KREC Competitive Grants Program
Grant award recipients for 2005-07:
From 2005 through 2007 KREC supported seven research projects conducted by faculty from the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky that focused on developing resource-responsible technologies and practices specific to the energy sector. The former Governor’s Office of Energy Policy (currently the Department for Energy Development and Independence) provided cost share support. (Note: The project lead is the first person listed of the project directors cited.)
Development of an Ethanol Pilot Scale Facility to Evaluate the Effect of Collection, Storage and Pretreatment of Corn Stover
(University of KY/U of L) Dr. Michael Montross, Dr. Czarena Crofcheck, Dr. Scott Shearer, Dr. Sue Nokes, Dr. Eric Berson
KREC: $173,627 GOEP: $46,362 Total Funding: $219,989
The overall goal of this research is to reduce the cost of corn stover as a feedstock to a biorefinery by reducing collection, handling and storage costs and increasing the efficiency of pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation into value-added fuels and chemicals. The project will allow for the evaluation of corn stover, a residue available on Kentucky farms, to be converted to a higher value product in rural communities.
Development of an Integrated Solar Heat Pipe System for Improving Building Energy Efficiency
(U of L) Dr. M. Keith Sharp, Dr. Ellen Brehob
KREC: $162,531 GOEP: $39,483 Total Funding: $202,014
This project encompasses the development of a solar heat pipe system particularly suited to climates, such as Kentucky, with moderately cold and moderately sunny winters. The system transfers energy into the building on sunny days and avoids losses during the night and cloudy days by using heat pipes, which have the ability to transfer heat in one direction only with virtually no losses in the reverse direction. Compared to traditional passive solar heating systems, the solar heat pipe system provides a greater improvement in efficiency in Kentucky’s cloudy climate than it does in sunny climates.
Differentiating Microbial Pathway and Membrane Adaptations for Enhanced Performance in Extreme Environments
(University of KY) Dr. Sue Nokes, Dr. Barbara Knutson, Dr. Herbert Strobel, Dr. Bert Lynn
KREC: $160,763 GOEP: $51,389 Total Funding: $212,152
Few bacteria can convert biomass to ethanol directly, but C. thermocellum has this ability. However, to be commercially viable, this microorganism must tolerate more ethanol in the fermentation broth. This project will explore natural adaptations this organism has made to ethanol in order to use this information to further improve the organism.
Novel Catalytic Approaches for Bio-Oil Upgrading
(University of KY) Dr. Czarena Crofcheck, Dr. Mark Crocker
KREC: $101,083 GOEP: $27,302 Total Funding: $128,385
Crude bio-oil, which can be obtained from the thermal processing of biomass, is a potential renewable replacement for crude petroleum oil. However, it is not stable for long periods of time, which makes it difficult to store and transport. The objective of this project is to examine two novel processes to increase the stability of bio-oil so that it can be shipped to refineries for conversion to fuels and chemicals.
Photocatalysts for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Production
(U of L) Dr. Gerold Willing, Dr. Mahendra Sunkara, Dr. Thomas Starr
KREC: $314,280 GOEP:$62,856 Total Funding: $377,136
This project, which provides seed funding for a new research initiative, looks at a new, low-cost solar cell with dramatically improved efficiency. The solar cell technology that is proposed here, if successful, could be used for generating electricity or for producing hydrogen from water. It would also be scaleable for household use and commercial application.
Production of Biomass Briquettes as an Alternative Fuel Source
(University of KY) Dr. Michael Montross, Dr. Darrell Taulbee, Dr. Rodney Andrews, Dr. Scott Shearer
KREC: $125,759 GOEP: $35,698 Total Funding: $161,457
The goal of the project is to produce a durable briquetted biomass fuel from agricultural and wood wastes that is an attractive alternative energy source for coal-fired boilers for industrial process heat and steam generation, and could potentially be utilized in residential applications. Corn stover, fescue and wood waste will be investigated as feedstocks for the briquettes.
Weather Responsive Ventilation for Residential Energy Efficiency and Indoor Air Quality
(University of KY) Dr. Donald Colliver, James Bush, MS EIT
KREC: $109,988 GOEP: $31,873 Total Funding: $141,861
Between one-third and one-half of the cost of heating and cooling a well-insulated house is due to air leaks. Indoor air quality concerns become important when buildings are built tighter to reduce these leaks in order to reduce the heating and cooling bills. This project will determine the optimal amount of air to bring into the house in order to maintain adequate indoor air quality while minimizing the energy used for ventilation. It will then develop and test a prototype fan control system, which will adjust the amount of ventilation in the house. The control will be based on outside temperature and wind velocity.
