the water in worked out parts of the mines, then pump hard during the wet season? ” he asked. By late fall of 2009, Ziemkiewicz, working with major coal companies in the upper Monongahela River Basin, formed a “Coal industry TDS Working Group” to design and implement a managed discharge system. Ziemkiewicz developed a system that accounted for the pumping capacities of the fourteen major mine pumping and treatment plants in the upper Mon and their typical TDS concentrations, and then tied the salt output to the flow in the Mon on any particular day. Those flows can be read from gauges that are reported hourly on the U.S. Geological Survey web site. The system allows the companies to look at the gauge reading and set their pumps to the indicated rate, thereby coordinating the outflows.

environmental impacts of appalachia energy resources A team of WVU experts is part of a new consortium of major research universities formed to analyze the environmental impacts of producing and using Appalachia’s energy resources. They are lending their expertise to the Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Sciences – a consortium of seven major universities led by the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech with support from private industry. Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the WVU-based West Virginia Water Research Institute, said the consortium, called ARIES, will help study upstream and downstream issues related to the energy sector. The WVU faculty team includes Todd Petty from Wildlife and Fisheries Resources; Mike Strager, Resource Management; Jeff Skousen and Louis McDonald, Plant and Soil Science, all in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design; and Vlad Kecojevic, John Quaranta and Leslie Hopkinson from the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. ARIES is intended to use sound science and research to enable continued development of the region’s energy resources in a safe and environmentally protective way. In addition to WVU and Virginia Tech, ARIES participants include: University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Pennsylvania. 9

CENTERS & COLLABORATIONS

WVU researchers use artificial intelligence to optimize Marcellus Shale production A grant for $353,934 from the Gas Technology Institute will enable researchers with West Virginia University’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to use data-intensive science to optimize gas production in the region. Dr. Shahab Mohaghegh, a professor in WVU’s Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, is leading a team of researchers in applying the latest technology to reservoir modeling. Mohaghegh is a pioneer in the application of artificial intelligence and data mining in the petroleum industry. “Traditionally, in order to increase production you would build a predictive reservoir model using conventional technology,” Mohaghegh said. “The technology we are using is new and unconventional. It is not based on physics and mathematics, but on ‘Top-Down’ modeling.” Conventional reservoir simulation and modeling is a bottomup approach. It starts with building a geological model of the reservoir that is populated with the best petrophysical and geophysical information available at the time of development. Engineering fluid flow principles are then added and solved numerically to arrive at a dynamic reservoir model. The model is calibrated using the production history of multiple wells and the history-matched model is used to strategize field development in order to improve recovery. According to Mohaghegh, Top-Down, Intelligent Reservoir Modeling approaches the reservoir simulation and modeling from the opposite angle. It integrates traditional reservoir engineering analysis with AI&DM technology to generate a full-field model. Using this new technology leads to savings of both time and 10

research resources to obtain accurate predictive models. Over time, more wells and more historical data enhance the results of the model. “This is very new technology that has been extensively and exclusively used here at WVU,” Mohaghegh said. “People in the industry are quite interested to see how our research in this area progresses.”

CAFEE WVU’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions (CAFEE) has become a national leader in applied and fundamental research in heavy-duty engine emissions. CAFEE helps fuel suppliers and vehicle manufacturers make better products that comply with complex and changing federal requirements and help US cities improve air quality. It is tough work that has taken CAFEE experts to difficult locations throughout North America but the Center has the serious success milestones to prove its effectiveness. CAFEE: • •

•

Developed novel systems to quantify exhaust emissions of conventional and alternative-fueled engines and heavy-duty vehicles. Built and operates one of the few engine labs in the country that is officially recognized by both the California Air Resources Board and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality – organizations with stringent emissions regulations that demand reporting requirements with an accuracy within +/- 0.5%. Developed one of the world’s first mobile on-board emission testing systems, an achievement born from the Environmental Protection Agency requirement that all heavy-duty equipment manufacturers comply with emissions standards measured while the vehicle is in actual use rather than in static laboratory tests. CAFEE has measured and analyzed 50,000 vehicle miles of heavy-duty, in-use emissions data. Developed emission and performance models like the

Integrated Bus Information System (IBIS), a life-cycle cost model that incorporates capital, maintenance, and operating expenses to provide a holistic, realistic view of public transportation technologies costs. Those successes were not all achieved in WVU laboratories. CAFEE researchers and experts are no strangers to the field. Dan Carder, director of CAFEE, explained that one of the things that makes CAFEE unique, is, “a willingness to go ‘extremely applied’ to compliment fundamental research in advanced engines, fuels, emissions and combustion processes. We are good at identifying what needs to be done, and then getting our hands dirty.”

