Andrew Scott White
MIT Gas Turbine Laboratory
Trade-Space Analysis of Liquid Hydrogen Propulsion Systems for the CHEETA Aircraft
Under the broader goal of developing cleaner and more efficient means of air transport, we seek to determine the feasibility of fully-electric, hybrid-electric, and turbo-electric propulsion systems for single-aisle, civil transport aircraft. To achieve this objective, we are developing a modular propulsion system model within a geometric optimization framework (GPkit) to quantify performance for a variety of fuels and system configurations. These results enable a holistic characterization of the electrified aircraft trade-space in the context of the CHEETA aircraft concept: a low-emission, fuel-cell-powered aircraft being developed through the Center for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft.
Ariel Furst Gang Fan
MIT
Self-assembled nanomaterials to evaluate spatial effects on electrocatalyst efficiency
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a common by-product of industrial processes, making it a promising renewable feedstock for value-added chemical production. Though many strategies exist for its conversion, electrocatalytic CO2 reduction (ECR) is one of the most prevalent. Heterogeneous ECR methods are especially common but can hinder catalyst-substrate interactions. Despite significant progress with two- and three-dimensional structuring of catalysts, we still do not understand the impact of varying the spacing, local chemical environment and interface, and total catalyst loading on catalytic efficiency and specificity in these systems. To effectively elucidate structure-function relationships in scaffolded electrocatalysts, we have applied a self-assembled nanomaterial to vary catalyst spacing and determine structure-function relationships from measured efficiencies and selectivities.
Ben Martell
MIT
Inverse Design and Modeling of Plasma-Assisted CO2-conversion Technologies (IMPACT)
Climate change due to the rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) level is one of the greatest challenges afflicting the modern world. One promising solution to mitigate CO2 emissions is to convert CO2 into higher-value chemicals through electrolysis. However, carbonate production in CO2 electrolysis dramatically increases the energy requirement and reduces conversion into the desired products, called the “Carbonate Problem.” Herein, we propose a continuous flow strategy utilizing enzyme-mimicking catalysts to solve the carbonate problem, promoting CO2 electrolysis to be an efficient process for combating global warming.
Cameron Halliday
MIT
Molten Alkali Metal Borates for High Temperature Carbon Capture
Molten alkali metal borates represent a newly discovered and highly efficient class of material for carbon capture and storage (CCS). These materials could help companies and countries meet ambitious net-zero commitments by providing clean reliable electricity with net-negative CO2 emissions through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
Claire Gorman, Isabel Naranjo de Candido, Jacopo Buongiorno
MIT NSE
Decarbonizing and strengthening the global energy infrastructure using Nuclear Batteries
The purpose of this project is to develop a flexible and road-transportable energy system consisting of a nuclear microreactor, or “nuclear battery”, and a turbo-generator, as well as their interfaces with end-user equipment. The nuclear battery system will be factory-fabricated, fueled with low-enriched uranium, and operated autonomously. This system has the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for utility-scale electricity generation, distributed electricity generation, and heat applications.
Dan Alride, John Hannon
Appollo Wind Techno-logies
Centrifugal Force heat exchanger
We have developed an air conditioning system that is more energy efficient and can utilize more environmentally friendly refrigerants such as CO2. Appollo Winds patented technology expels heat during the unique centrifugal compression process. The result is that refrigeration condenses into a liquid lower on the phase change curve saving in excess of 30% of energy.
Dan Stack, Joey Kabel
Electrified Thermal Solutions, Inc.
Joule Hive: Replacing Fire with Renewable Heat
Electrified Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ETS) is a new startup spun out of MIT working to decarbonize the grid and electrify heavy industries. Towards this end, we're developing the Joule Hive: a new energy storage technology that turns unreliable solar and wind energy into on-demand heat. Joule Hive uses novel ceramics that can be electrically heated to temperatures approaching 2000oC, capable of replacing fire in even the hottest industrial applications. Joule Hive may be installed as a drop-in replacement to fossil fuels at every furnace, boiler, and power plant to open a path to full decarbonization by 2045.
Dave Smith
LiquiGlide, Inc.
LiquiGlide, Inc.
LiquiGlide commercializes a revolutionary technology that eliminates the friction between liquids and solids to allow liquids to flow with ease. Invented at MIT, LiquiGlide’s technology eliminates a fundamental design constraint and enables real, powerful breakthroughs across industries, transforming the way we manufacture, package, and consume viscous products. LiquiGlide also improves quality of life and patient care by enabling medical devices that won’t clog or cause infections and new drugs and biologics that were previously too viscous to be made or administered. To learn more about LiquiGlide, please visit: https://liquiglide.com/.