Through the Competitive Grants Program, KREC advances and funds innovative research on renewable energy and energy efficiency that focuses on developing resource-responsible technologies and practices for the energy sector. The 2009 Competitive Grants Program received 43 letters of inquiry for projects covering a wide range of renewable energy and energy efficiency research interests at six Kentucky universities. Twenty-nine of these projects responded to KREC’s Request for Proposals (RFP), issued in May. Projects have been reviewed according to the guidelines set forth in the RFP. A total of $864,000 will be awarded to seven recipients.
Grant award recipients for 2009:
Large Size, Lithium Ion Batteries for HEV Applications
$199,996, Mahendra Sunkara & Gamini Sumanasekera PI, University of Louisville
New energy technologies based on electric/hybrid electric vehicles (EV/HEV) are crucial to the enrichment of U.S. economic security and reducing dependence on foreign oil. Currently, a major hurdle to achieving this goal is that safe, cost-effective and weather-tolerant large lithium ion batteries for vehicular applications (requiring a pack-capacity for 100 miles per charge) are not readily available.
A Li-ion battery is comprised of a negative electrode (anode) which is typically graphite, a positive electrode and a non-aqueous liquid electrolyte. Although carbon electrodes have been the conventional anode materials. Although carbon electrodes have been the conventional anode materials, a few challenges persist and limit their use for electric vehicle applications.
Some of the disadvantages with carbon anode materials include low storage capacity, low compatibility with other polymer electrolytes and ionic liquids and safety temperature range. Hence, it is necessary to develop new non-carbon based anode materials.
Optimal Energy Usage Control for Residential Solar Photovoltaic Systems
$50,000, Donald Colliver PI, University of Kentucky
In a house there are many different ways to utilize the energy production from photovoltaic collectors. For example, the power can immediately be put back on to the electrical grid, used to heat or cool the house, used by many electrical appliances, or stored in either electrical or thermal storage devices to be used or put on the grid at a later time. The control of these systems has the potential to be very complex. Control systems need to be analyzed to determine the potential increases in efficiency and developed to optimize these energy storage and flows.
The objective of this project is to demonstrate and determine the effectiveness and maximum potential savings (energy, dollars or carbon) of an optimized energy management system in a house which has multiple sources of energy.
Nanostructured Device Designs for Enhancing the Performance of Thin Film CdTe/CdS and CIS/CdS Solar Cell Devices
$181,528, Vijay Singh PI, University of Kentucky
The increasing demand for energy (from 14 terawatts in year 2000 to 50 terawatts in year 2050) and its environmental impact requires a renewed effort and novel approaches to developing clean and efficient energy sources. Nanoscience and nanotechnology offer exciting approaches to addressing these challenges. At the root of the opportunities provided by nanotechnology is the fact that all the elementary steps of energy conversion (such as charge transfer, molecular rearrangement, chemical reactions etc.) take place at the nanoscale. Thus the development of new materials, device structures as well as methods to characterize, manipulate and assemble them, creates an entirely new paradigm for developing new and revolutionary energy technologies.
For the realization of the possibilities offered by nanoscale science and technology, development of novel techniques for fabricating large area, uniform, self-ordered films, is indispensable. Thus, there is a need for a process to economically fabricate large periodic arrays of semiconductor nanostructures.
The proposed research involves the fabrication, characterization and analysis of Nanoscale heterojunctions inside an insulating Alumina (Al2O3) matrix and applying this understanding to increase the short circuit currents and efficiencies of solar cells based on above semiconductors. The potential applications of this research include energy conversion, display devices and sensors.
This technology will establish a clear path for increasing the CdS/CIS cell efficiencies to 25% from the current value of 19.5%, and the CdS/CdTe cell efficiencies to 22% from the current value of 16.8%. These thin film solar cells are already part of a multi-billion industry, which is growing at a fast pace.
Investigation of Cooling Season Performance of a Solar Heat Pipe System
$91,568, M. Keith Sharp PI, University of Louisville
This project evaluates options for enhancing the performance during the summer cooling season of a novel passive solar heating system that utilizes the one-way heat transfer of heat pipes to significantly improve heating performance relative to conventional systems.