CENTERS & COLLABORATIONS

AEI conducts research in fossil energy, sustainable energy and energy policy and maintains collaborations with centers of activity in each area. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Advanced Power & Electricity Research Center (APERC) Appalachian Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium (AONGRC) Biomaterials and Wood Utilization Research Center Coal and Energy Research Bureau (CERB) Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science (CFFS) Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions (CAFEE) Energy Material Science and Engineering Program Energy Systems Resilience Program Industrial Assessment Center Industries of the Future West Virginia (IOFWV) Longwall Mining and Ground Control Research Center (LMGCRC) National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) National Environmental Services Center National Institute of Fuel Cell Technology (NIFT) National Research Center for Coal & Energy (NRCCE) Natural Resource Analysis Center (NRAC) Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) The Supercomputing Science Consortium ((SC)2) WV Water Research Institute (WVWRI) Zero Emissions Research and Technology Center (ZERT)

To learn more about these centers visit our Fossil and Sustainable Energy sections on the Advanced Energy Initiative’s website below.

AEI FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Ismail Celik is a renowned

scholar in the area of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), where computer codes play a major role in the scientific analysis and investigation of complex engineering systems, Dr. Celik’s research over the past three decades has received worldwide acclaim. Dr. Celik is the worldwide leader in quantifying potential CFD errors. He said last summer’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provided a primer on computational fluid dynamics in action – and the need to reduce errors in predictions. “During the Gulf oil spill, for instance, you could calculate how the oil mixed with ocean water. You could also calculate and get some idea of the distribution level from the well,” he said. “So then, you could calculate that within a certain number of days, the front of the spill would reach a certain point. Dr. Celik has published more than 60 scholarly papers, as well as authored the textbook “Introductory Numerical Methods for Engineering Application.”

http://energyresearch.wvu.edu/fossil_energy

http://energyresearch.wvu.edu/sustainable_energy

Research conducted by Dr. Celik also extends to the areas of combustion and emissions, turbulence prediction, transport processes within fuel cells, assessment of worker exposure to hazardous contaminants, and transmission of influenza via aerosols.

Kaushlendra Singh Amy Weislogel

contributes to a WVU research team of chemists, biologists and engineers seeking to combine West Virginia’s vast coal and forest resources into new biofuels. His work explores both liquifaction and gasification of coal/biomass mixtures. But he started his professional career, as he says, as “a big machine guy and a human resource trainer.” Dr. Singh, Assistant Professor of Wood Science and Technology (Biofuels and Bioenergy) in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, came to WVU in 2010.

Singh and his team are working on several processes that can merge West Virginia’s coal and timber resources to create new fuels that will be less carbon intensive than coal alone. Singh’s team is truly a multi-disciplinary collaboration of engineers, chemists, biologists, and others. “The team approach gives us a better picture of the technology and what infrastructure will be needed to support it,” he explained. “We even have a nano technology guy working side-by-side with a big machine guy like me to develop new products.”

WVU Geologist Amy Weislogel studies grains of sand for a living. She has worked in Montana, the Gulf Coast, and provinces in China examining grains of sand in geologic formations to help explain the earth’s dynamic history and trace the location and the age of ancient mountains. Weislogel’s work mapping ancient windblown dune deposits or the sand channels of ancient river beds can play a major role in helping an energychallenged world continue to use one of its most abundant natural resources by helping locate potential underground storage sites for carbon dioxide produced from burning coal and other fossil fuels – a process known as carbon sequestration and storage. She is teaming with WVU Geology and Geography Department colleague Timothy Carr to evaluate potential carbon sequestration sites in China as a part of the recently signed US-China Clean Energy Research Initiative that is being led by WVU as part of its Advanced Energy Initiative. Her work in China may help the US and China with carbon storage issues that are critical to continued responsible use of fossil fuels without further contributing to global climate change. Weislogel expects to return to the Shanxi Province where she has done field work in the past.

