Hydrogen & Clean Energy
News
July, 2021 - Xueyan Song, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at WVU, stands next to a machine that measures the conductivity of ceramics. Song was recently awarded $1.25 million for a project aimed at producing a higher amount of hydrogen gas – a clean fuel – with less electric power consumption.
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Quoting West Virginia’s Senators, Manchin and Capito, and representative McKinley, from the DOE press release:
"West Virginia University continues to utilize our state's vast natural gas resources to tackle some of the toughest challenges in industrial research, including by developing clean, innovative ways to produce hydrogen – a fuel that's increasingly important to our economy and has potential to decarbonize our energy systems, industrial processes, and the transportation sector," said U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Today’s announcement is further acknowledgement of the importance of the groundbreaking research conducted by WVU’s students and faculty and the ongoing partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and National Energy Technology Laboratory. I’m thrilled to see the National Energy Technology Laboratory continue to invest in WVU and I will continue to push for funding that supports research projects in the Mountain State.”
“It’s critical we support an all-of-the-above approach and invest in a variety of technologies, including hydrogen,” said U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito. “West Virginia University’s top-notch facilities, students and faculty, and research capacity make it a perfect place to make the most of this investment to develop and accelerate breakthroughs in clean energy.”
“Advancing hydrogen technologies is critical to lowering emissions here at home and around the world,” said U.S. Representative David B. McKinley. “West Virginia University and National Energy Technology Laboratory are at the forefront of hydrogen research and development. Moving forward we must continue to empower our scientific communities through initiatives like the Hydrogen Energy Moonshot to lower the cost of hydrogen and other clean energy technologies.”
June, 2020 - By rethinking the design of thermoelectric materials, which have the ability to convert heat to electricity, Xueyan Song, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at West Virginia University, is working to develop a method to recover the wasted heat energy from the air, resulting in improved sustainability and efficiency of the energy infrastructure in the U.S.
“Among all kinds of electricity generations, thermoelectric materials can convert the heat or temperature difference in electricity directly and vice versa,” she said...
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August, 2021 - Hailin Li, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, earned $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a software platform that simulates heavy-duty diesel engines in an attempt to cut exhaust emissions.
Hailin Li, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will spearhead the development of a software platform that conducts a fast-integrated simulation of heavy-duty diesel engines, equipped with an advanced after-treatment system. The goal is to speed up new engine technology development to improve engine efficiency...
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April, 2022 - Recipients of the 2021-2022 academic year teaching, advising, research and staff awards (from left to right, top row) Jeremy Dawson, Christopher Griffin, Mario Perhinschi, Udaya Halabe, Sarika Solanki, Lauren Stein, Xin Li and Yu Gu (from left to right, bottom row) Xin Li, Nasser Nasrabadi, Thorsten Wuest, Xueyan Song, Emily Garner, Kathleen Cullen and Susie Huggins.
Pedro Mago, Glen H. Hiner dean of the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, announced the winners of the College’s outstanding teaching, advising, research and staff awards for the 2021-2022 academic year on April 1, 2022...
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Statler College Media Hub | Song named to endowed professorship.
March, 2021 - Xueyan Song, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in West Virginia University’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, has been named the George B. Berry Chair of Engineering, effective January 1, 2021.
This designation serves as a college-wide recognition of Song’s past and continuing excellence in research and teaching. Song is the first female in the College to be named to an endowed chair position...
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Statler College Media Hub | Cosmin Dumitrescu, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will serve as the project principal investigator of the third research group that will study “Synergistic Conversion of Captured CO2 and Green H2 to Value-Added Products for a Decarbonized Economy.”
February, 2023 - Cosmin Dumitrescu, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will serve as the project principal investigator of the third research group that will study “Synergistic Conversion of Captured CO2 and Green H2 to Value-Added Products for a Decarbonized Economy.” The grant will provide funding ($1.3M) for the group to advance science and engineering around the production of value-added products for a decarbonized and low-carbon West Virginia economy.
Dumitrescu, along with Akkerman, Omid Askari, John Hu, Bingyun Li, Earl Scime and Xueyan Song of WVU, Rodney Tigaa of Concord University and Eyas Mahmoud of West Virginia State University, plan to advance current science and technologies to promote local utilization of captured carbon dioxide and the production of green hydrogen in West Virginia residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.
“The project will promote the local, up-the-value chain, downstream utilization of captured carbon dioxide, coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants and the production of green hydrogen, thus promoting economic development within the state,” explained Dumitrescu.
The team will work to develop process-intensified modular technologies that will convert captured carbon dioxide and green hydrogen to green ethylene and green ammonia. The production of green ethylene can potentially revive West Virginia’s polymer industry, while green ammonia is an efficient, decarbonized and low emissions alternative to electrification for hard-to-electrify industries.
“Maximizing potential benefits for WV chemical and energy companies requires skilled engineers and operators, appropriate facilities, equipment and partners who would help with technology transfer and economic development,” said Dumitrescu. “With the help of the research challenge grant funding, the project will create an interdisciplinary STEM team dedicated to supporting underrepresented communities and the necessary infrastructure to grow this project’s activities into a vibrant, self-sustaining research and development nucleus for the conversion of carbon dioxide and green hydrogen to value-added products. The project will put WVU in a competitive position in the fields of chemical reaction engineering and advanced combustion science, enabling the university to build a strong multidisciplinary research team and state-of-the-art facilities.”
The awards, which are supported by the Research Challenge Fund that was established by the West Virginia Legislature in 2004 to build research capacity and competitiveness at the state’s colleges and universities, were announced on Friday, February 10 at the Culture Center on the West Virginia State Capitol complex.
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March, 2023 - Researchers at West Virginia University have engineered a material with the potential to dramatically cut the amount of heat power plants release into the atmosphere.
A team led by Xueyan Song, professor and George B. Berry Chair of Engineering at the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, has created an oxide ceramic material that solves a longstanding efficiency problem plaguing thermoelectric generators. Those devices can generate electricity from heat, including power plant heat emissions, which contribute to global warming.
The breakthrough oxide ceramic Song’s team produced “achieved a record-high performance that had been deemed impossible,” she said. “We demonstrated the best thermoelectric oxide ceramics reported in the field worldwide over the past 20 years, and the results open up new research directions that could further increase performance.”
Cesar Octavio Romo de la Cruz, Yun Chen, Liang Liang and Sergio A. Paredes Navia contributed to the study, supported by $639,784 in National Science Foundation funding. The findings appear in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews...
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