New! Summer 2023 Seed Grant Projects

Machine Learning-Informed Analysis of Remote Sensing Data to Identify Favorable Areas for Enhanced Geothermal Systems

Nicole Taverna (National Renewable Energy Lab), Researcher III-Data Science and H. Sebnem Duzgun (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Mining Engineering

Geothermal resources can deliver a steady, continuous flow of heat from the Earth’s core that can be converted into energy. Geothermal energy increases the viability of a clean grid by offering a reliable foundation for delivering renewable energy. Finding the appropriate locations and workable resources, including possible sites for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), is the key to advancement of geothermal energy. The high level of uncertainty that accompanies the subsurface resource is one of the primary obstacles to EGS development.

The use of multimodal geological, geophysical, and geochemical data can be beneficial in identifying indicators of EGS. This proposal presents a novel method for determining optimal deployment sites for EGS. By combining machine learning, remote sensing, AI, and additional exploration data (e.g., geology, geophysics, geochemistry), we hope to generate comprehensive resource maps of potential geothermal resources.

Flash activation of conductive oxide materials for low-temperature oxygen evolving anodes

Megan Holtz (Colorado School of Mines), Assistant Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, and Elliot Padgett (National Renewable Energy Lab), Researcher III-Chemistry, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

Oxygen-evolving anodes are a critical component for several clean energy technologies including water electrolysis for hydrogen production and CO2 reduction for carbon-neutral fuel and chemical synthesis. Proton exchange membrane (PEM)-based devices present several important advantages, critical to achieving the Hydrogen Earthshot. However, very few materials are suitable for the acidic, oxidizing conditions present in their oxygen-evolving anodes. To enable clean hydrogen production at scale, we must lower the costs of PEME by lowering use of iridium and using thinner membranes to improve device conductivity. The recent demonstration of conductivity induced in otherwise insulating ceramics by flash processing may create a new route to prepare transformative anode materials for PEME. Flash activation uses high voltage pulsing to alter the properties of ceramic materials. This project would lay the groundwork to understand the prospects for flash-activated ceramics to revolutionize OER anodes.

 Infrastructure Perception and Control (IPC): Creating Real-Time Digital Twin of Traffic to Create Safe and Reliable Intersections

Michael Wakin (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Chemistry and Geochemistry and Rimple Sandhu (National Renewable Energy Lab), Staff Researcher, Computational Sciences

Over the last decade, the advances in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) have far surpassed the technological realm of transportation infrastructure. There is a growing need to have a technologically commensurate transportation infrastructure to enable safe and reliable movement of goods and people. This need is perhaps felt most at traffic intersections, as more than 50 percent of the combined total of fatal and injury crashes occur at or near intersections. 

The proposed concept of this project is aimed at bridging this technological gap by building a real-time digital twin of traffic by fusing detections from sensors installed at the intersection. This digital twin can then empower a wide variety of applications such as smart traffic signals or infrastructure-to-everything (I2X) communications. The state-space techniques of Bayesian filtering provide a robust mathematical apparatus to facilitate the handling of multiple data points about the same object, while respecting associated uncertainties and heterogenous data structure. However, this technology has remained rather elusive in the field of static transportation infrastructure due to the over-reliance on OEMs. 

With this proposal, NREL and Mines aim to deploy and advance the field of Bayesian filtering to design, test and validate a robust sensor fusion framework that is sensor-agnostic, OEM-agnostic, scalable, reliable, and provides a trustable digital twin of traffic at the given intersection.