AEI FINANCIALS 35

Tim Carr is the Marshall

S. Miller Professor of Energy in the Geography and Geology Department. His research focuses on the evaluation of geologic formations that would be suitable for the underground storage of carbon dioxide captured from fossil fuel burning. He is very enthusiastic about the research possibilities that will evolve from the the US-China Energy Center at WVU’s National Research Center for Coal and Energy. With support from several grants, including a recent one from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Carr also is working with the Department of Energy on an ‘online carbon atlas’ for North America that makes available key geospatial data (carbon sources, carbon sinks, etc.) required for implementing carbon capture and storage on a broad scale. “There’s plenty of energy out there. We can make it available in an economically viable and environmentally sound way with hard, dedicated work over many decades by large numbers of bright, young people with strong technical backgrounds in the geoscience and engineering disciplines.” Providing those skills, he says, is a primary mission of WVU and the Advanced Energy Initiative.

Xingbo Liu

is an awardwinning materials scientist and assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the West Virginia University College of Engineering and Mineral Resources who is working hard with a group of WVU students in the struggle to improve ways to use coal and help the US become energy independent. Liu was awarded the 2010 Early Career Faculty Fellow Award from the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and has collaborated in nearly $15 million worth of externally funded research at WVU. He is focused on discovering ways to cleanly and responsibly use West Virginia’s vast coal reserves to help the US become energy independent. Liu and his students have been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory on a new type of coal-fired power plant called the Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell system that will allow for easy capture of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas and keep coal an important part of America’s energy mix. Another one of his breakthroughs was the development of a new electroplating method that makes connections among multiple fuel cells more efficient resulting in higher efficiency. Liu has also been working on superalloys for steam turbine blades and advanced battery technologies. Liu has published 33 papers in peerreviewed journals and 32 conference papers, and he has submitted two patent applications. He was named the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources Outstanding Researcher in 2008 and 2009.

Brian anderson

Chemical engineering faculty member Brian Anderson is leading a team at work on a three-year research project aimed at expanding the use of geothermal energy, which is energy stored beneath the surface of the earth. “The Department of Energy is aggressively pursuing the development of geothermal systems that will enable the production of energy from any region in the country,” said Anderson. “We are happy to be contributing to that effort, and to demonstrating that geothermal energy can effectively help us meet our energy needs.”

Anderson is the lead researcher on the project, along with colleagues from Cornell University, Iowa State University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Engineered geothermal energy systems (EGS), Anderson explained, would involve drilling into the earth in an area with hot or warm rocks, pumping water through those rocks, bringing the heated water back to the surface and using that water to heat buildings or generate electricity. “If we can realize the full geothermal potential of the high-temperature resources in the west and the lowertemperature geothermal resources in the east, it will make a huge difference in the overall energy picture of our country,” he added.

The AEI was formed in 2008 and energy research funding has increased every year. The results are shown to the left and indicate that funding has grown by 76.6% over that time. Funding increased 7.3% from 2010 to 2011. In 2011, 90 new awards were obtained.

State Govt.

Awards from the Federal Government made up 75.9% of the funding of which >70% was from the Department of Energy. Funding from the USDA and the DOD was also received. The State of West Virginia contributed 8% of the funding which was mainly awarded for environmental studies. Industrial organizations contributed 16.1% of the funding and covered a variety of subjects, however shale gas research figured prominently in industrial support.

Industrial Sources

Federal Govt.

Shale gas Energy materials Sustainable energy Coal & mining

Energy Technologies

Environmental studies Carbon management

SOURCES OF ENERGY FUNDING

There were 26 awards that were larger than $250K accounting for 53.4% of the total funding. One of the objectives of the AEI is to increase both the size and the number of awards. In 2010 the average award was $220K while in 2011 it is $343K, while the percentage of awards smaller than $250K has fallen. Another objective of the AEI is to increase the number of large interdisciplinary awards. In 2011, 10 awards larger than $0.5M were received while 8 were obtained in 2010.

