US-Taiwan Workshops on Materials and Systems Challenges in Electrical Energy Storage

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This award provides funding to support two related workshops bringing together US and Taiwan researchers, 12 from each side, to discuss issues related to electrochemical energy conversion and storage. The objectives are 1) to identify challenges and barriers to more efficient systems as targets of research and 2) to foster research and educational collaboration between the two groups. The first workshop will be in Taipei, Taiwan, in April 2011. In addition to technical talks, there will be a tour of relevant Taiwanese industry and laboratories. The second, follow-up workshop will be in Minneapolis, MN, in October 2011, in conjunction with the national meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The latter meeting will provide an opportunity to showcase the topic and to engage the US research community more extensively.The two workshops will engage leading researchers in this field. Taiwan is a leader in the field of batteries, both from a fundamental as well as a manufacturing perspective. The participants are well qualified to identify key issues and research opportunities for improvement of electrochemical systems for energy storage and conversion. Such systems range from very small batteries for portable applications to power sources for transportation to large units for storage of energy from intermittent renewable sources, such as solar or wind. The technical challenges to improving efficiency, energy density and power density need to be attacked by application of the latest developments in materials science as well as engineering analysis and design. The participants are well qualified to identify the most promising opportunities and to disseminate the information to the broader research community.