This system has already been shown to be roughly twice as effective as the typical direct gain system during the heating season and, with this proposed project, is expected to demonstrate similarly significant increases in effectiveness during the cooling season. This project will support the growth of renewable energy research in the Commonwealth and result in the creation of new commercial and industrial opportunities in renewable energy.
The objective of this project will be to quantitatively evaluate various cooling options with computer simulations, and bench-scale and full-scale experiments.
Production of High Value Cellulase Enzymes from Tobacco Biomass
$100,475, Eric Berson & Keith Davis PI, University of Louisville
The objective of this research project is the development of lower cost, plant-based expression systems to produce enhanced cellulose degrading enzymes. Reduction in the cost of mass-producing cellulase enzymes, a key economic bottleneck in the conversion of biomass to ethanol, will boost production of second generation biofuels. Tobacco plants can play a role in producing cellulase enzymes for ethanol production.
The objectives are to optimize plant-based expression systems to produce enhanced, lower-cost cellulose–degrading enzymes, compare plant-produced CBH1 to CBH1 purified from Spezyme CP, and obtain preliminary data for more comprehensive proposals to federal agencies such as the Department of Energy and the United States Department of Agriculture.
This project incorporates an important Kentucky agricultural resource, tobacco, that has recently become under-utilized due to known health issues associated with smoking. The use of tobacco crops to mass produce enzymes works towards the goal of developing more efficient and economical methods for producing a fermentable sugar stream from biomass, and for the downstream conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals.
Development of a Solid Catalyst-Based Technology for Production of Biodiesel from Waste Vegetable Oils
$200,000, Mahendra Sunkara & Paul Ratnasamy PI, University of Louisville
The 2007 RFS and Energy and Independence Security Act designates 22 billion gallons of the 36 billion gallons of biofuels production by 2022 to come from non-food–based biomass (such as nonfood crops, waste vegetable oils, algae, switch grass, waste biomass, municipal wastes etc.). There is, thus, a change in focus, during the last few years, from renewable to sustainable (economically and environmentally ) raw material for biofuels.
In response to this change, the biofuels industry worldwide is now focusing on the development of next generation feedstocks and technologies. The United States produces in excess of 3 billion gallons of waste vegetable oils annually.
Catalytic technology can convert Waste Vegetable Oils (WVO) into biodiesel. Unlike refined oils, WVOs contain significant amounts of Free Fatty Acids (FFA), water and other impurities. A solid catalyst-based technology for conversion of WVOs is, currently, not available worldwide. We propose to develop such a technology in this project.
The project involves reacting triglycerides and FFAs in Waste Vegetabe Oils with methanol over a solid catalyst to yield, quantitatively, the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME known popularly as “ biodiesel”) and glycerol. This glycerol (> 98% pure) will be suitable for use as a chemical feedstock. Unlike the current alkali – catalyzed processes, there will be no metal contaminants (like Na or K) or soap in the outlet from the reactor containing the solid–catalyst. Biodiesel from WVOs is, still, one of the few economically profitable options available to the biofuels industry provided an appropriate technology is available.
Cost Effective Energy Efficient School Design-Applied Research – Energy Efficiency
$40,614, W. Mark McGinley PI, University of Louisville
The goal of this project will be to use Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Schools-New Construction and Major Renovations, and the Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools Design Guidelines to develop a list of low life cycle cost systems (both first cost and maintenance costs) that can be used to meet, at least in part, the energy efficiency and sustainability goals of the State of Kentucky. Specially, the study will focus on evaluating building envelope systems, day-lighting and heating and cooling system configurations that have, or could be, incorporated into school designs.
The effort above will result in a matrix of sample building system designs that can be quickly reviewed by designers and school officials to quickly assess which systems might be implemented to reduce energy use, at the least cost. The investigation will also include a structural, energy and economic analyses of prototype elementary, middle and high school buildings to determine the effects of the systems described above, as well as the effect of:
1. Increased design life – The investigation will evaluate how life-cycle costs are changed by increasing the design life of the schools and what is the most cost effective design life for a school.
2. Day-lighting on envelop/building performance and cost. The investigation will look at optimizing the costs of day-lighting systems while maintaining the effectiveness of this lighting source and the building energy performance.