Development of Biomass Waste Electrocatalysts for Localized Green H2 Generation and Sustainable Hydrocarbon Chemistry

Nicholas Bedford (Colorado School of Mines) Research Professor of Chemistry, Alan Sellinger (Colorado School of Mines) Professor of Chemistry, Jack Ferrell (National Renewable Energy Lab) Research Engineer, Carbon Utilization and Susan Habas (National Renewable Energy Lab) Bioenergy Science and Technology

The need for hydrolysis technology to operate on versatile aqueous water sources is becoming an ever-pressing societal demand given the need for localized production of clean-burning fuels coupled with a lack of pure water in many areas across the globe. While seawater is an obvious candidate of choice as an inherently available feedstock for electrolysis, the direct use of seawater often leads to issues with undesirable reaction chemistry. Wastewater from the food and beverage industry is one possible alternative to seawater, as it often consists of low concentration of potentially parasitic cations and anions yet is often of sufficient conductivity for possible direct implementation. If food/beverage wastewater could be successfully implemented into an electrolyzer, this technology could indirectly couple as a possible means to upcycle waste into local green H2 while providing a means for lower local waste footprints. This project will develop a range of proposals focused on designing catalyst and electrolyzers that operate on feedstocks from food and beverage waste. Our proposed efforts will focus on both the fundamental science of engineering hydrocarbon electrooxidation catalysis and their eventual scale up and deployment in a prototype electrolyzer.

Energy-neutral green infrastructure for treatment of pathogens in urban drool and dry weather flows

John McCray (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Scott Struck (National Renewable Energy Lab), Water Systems Research Engineer

Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to assist states, territories, and authorized tribes in listing impaired surface waters. According to EPA estimates, pathogens are the leading cause of impairment for listed impaired waters. Pathogen impairments can impact people’s health, hurt the economy, and reduce opportunities for recreation. Health-care costs attributed to some of the leading causes of waterborne pathogens in the United States are estimated at more than $1 billion annually. Additionally, water impaired by pathogens is harder to treat for potable use. Recent surveys of impaired waters have identified over 10,500 named waterways as impaired by pathogens equating to about 42% of the assessed US rivers and streams. Together with land-based pollutant sources, urban drainage provides a major conduit transporting pollutants into receiving waterbodies. Stormwater management infrastructure is the primary tool used for urban runoff management and is considered by the US EPA as the “best available treatment technology” for managing pollutants. This proposal is to develop a competitively funded proposal submission that would incorporate a novel approach to apply green stormwater management infrastructure as pre-treatment prior to low power ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (LP-UVGI) resulting in stormwater pathogen reductions in urban dry-weather flows.

Novel methods for deconstructing plastics and sustainable plastic waste management

Amy Landis (Colorado School of Mines) Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Alberta Carpenter (National Renewable Energy Lab) Integrated Modeling & Economic Analysis Scientist

It is difficult to imagine a world without plastics; look around you, they’re everywhere. Plastic has made its way into surprising places. Plastic wastes, both on the macro and micro scale, are contaminating oceans at an alarming rate, affecting marine life and our food supply. Different types of plastic waste hotspots are present all over the world and micro plastics have been found nearly everywhere, in our food, in our bodies, in our water supply. The effects of these micro plastics on human health and on ecosystem health are not fully known. In addition to pollution, plastic waste also presents a vast amount of lost resources. As fossil fuels become increasingly expensive and in short supply, when plastic waste ends up in landfills or in the environment, we lose those valuable raw material resources. Recycling of plastics is not cost-effective; over 80% of the 7 billion tons of plastic produced have accumulated as waste in the environment and 98% of new plastics are made from virgin feedstock.

 We must have a clearer understanding of the scale and scope of plastics in conjunction with their environmental impacts. Data on micro and nano plastics flows to the environment is sparse. And most approaches to macro-plastics in the environment focus on policy and social media efforts. 

This project will develop proposal teams that will improve our understanding of the fate, transport, and environmental/human health impacts of nano, micro, and macro plastics in the environment. Ultimately, we aim to evaluate engineered solutions to both minimize plastic waste at the source and improve recovery of plastics.

Understanding the Sociotechnical Ecosystems of Energy Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment

Katie Johnson (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Elizabeth Gill (National Renewable Energy Lab), Research Engineer, Wind Energy

We will develop a framework to measure how sociotechnical factors inform and are impacted by energy technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) to enhance the impact of our institutions in creating a more just, resilient, and sustainable future and increase institutional competitiveness in funding opportunities, which place increasing value on the sociotechnical ecosystem in which technical RDD&D takes place. Our team is uniquely positioned to conduct research to understand and improve how sociotechnical ecosystem elements intertwine with emerging renewable energy technologies and related aspects (e.g., critical materials in these systems). 

