Clean Energy Technologies

Faculty Contact: Professor Terry Meyer

The clean energy technologies program investigates alternative energy, energy efficiency, and advanced processes and materials that have reduced resource demand and environmental impact. The fast-growing needs of emerging economies cannot be met over the long term without advances in the energy sciences. With the escalating price of fuel, geopolitical instability, and air and water pollution, we must develop a new technological paradigm to power the world’s economy. Our work is directed at innovations that reduce carbon emissions and environmental degradation, while providing low-cost, high-performance substitutes for depleting natural resources.  Below are some examples of the types of research activities taking place in the CET program:

• Biomass conversion technologies
• Industrial assessment for improving energy efficiency
• Virtual reality modeling of energy systems
• Mixing efficiency in thermal-fluid systems
• Environmental control
• Internal combustion engines and alternative fuels
• X-ray visualization of fluidized bed conversion processes
• Bioenergy and alternative fuels utilization
• Micro/nano-scale heat transfer
• Smart materials for fuel cells
• Technoeconomic analyses of energy systems

Associated Faculty

	Daniel Attinger Attinger’s Lab Micro and Nanofluidics, Convective Heat Transfer, Single Droplet/Bubble Dynamics, Multiscale Transfer Phenomena for Energy and Forensics Applications Personal Page
	Robert C. Brown Director, Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies Gasification, Fast Pyrolysis, Bio-oil to fuels, Catalysis, Biocatalysis, Torrefaction of biomass, Biochar production for agronomic applications and carbon sequestration nutrient recycling between production agriculture and biofuels manufacturing Personal Page
	Mark Bryden Virtual Reality Applications Center Development of the computational tools, algorithms, understandings, and strategies needed to analyze, understand, create, design, and build complex engineered, natural, or human system. Personal Page
	Abhijit Chandra Mechanics of Manufacturing Laboratory Personal Page
	Baskar Ganapathysubramanian Computational Physics and Mechanics Laboratory Computational physics, computational mechanics (fluid mechanics and heat transfer), stochastic analysis, uncertainty quantification and propagation, multiscale modeling, control and optimization of complex systems, materials-by-design, and parallel computing and inverse problems. Personal Page
	Nastaran Hashemi Hashemi Lab Microfluidics, Biosensors, Optofluidics, Microbial Fuel Cells, Bio-N/MEMS, Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Physics of Micro/Nanoscale Phenomena, Nonlinear Dynamics Personal Page
	Ted Heindel Experimental Multiphase Flow Laboratory The Experimental Multiphase Flow Laboratory investigates hydrodynamics and mixing in gas-liquid, gas-solid, and gas-liquid-solid systems using X-ray flow visualization techniques, as well as gas-liquid mass transfer. Personal Page
	Song-Charng Kong Engine Laboratory Clean Energy Technology, Biofuel Research Personal Page
	Greg Luecke Laboratory of Advanced Robotics and Computer Control Robotics and control, Multibody dynamics and simulation, Artificial neural networks for control Personal Page
	Erin MacDonald Interdisciplinary Research in Sustainable (IRIS) Design Lab Product design; sustainable design; design optimization; behavioral psychology; construction of consumer preferences; judgment and decision-making regarding products; cognitive and learning styles Personal Page
	Gregory Maxwell Industrial Assessment Center Energy usage in buildings and HVAC systems. Industrial energy efficiency. Nuclear energy. Personal Page
	Terry Meyer Biorenewable Fuels and Combustion Laboratory Laser imaging and spectroscopy for multiphase reacting flows, combustion, and nanoenergetics. Development and utilization of biorenewable fuels, biomass pyrolysis, and biopower. Power and propulsion, gas-turbines, scramjets, hypersonic vehicles, and internal combustion engines Personal Page
	Ross Morrow Engineering design; environmentally benign engineering; environmental regulatory policy and engineering design; numerical methods for nonlinear problems; optimization and equilibrium problems; models of consumer choice Personal Page
	Reza Montazami Montazami Lab Smart Materials and Structures: Functional Thin-Films and Nanocomposites for Energy Harvesting, Sensors and Actuators, Green Energy, Nature-Inspired Soft Microrobotics (Biomedical Devices and Military Applications), MEMS and NEMS, Renewable Energy ( Electrofuels, Biofuel Cells, Batteries) Personal Page
	Ron Nelson Energy conversion and utilization, Environmental control, Thermal system optimization, Applied artificial intelligence Personal Page
	Mike Olsen Experimental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory Experimental Fluid Mechanics, Microelectromechanical Systems Personal Page
	Sriram Sundararajan Computation Laboratory Surface engineering, Micro/nanoscale tribology (friction, lubrication and wear), Multiscale Mechanical behavior of materials, Scanning Probe Microscopy, Thin film characterization using three dimensional atom probe microscopy Personal Page
	Xinwei Wang Micro/Nanoscale Thermal Science Laboratory Thermal transport in micro/nanoscale materials (thin films, coatings, nanowires, and nanotubes): novel technique development for thermal conductivity measurement, the effect of material structure on its thermophysical properties Personal Page
	Jonathan Wickert Vibration and Noise Control Laboratory Mechanical vibration and noise control; continuous and multibody systems dynamics; applied mechanics; applications in computer data storage, flexible web material manufacturing, and friction-vibration interaction Personal Page