IES is excited to host all our energy seminar speakers, each presenting from 3:30 to 4:30 in person at the Cooley Mortimer Building, room G906. Take a look below to review our Fall 2024 speakers. If you are interested in meeting with a speaker during the day of their visit, please contact their host to schedule a meeting time.
September 11, 2024
Xin He, Aramco Americas: Sustainable Pathways for Transport Decarbonization
Hosted by Margaret Wooldridge
Biography
Dr. Xin He is a Research Science Specialist at Aramco Detroit Research Center. He
obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 2005, and B.S and M.S
degrees from Tsinghua University. Previously, he worked at General Motors, the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Tsinghua University on combustion
chemistry, clean fuels, and clean engine technologies. At Aramco, Dr. He leads the
Strategic Transport Analysis Team on the analysis of fuel and transportation technical
trends and decarbonization pathways. Dr. He has co-authored more than 80 peer
reviewed journal papers.
Abstract
The transportation sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for about 20% of global GHG emissions. Transport decarbonization is a critical component in the global effort to combat climate change. Decarbonizing transport involves reducing these emissions through various strategies. The presentation will delve into three pathways of transport decarbonization: 1) Fuel Decarbonization, 2) Vehicle Electrification, and 3) Hydrogen for Transport
The presentation will underscore that achieving transport decarbonization requires a multi-faceted approach considering the entire life-cycle of transport technologies, from production to end-of-life. This ensures that the environmental impacts are minimized at every stage. Additionally, it is essential to develop and implement transport policies that
are based on life-cycle emissions and technology-agnostic, allowing for the most effective and sustainable solutions to emerge.
September 18, 2024
Duncan Callaway, UC Berkeley: Assessing needs for Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure for Decarbonization
Hosted by Vladimir Dvorkin
Biography
Duncan Callaway is a Professor of Energy and Resources at UC Berkeley with an affiliate appointment in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Callaway’s teaching covers energy systems with a focus on the electrical grid and data science tools. His research group focuses on emerging energy technologies by quantifying their impacts on power system operations and developing control, optimization and data analysis tools to facilitate their integration into power systems.
Abstract
This talk explores the needs and opportunities for building new grid capacity to achieve decarbonization goals. In the first part of the talk, I’ll discuss distribution grids — the last mile of the electricity system — with a case study of a California utility. Using a mix of detailed geospatial data and load growth scenarios, I’ll evaluate how much new infrastructure will be needed to accommodate growth in demand expected from electrifying residential buildings and light duty transportation. Our central finding is that distribution grid workforce and supply chain needs are significantly greater than recent history, and that network capacity constraints may slow rates of electrification if left unaddressed. In the second part of the talk, I’ll discuss how to work around the known challenges to building out the US transmission grid by upgrading existing rights of way. I’ll discuss the results of our nationwide modeling efforts, and how they inform paths forward for transmission planning.
October 9, 2024
José L. Avalos, Princeton University: New technologies using light and sub-cellular engineering to improve biofuel and chemical
production through fermentation
Hosted by Nina Lin
Biography
José Avalos earned a B.E. in chemical engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and an MSc in biochemical research from Imperial College in London. He then received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. He conducted postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University on molecular neuroscience, and then at MIT/Whitehead Institute, in the Department of Chemical Engineering on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. He has been a faculty member at Princeton University since 2015, where he leads a research group focused on the use of biotechnology to address challenges in renewable energy, sustainable manufacturing, the environment, and human health. He has received several awards, including the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship, the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship Award, the Pew scholarship, the NSF CAREER Award, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher- Scholar Award, the HHMI Gilliam award, and the ACS BIOT Young Investigator Award.
Abstract
Biofuels and other bioproducts derived from sustainable biomass and waste streams play an essential role in achieving the goals set at the Paris Climate Agreement and preventing the worst effects of climate change. Microorganisms with rewired metabolisms, often referred as “microbial cell factories”, are commonly employed in these biomanufacturing processes. However, achieving the necessary titers, yields, and productivities for commercial viability remains a significant challenge. Temporal and spatial controls of engineered metabolic pathways are promising strategies to significantly improve the efficiency of these microbial cell factories.
Towards this goal, we have pioneered the use of optogenetics, a technique that uses light- responsive proteins to regulate biological processes, to achieve unprecedented dynamic controls of metabolism. Light offers several unique advantages: it operates independently of endogenous cellular processes (orthogonality), can be finely tuned, and is reversible. Moreover, light can be seamlessly interfaced with computers to be applied or removed automatically in any prescribed or adapted schedule for continuous metabolic regulation during fermentation. I will highlight several optogenetic circuits we have developed to control microbial growth and production through light, demonstrating their tangible impact on improving chemical production. I will present strategies to overcome the issue of limited light penetration in dense cell cultures, which has enabled the successful application of optogenetic controls in bioreactors.