Building the necessary frameworks and tools requires both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and expertise across a range of disciplines and research areas, as captured in our team: sociotechnical engineering, macro-ethics, responsible research and innovation, social justice, wind energy technologies, materials development and characterization, stakeholder engagement, engineering design, and more. 

We will characterize the need to incorporate sociotechnical factors early in research, starting at the problem definition stage; build methodologies and guidance for integrating such considerations; and propose plans to assess the impacts and effectiveness of these methods. We consider three interconnected areas: sociotechnical integration, impact assessment, and extrapolation of measurements to predict longer-term success.

Summer 2022 Seed Projects

Discovery and Development of Oxides as Contact Materials in SOECs through an Integrated Experimental and Computational Approach 

PIs: Brian Gorman (Materials Science, Mines) and Dave Ginley (Chief Scientist, NREL)

High Temperature Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells (SOECs) for generating hydrogen from water offer a breakthrough potential for green hydrogen production with higher efficiency than any other currently scalable approach.

Much of the science behind materials selection for SOECs is empirical and based upon tradition ratherthan structure-property relationships. This is especially true for current collectors placed between the electrode and interconnect on the oxygen side where the default has been the use of precious metals especially Ag, Pt and Au. Over the long operation times of ~1000 hours (goal is >60000 hours) and harsh operating environment, these contacts significantly contribute to performance loss and early cell failure. This is due to a combination of elemental migration to interfaces and densification of the porous layer. We therefore propose integrating computational materials discovery and experimental verification approach to utilize oxides as a replacement for precious metal current collectors.

Reservoir dead pool in the western United States:  probability and consequences of a novel extreme event 

PIs: Adrienne Marshall (Geology and Geological Engineering, Mines) and Stuart Cohen (Model Engineering, NREL)

In 2021, 645 MW of power from Oroville Dam were unavailable to the electric grid for 5 months due to drought conditions that resulted in “dead pool” – the condition at which reservoir elevations are too low to produce power. In a warming climate, what is the probability in a given year that large
quantities of power production capacity in the western U.S. go offline due to dead pool?

The answer to this question could have significant consequences for a decarbonizing grid, as hydropower is a low emissions firm energy source that provides ancillary load-balancing services, allowing for increased penetration of variable generation renewables. These impacts could be particularly consequential if other climatic impacts, such as heatwaves, increase electricity demand. The proposed study will evaluate the probability and consequences of widespread dead pool conditions in the western U.S. and disseminate novel, policy-relevant research results through peer-reviewed journal publications and to water resources and energy policy practitioners. 

Electrochemical Direct Air Capture (DAC) utilizing earth abundant metal oxides 

PIs: Svitlana Pylypenko (Chemistry, Mines) and Danielle Henckel (Chemistry, NREL)

Time is of the essence when it comes to CO2 capture, sequestration and/or conversion. As such, the pursuit of fundamental adsorption processes and surface interactions that enable CO2 capture must be done in parallel with material integration and device development at scale. However, rarely does one have the opportunity to pursue parallel pathways to examine and define fundamental adsorption processes whilst improving TRL and affecting environmental change.

The Mines team has an extensive background in small-scale materials development, spectroscopy and characterization that will lead to methods to increase adsorption capacity and material robustness, while the NREL team are experts in catalyst layer design, electrode integration and device engineering that will help bring this technology to scale. Together this team proposes to develop a DAC strategy utilizing earth abundant metal oxides and electrochemistry.

A Carbon-Negative Structural Material Platform – Demonstrating Mechanical and Thermal Properties 

PIs: Paulo Tabares Velasco (Mechanical Engineering, Mines) and Paul Meyer (Chemical Engineering, NREL)

Our goal is to develop a chemistry platform for lignin bio-epoxies to replace cement (a material with high carbon emissions and embedded energy) with a low cost, sustainable, recyclable, and resilient material that also sequester carbon (lignin).

