Chemistry and Materials for Energy

Dallas, TexasSpring 2014

Michelle Buchanan

Nitash P Balsara

Theme areas

• Catalysis

• Harnessing Solar Energy

• Materials Under Extremes

• Materials in Nuclear Systems

• Electrical Storage

• New Materials and Systems for the Grid

• Materials for Energy Efficiency

• Enhanced Oil Recovery and Unconventional Oil and Gas

• CO2 Capture, Utilization, and Storage

Plenary SessionSunday March 16

• Patricia Dehmer (Deputy Director, DOE Office of Science) Basic Research Needs in Energy

• Michael Wasielewski (Northwestern University) Solar Fuels

• Hector Abruna (Cornell University) Electrical Energy Storage

• Jens Norskov (Stanford) Catalysis

Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry

Dr. Emily Weiss

Clare Booth Luce Associate Professor and

Irving M. Klotz Associate Professor

Department of Chemistry,

Northwestern University

Kavli Lecturer

• John Rogers Swanlund Chair, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemistry, Director, F. Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Backup slides from the New Orleans presentation to MPPG

Catalysisfor fuel refinement, synthesis and utilization

Currently, catalysis touches many aspects of our economy and will continue to play an important role in the development of our future energy portfolio.

Need new materials and chemistries for these energy reaction schemes

Some challenges:• Cost• Scalability• Selectivity• Energy efficiency

H2O

CO2

Fluid

Electricity

Heat

Fuel

n-type

p-type

H2O

CO2

Biofuel

Harnessing Solar Energy

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Challenges:• Cost• Scalability• Delivery upon

demand

Technological advances required in:

• Photovoltaics• Bioconversion• Catalysis• Overall system and

process design

Materials under Extremes

• Effects of chemical extremes on materials performance and lifetimes limit efficiency and environmental benefits of advanced energy schemes (turbines, geothermal, fuel cells, batteries, advanced steam, heat exchangers and transfer systems, etc.)

• Extreme chemical reactivity provides possible new pathways for materials synthesis and discovery

• Reactivity extremes challenge our scientific understanding of materials behavior

o How do reaction pathways/mechanisms change when materials are subjected to extremes, including being farfrom equilibrium?

o How do bulk and interfacial structures evolve under extreme reactant conditions?

o What new phenomena emerge under extremes in reactants?

• State-of-the-art theory, modeling, spectroscopies, microscopy, and scattering techniques needed to further our mechanistic understanding of materials and interfacial behavior in extreme environments

Materials in Nuclear Systems

• Nuclear power currently provides a significant fraction of the United States’ non-carbon emitting power generation.

• Modern materials science plays a pivotal role in both the extension of the life of the existing fleet and in the deployment of new modern light water reactors, advanced reactors with non-water coolants, small modular reactors, and fusion energy.

• Materials degradation in a nuclear power plant is extremely complex due to the various materials and environmental conditions

• Research involving mechanistic understanding of degradation, use of modeling and simulation tools, modern microscopy, and innovative ideas will be required to solve these issues and advance nuclear materials science.

Electrical Energy Storage

• New materials, chemistries, architectures, and separators for improving energy and power densities, charging rate, lifetime and safety of batteries and capacitors for transportation and stationary storage.

• New computational tools for developing new materials and chemistries and for predicting device performance and lifetimes.

• Development of analytical tools for studying underpinnings of redox reactions and charge transport under both thermodynamic and kinetic conditions.

Dreamliner 787 Li battery

Nissan Leaf battery

New Materials and Systems for the Grid

• Generation– Wind (Improved performance and reliabiltiy of components)– Solar (Next generation photovoltaics (low cost, efficient,

reliable))

• Storage – Flow batteries (low-cost membranes, flow fields, high voltage

electrolytes and couples, air electrodes)– Container batteries, capacitors (Low-cycling strain materials

capable of 10,000 cycles to 80 % DOD)

• Transmission and Distribution - High Temperature Superconductors (HTS)

– Low-cost 2nd generation wire of long lengths – Low-cost, superconducting fault current limiters (sFCL)

• Power Electronics - Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (WBG)– Low cost processing of GaN, SiC, and Diamond– New materials that can operate at > 20 kV and 50 A

A spool of HTS tape

7-hour, 250 kWh Na/S battery

GaN on Si wafer

1.5 MW wind turbine

Materials for Energy Efficiency

Materials and chemical processes designed to reduce energy consumption are an important aspect of realizing a sustainable energy future.

–Building materials, including “smart” materials that change with environmental conditions

–Recovery of waste heat via conversion to electricity or storage for later use

– Improved solid state lighting and electronic displays

–Efficient production of chemicals and materials used in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, bulk chemicals, consumer products and other applications.

–Low energy separation process for use in water purification, carbon capture, or other industrial processes.

–Computational and analytical tools, including sensors

Enhanced Oil Recovery and Unconventional Oil and Gas • New methods to improve oil extraction

efficiency from existing deposits such as chemical flooding, or combining enhanced oil recovery with CO2 capture and storage.

• New techniques to economically extract oil and gas from unconventional deposits and reduce the environmental impact of production.

• Finding tracers to gauge the effects/impact of production and developing new sensors to detect subsurface conditions.

Oil and gas deposits.

Large volumes of oil are not recovered.

CO2 Capture, Utilization, and Storage

• New materials and chemistries for carbon capture from flue gases or from air

• New experimental and computational tools for understanding meso-scale feedbacks between CO2-brine geochemistry and multiphase flow

• Characterization of CO2-brine-rock interactions at high T, P, salinity for improving the efficiency of CO2 sequestration and CO2 utilization (enhanced hydrocarbon recovery, hydrothermal energy)

BSE-SEM image of minerals and pores in sandstone from a CO2 sequestration pilot site (6 × 2.4 mm region)

Zeolite structure for CO2 capture