Beyond optogenetics, we have worked extensively in the compartmentalization of biosynthetic pathways using both natural and synthetic organelles to enhance and direct metabolic flux. I will present recent advances in organelle engineering, including novel strategies to functionalize liquid protein condensates to build synthetic metabolic membraneless organelles for metabolic pathway compartmentalization. Finally, I will discuss how these technologies converge to establish a new paradigm in metabolic engineering—one where dynamic and spatial control over cellular metabolism hold enormous potential to transform microbial cell factories.
October 23, 2024
Brittany Lutz, Nuclear Innovation Alliance
Hosted by Todd Allen and Denia Djokic
Biography
Brittany Lutz is a Policy Program Manager at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, where she manages a portfolio of research projects, stakeholder engagement and advocacy, with an emphasis on regulatory modernization at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Her background includes both technical research and policy work in nuclear technology and radiological sciences.
Brittany has extensive experience in technical and programmatic aspects of nuclear weapons effects modeling. During her tenure at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, she developed and led new initiatives to enhance technical capabilities of nuclear modeling software. Brittany’s work included leading briefings and analyses during high-profile military exercises and engaging with senior military leaders to inform real-time decisions.
Brittany holds a Master of Science in Materials & Nuclear Engineering from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She is currently pursuing further graduate studies in Medical Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Abstract
Abstract to be uploaded
November 6, 2024
Hosted by Andrej Lenert
Biography
Dr. Fikile Brushett is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.S.E. from University of Pennsylvania and his M.S.E. and Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include electrochemical energy conversion and storage, microfluidics, interfacial phenomena, catalyst synthesis, and tomography.
Dr. Brushett has most recently been honored by the AIChE’s Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Institute in 2022 and the ECS’s Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award in 2022.
Abstract
Abstract to be uploaded
November 20, 2024
Lane Carasik, Virginia Commonwealth University: Computational and Experimental Investigations of Heat Transfer Components for Molten Salt
Reactors and Fusion Energy Systems
Hosted by Stephen Raiman
Biography
Dr. Lane Carasik (He/Him/His) is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Mechanical
and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. At VCU, Dr. Carasik is the
Director of the Fluids in Advanced Systems and Technology (FAST) research group that focuses
on thermal hydraulics research in advanced energy systems including nuclear fusion/fission and
concentrated solar power. In July 2023, Lane was awarded a DOE Office of Science Early
Career Research Program grant to support the Fusion Energy Sciences program to research and
develop molten salt based fusion energy systems. Prior to joining VCU, Dr. Carasik was a
Nuclear Thermal Fluids Engineer at Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation and before that, Kairos
Power as a CFD & Thermal Fluids Engineer. Dr. Carasik is an Associate Editor of the American
Nuclear Society Fusion Science and Technology Journal and a member of the Diversity and
Inclusion in ANS Committee, External Affairs Committee, and Fusion Energy Division
Executive Committee. Previously, he was on the Thermal Hydraulics Division Executive
Committee and the chair of the Diversity and Inclusion in ANS committee. Dr. Carasik has a
Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University and a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering
from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Lastly, he was a co-recipient of the 2020 ASME
FED Moody and 2018 ASME CFD Best Paper Awards for work completed while employed at
Kairos Power on a DOE GAIN Voucher.
Abstract
Advanced energy systems require heat transfer equipment (e.g. heat exchangers and pumps) to
transfer heat from heat generation components to power conversion components. Improved
economics (capital, operating & maintenance costs) of these systems can be achieved through
reduced equipment size, coolant mass, etc. In this talk, the current efforts by Dr. Carasik’s FAST
Research Group to investigate heat transfer enhancements for heat exchangers using
computational fluid dynamics and advanced flow visualization will be discussed. The discussed
efforts include computational activities will be discussed that involves the CFD code,
Nek5000/NekRS, to investigate the thermal hydraulic performance of twisted tape-inserts,
twisted elliptical tubes, and helically grooved tubing as heat transfer enhancements for in-core
and secondary salt heat exchangers. Complementary experiments leveraging surrogate fluids for molten salts are used to observe relevant thermal hydraulics behavior and using novel medical imaging technology (PEPT) to acquire needed flow field measurements for primary heat
exchangers and 1 st wall heat removal.
Speaker to be announced