Department of Energy’s ‘Earthshot’ funds UIC research on advances in green technology

Creating new technologies to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change is one of the great scientific goals of the 21st century. To address this challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy created the Energy Earthshots Initiative, a funding program organized around breakthrough advances in clean energy, next-generation batteries, and decarbonization.

The latest $264 million Energy Earthshot grant, announced in late 2023, includes awards for projects led and involving researchers in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences. There is. Their research will develop new materials for carbon capture and hydrogen transport, and new processes for cleaner steel production.

DOE funding established 11 new Energy Earthshot Research Centers across the United States and funded 18 university-based research projects to conduct basic science research in support of their missions. Included in this latter group is a $3 million grant to a team led by Amin Salehi Kozin, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC, and a grant from UIC, the University of Chicago, and the University of Nebraska. Includes researchers.

This collaboration will develop a new approach for the design and synthesis of porous frameworks, pockmarked films that increase the surface area for electrochemical reactions that are the basis of many green technologies. However, these structures are difficult to synthesize using traditional “wet chemistry” methods, especially at the thinness required for advanced applications.

The research team plans to develop a new approach that combines AI, computational design, and gas-phase synthesis, allowing for tighter control over the properties and growth of porous frameworks. This advancement is expected to support multiple Energy Earthshot goals, including carbon capture technology that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the safe transportation of explosive hydrogen fuel that can reduce industrial emissions.

The research builds on previous clean energy breakthroughs in Salehi Kozin’s lab, including lithium-air batteries and solar cells that use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into fuel.

“If we want to make breakthroughs in this field, every new phenomenon requires new physics and new chemistry, not just incremental improvements and optimizations,” Salehi Kozin said. Ta. “We want to extend our discovery of porous frameworks, expand their structure, and expand the chemistry of the materials. We believe this has the potential to have a major impact on the field.” ”

Other UIC researchers on the porous framework project include Santanu Chaudhuri, Constantine M. Megaridis, and Thomas Theis from the College of Engineering. Fatemeh Khalili Araghi and Russell Hemley from the Department of Physics. and Kseniya Grusak and Jordi Kavanagh from the Department of Chemistry.

Cabana will also participate in the multi-institutional Center for Steel Electrification through Electrosynthesis (C-STEEL). This center is another center that won Energy Earthshot funding in 203. The center, led by Argonne National Laboratory, will target the steel industry’s large greenhouse gas emissions. , is developing an innovative, low-cost process to replace blast furnaces.

Currently, to convert iron ore into metals or alloys for manufacturing, it must be heated to temperatures in excess of 2500 degrees Fahrenheit (hotter than an erupting volcano). C-STEEL researchers are trying to replace this carbon-intensive step with electrodeposition, a chemical process that can be performed with less heat and, in some cases, at room temperature.

“As renewable electricity becomes more prevalent, electrochemistry becomes an attractive alternative to traditional industrial approaches that use heat to synthesize molecules and materials,” said Professor of Chemistry at UIC said Kavanagh, a scientist and group leader at Argonne University. “Electrochemical production of steel represents a true Earthshot, providing a path to decarbonization for one of today’s most heat-intensive industries.”

In addition to Argonne University and UIC, C-STEEL includes researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Case Western Reserve University, Northern Illinois University, and Purdue University Northwest.