Ford McClure, Felipe Gomez Del Campo, Drew Weibel
Harnessing the Power of Plasma to Improve Combustion for Energy, Aerospace, and National Defense
FGC Plasma Solutions has developed a proprietary method of plasma generation for enhanced combustion performance across various propulsion systems, contributing to expanded mission capability with the possibility of reduced emissions and fuel consumption. Integration of our technology through plasma-assisted fuel injectors has demonstrated the potential of our technology and the FGC Plasma team is pushing the boundaries of plasma science to bring these benefits to market.
Gianmarco Terrones, Alli Keys, Husain Adamji, David Kastner
MIT
Accelerating catalyst discovery with machine learning and automation
The Kulik group at MIT uses computational techniques to elucidate chemical mechanisms and identify promising materials for applications in, among other things, catalysis and energy storage. We will give background for the research that our group does and cover different research areas in our group, ranging from biochemistry to inorganic materials to electronic structure methods. We will also demonstrate a recent tool our group has developed for predicting the stability of metal-organic frameworks. Metal-organic frameworks are materials with energy applications like hydrogen storage.
Herb Zien
Liquidcool Solutions, Inc
The Endgame for Cooling Data Centers
Blowing cold air at hot racks is the legacy technology for data center cooling. Massive fan power is required to move heat around. These fans generate heat that must be rejected, adding to the problem. As a result, half the energy consumed by most data centers is wasted cooling the IT Equipment. With 50 patents worldwide, LiquidCool Solutions offers chassis-based single-phase immersion technology, a revolutionary way to cool data centers, that slashes energy use, eliminates water consumption and costs much less to build and operate.
Islam Genina
MIT
Carbon Dioxide and Organic Waste Conversion into Carbon Neutral Transportation Biofuels
Carbon BioEnergy’s technology converts Carbon dioxide, organic waste and renewable electricity, into carbon neutral transportation biofuels with up to 95% less greenhouse gas footprint. Our biofuels can replace petroleum fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors, such as aviation, marine-transport, and heavy-duty-vehicles.
Jesse Lou
Harvard Business School
PicoGreens - Building the next pillar of sustainable agriculture
PicoGreens is engineering & cultivating single-celled algae (cyanobacteria) as “crop plants” that produce foods and food ingredients -- 1,000x faster, using a fraction of arable land and resources -- for a climate resilient food system. However, reaching cost-parity with existing agricultural approaches is critical to achieving scalable impact. By applying newly pioneered genetic engineering techniques to improve these already incredible organisms and tailoring them to specialize across different agricultural products, we’re enabling cyanobacteria to be commercially viable as a production platform for the first time.
Katelyn Ripley
MIT
Experimental methods for evaluating redox-active carbon dioxide capture molecules in electrochemical environments
Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and concentration is increasingly seen as a viable approach to reducing anthropogenic carbon emissions. To date, studies of capture molecules for such applications have exploited voltammetric and spectroscopic techniques in controlled (electro)chemical environments to study their CO2 binding affinities. While these works are important, there is limited understanding of the cyclability of these compounds and how this translates to CO2 separation capacity. Consequently, we develop a strategic experimental workflow consisting of cyclic voltammetry and bulk electrolysis to elucidate the electrochemical, transport, and stability parameters of capture species in the presence of argon, nitrogen, and CO2.
Kevin Kung
Takachar
Trash is cash: Small-scale, portable systems to turn crop/forest residues into higher-value bioproducts
Most crop/forest residues (biomass) are loose, wet, bulky, and expensive to collect/centralize for conversion into useful products. As such, they either are burned in open air or contribute to catastrophic wildfires. Takachar uses MIT technology to develop small-scale, low-cost, portable systems that can latch onto the back of tractors and pickup trucks to deploy to remote, hard-to-access areas to locally upgrade the residues into higher-value bioproducts such as biofuels, fertilizers, and chemicals. Our vision is to create self-sufficient rural communities that do not rely on long-distance logistics for chemical inputs, and that grows their own workforce/economy in a carbon-negative way.
Lauren Clarke
MIT
Thermodynamic Modeling of CO2 Separation Systems with Soluble, Redox-Active Capture Species
Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture is a promising approach for mitigating and even reversing carbon emissions. Current carbon capture processes are energetically-intensive and typically rely on fossil fuel derived heat for operation. Electrochemical approaches for separating CO2 can enable reduced energy requirements, direct integration of renewables, modular deployment, and safe operation at ambient conditions. For these technologies, design of redox-active sorbents with favorable properties is essential. In my research, I used thermodynamic modeling to assess the impact of material and system properties on performance. This work seeks to accelerate molecular discovery, system development, and ultimately deployment of these technologies.
Max Luke, Tim Heidel
VEIR Inc.