$ 0.25M - 0.5M

FUNDING BY SUBJECT AREA % of 2011 Energy Awards

The sustainable energy projects which make up about one third of the funding are still relatively small. These projects include geothermal, wind, gas hydrates, biomass and bioenergy, hydrogen fuel, energy efficiency and catalysis. Environmental research including water for energy accounts for 18.6% of the funding. WVU has an excellent reputation in this area. Carbon management, which is part of the clean coal initiative, studies geologic sequestration, the economics of sequestration as well as beneficial uses of carbon dioxide. It accounts for 12.4% of the funding. Similarly energy technologies refer to fuel cell and vehicle technologies both subjects where we have an excellent reputation. Studies of coal and safe mining account for 10.4% of the funding. Energy materials (7.4%) and shale gas (6.8%) are both relatively new subjects to WVU but are expanding rapidly.

$ 0.5M - 1M < $ 0.25M > $ 1M

SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION OF AWARDS % of 2011 Energy Awards

key energy concepts funded Four teams of WVU researchers will be exploring new energyrelated concepts with funding made available through the first competitive grant process sponsored by AEI. Each team was awarded an AEI grant to pursue very specific topics that add knowledge to the nation’s effort to address energy concerns. The competition attracted 28 concept papers from throughout the University in response to a request for proposals under the AEI program in two categories: “Developing WVU’s Energy Policy Program” and “Developing Interdisciplinary Energy Research Teams.”

The purpose of the AEI grants is to help “bridge the gulf that often exists between good policy and sound science.” The concepts for developing WVU’s energy policy program were:

AEI NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Curt Peterson (Chair) Vice President for Research and Economic Development and President, WVU Research Corporation, Morgantown, West Virginia Carl Bauer Independent Consultant & Prior Director, US Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Lab, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Allen Burchett Vice President, Strategic Initiatives ABB, Inc. Cary, North Carolina Bob Dixon Team Leader, Climate & Chemicals Global Environment Facility of the World Bank, Washington, DC Thomas A. Heywood Managing Partner, Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love LLP Charleston, West Virginia

•

“Government-Industry Partnerships in Developing Energy Policy: Advancing Carbon Capture and Sequestration,” led by Maja Holmes of the Division of Public Administration in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and funded at $18,000.

Kathryn J. Jackson Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Westinghouse Electric Company, Cranberry, Pennsylvania

•

“Marcellus Shale: A Comparative Regulatory Analysis.” submitted by WVU College of Law Dean Joyce McConnell and James Van Nostrand and funded at $30,000.

Bill Jayne Region Executive, Western Region GE Energy, Ontario, California

AEI Awards for Developing Interdisciplinary Energy Research Teams are being made to: •

•

“Advancing an Interdisciplinary and Competitive Bioenergy Research Team at WVU” submitted by Jingxin Wang, Dave DeVallance and Kaushlendra Singh all of the Division of Forestry in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design; Shawn Grushecky of the Appalachian Hardwood Center in Davis College; Stephen DiFazio and Jennifer Hawkins of the Department of Biology in the Eberly College; John Zondlo of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources; Ed Sabolsky of Mechanical Enginnering in CEMR; and Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnan of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering of CEMR and funded at $179,500. “Carbon Dioxide Sequestration in Geothermal Reservoirs” submitted by Brian Anderson of Chemical Engineering in CEMR; Tim Carr of the Geology and Geography Department of Eberly; and Xingbo Liu of Mechanical Engineering in CEMR, and funded at $170,000.

Terri Marts Program Manager, NETL Research and Engineering Services Contract, URS Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Ron Mullennex Senior Vice President, Marshall Miller and Associates, Bluefield, Virginia Bill Raney President, West Virginia Coal Association, Charleston, West Virginia Scott Rotruck Vice President, Corporate Development & State Government Relations, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Gary Sypolt Chief Executive Officer, Dominion Energy, Richmond, Virginia Brad Tomer Chief Operating Officer, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Morgantown, West Virginia Steven E. Winberg Vice President, Research & Development Coal Conversion & Power Development, CONSOL Energy Inc., South Pointe, Pennsylvania

energyresearch.wvu.edu NRCCE, Room 113E , 385 Evansdale Drive P.O. Box 6064 - Morgantown, WV 26506-6064 research@mail.wvu.edu 304-293-9112 This brochure uses 100% PCW (recycled content) paper; processed chlorine free (PCF); made with renewable energy and printed with environmentally friendly inks. PLEASE RECYCLE.