Plasmonic catalysis on metal oxides: toward ambient conversion of CO2 to liquids

Matthew Crane (Chemical and Biological Engineering, Mines) and Matt Beard (Materials Science, NREL)

The ability to readily convert CO2 to valuable feedstocks is critical to incentivize carbon capture and utilization and to offset the costs associated with the capture step. Such offsetting is especially needed in the costliest, yet most potentially impactful carbon capture scenario: direct air capture (DAC).

We envision that to realize DAC, relevant units could be distributed across “solar friendly” regions in the U.S. Solar power could then be exploited to achieve in-situ conversion of CO2 to liquids at ambient conditions, hence helping offset capture costs and maintain the “negative emissions” character of DAC. In this collaboration, we focus on generating the necessary mechanistic understanding to be able to exploit solar power to convert CO2 to liquid C1-C4 species, including methanol, using plasmonic catalysts.

AttackGen: Generative Synthesis of IoT Attacks in Cyber-Physical Systems

PIs: Dong Chen (Computer Science, Mines) and Dane Christensen (Cybersecurity Science & Simulation, NREL)

Cyberspace is expanding fast with the introduction of new Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Things
(IoT) devices. With IoT, wearables, smart watches, smart glasses, fitness trackers, medical devices, smart appliances and connected building equipment, distributed renewables, and electric vehicles have increasingly connected more end-users to the Internet and critical infrastructures. One effective way to defend against these IoT-based security challenges is to design and build proactive security measures by learning from the adversarial activity.

Therefore a simulated/emulated system representation can be used to generate synthetic representative datasets on which machine learning algorithms can be based. We plan to build on NREL’s preliminary work in this area.

Fundamental understanding of oxygen evolution through atomic control of thin film catalysts 

PIs: Megan Holtz (Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Mines) and Mai-Anh Ha (Computational Sciences, NREL)

This proposed project will create foundational knowledge of the relations between surface atomic structure and reactions of water-splitting electrocatalyst s motivated by enabling low-cost hydrogen production with polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis.

The Mines/ NREL team combines fundamental material scientists with applied researchers and is uniquely positioned to overcome current barriers in understanding the complexities of catalyst surface structure and reaction pathways by using atomically controlled synthesis of thin films with molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), in conjunction with density functional theory, for mechanistic understanding.

Our vision is to create idealized crystal facets and chemistries spanning the relevant parameter space of these complex catalysts, understand how they behave with electrochemical characterization and reveal their reaction mechanisms with in-situ surface spectroscopy and density functional theory.

This fundamental understanding will enable the design of ideal electrocatalyst materials, which optimize cost and efficiency while minimizing consumption of precious metals.

An Occupancy Sensing Selection Platform for Occupancy-Driven Smart Building Applications 

PIs: Gabe Fierro (Computer Science, Mines) and Avijit Saha (Control Engineering, NREL)

We aim to design, implement and deploy a platform for collecting, analyzing occupancy data from arbitrary sensing technologies deployed across a variety of building environments. The proposed platform serves to systematically study the accuracy and efficacy of different sensing technologies and deployment strategies as they relate to occupant-driven control. This will permit robust cost-benefit analyses of the type and density of occupancy sensing technologies necessary to enact occupant-driven control strategies, allowing energy-saving strategies to be deployed more widely and more cost-effectively. Occupancy is a key prerequisite for implementing modern control strategies for intelligent buildings. 

One of the most straightforward ways to reduce wasted energy and improve energy efficiency is to automatically regulate a building’s electricity usage in real-time based on its occupancy status. It can also drive a variety of novel building management optimizations.

In addition, the collection, analysis, and use of occupancy data and building contextual information from multiple heterogeneous sources will provide fundamental understanding and studies to support existing space, buildings, and communities in identifying economically viable and sustainable options to improve quality of occupant life.

Summer 2021 Seed Projects

Older past seed grant projects are linked here.