Cost-Effective Superconducting Transmission Lines with Passive Evaporative Cryogenic Cooling
VEIR overhead and underground superconducting transmission lines operate at up to 10 times the current of conventional lines, allowing for lower voltages and smaller rights-of-way. VEIR’s passive evaporative cryogenic cooling delivers 20 times the cooling power per kilogram of nitrogen flow compared to mechanical subcooling used in prior superconducting transmission demonstrations. VEIR’s innovations enable reliable, cost–effective superconducting transmission over very long distances through narrow rights–of–way, connecting lowest cost renewable resources to where they are needed, when they are needed.
Michael Forsuelo
MIT
Design of a Hybrid Energy Storage System for Hyperloop Transportation
The Hyperloop clubs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Imperial College London are exploring powertrain technologies for Hyperloop. Hyperloop is a promising form of high-speed transportation. Passenger or cargo pods are envisioned to propel through partial vacuum at speeds up to 760 mph. Hyperloop systems could be powered by sustainable energy sources. Our clubs will present investigations at the intersection of energy storage systems and machine learning.
Mike Wang, Duhan Zhang
MIT
Electrochemical Mining of Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Ash
Due to the ongoing acceleration of urbanization, municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal is also becoming a growing energy, environmental, and societal issue. While waste-to-energy plants aid in producing electricity and controlling the size of our landfills, the resulting incinerator ashes, which are considered a waste byproduct, create an untapped resource in our landfills. In this project, we are developing a process utilizing waste-to-energy electricity to power electrochemical mining operations for recovering valuable materials from MSW incinerator ash. This process presents a potential solution for revitalizing the waste-to-energy ecosystem and sustainably recovering valuable materials out of our waste streams.
Philip Morkel
Hydragas Energy Limited
Hydragas Energy - Lake Kivu Power & Energy Project
Lake Kivu is a remarkable dissolved biogas resource in Africa's Great Lakes. Hydragas developed a ready-to-build 600 MW of power supply, plus biogas distribution to replace charcoal as cooking energy. Hydragas technology extracts 5x net energy, delivering $50B revenues at 80% FCF. The benefits are in making-safe the lake, with its burgeoning reservoir of gases that increases the potential of limnic eruption, releasing gigatons of carbon. De-risking eruption potential 90% every decade, we can keep millions safer and boost the economies. Hydragas has a build-ready project that needs Series-A funding to get into production in 2023, requiring 12 years to full capacity.
Raghvendra Singh
Vishwaniket
High Flux rate Vapour Absorption Chiller
This is a vapour absorption cooling mechanism which make use of the thermal properties of Magnetorheological (MR) Fluid changing spontaneously under the application of applied magnetic field. The employment of this behavior of MR fluid counteract the critical vapour pressure problem of traditional VAR systems delivering a quick acting energy efficient cooling solution.
Sukumaran Balamuniandy
Win&Wav Enterprise
BUOYANT SYNCHRONY ACTUATED INDUCTANCE AC GENERATOR
It is a Wave Energy Converter, The moving parts of the device does come in contact with water except the surface it is resting on. It can be modified and developed as the Primary Power generator for electrical powered Ships or Automobiles.
Tova Kleiner, Teddy Horangic
MIT, Yale
Kyklos Waste Management Solutions
Kyklos is a startup developing waste-to-energy and carbon capture systems for American municipalities. Our scalable system can divert almost all organic residential waste from landfill, converting it into green electricity and solid captured carbon. The technology makes sustainable waste management and electricity generation economically feasible while simultaneously helping counties meet carbon reduction goals.
Tyler Stukenbroeker, Una Nattermann Mirna Kheir Gouda, Albert Wang
MIT
Upcycling Plastic Waste using Biological Engineering
The same qualities that make plastics ubiquitous in our lives--inexpensive, durable, and chemically recalcitrant--also bestow tremendous challenges for managing their waste. While novel and degradable materials may offer closed-loop workflows in the future, the ever-increasing plastic production, consumption, and pollution situation requires economically feasible solutions that address currently used plastic types. A collaborative project in the Voigt Lab is discovering ways to upcycle degraded polyethylene waste into high value products using engineered microorganisms. This interdisciplinary research leverages genetic engineering, biosynthesis, process chemistry, and bioinformatics to develop and deploy a plastics-to-product workflow.
Wenbo Shi
Singularity Energy, Inc.
Carbonara
Grid carbon intensity varies frequently, and Carbonara is like an ongoing weather report and forecast for this carbon intensity. Users use dashboards or an API to track, forecast, and optimize their carbon emissions. Use cases include planning, reporting, and optimization for decarbonization and electrification projects like EV fleets, battery storage, smart devices, and 24/7 renewable power.
