Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for the Electrification of the Chemical Industry (CECI)

规划资助：化工电气化工程研究中心（CECI）

• 批准号: 1936709
• 负责人: Eray Aydil
• 金额: $ 9.05万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1936709&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.The chemical industry is one of the largest consumers of energy and changing its energy source from coal and natural gas to renewable electricity would have significant impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and on reversing climate change. In traditional chemical plants energy needed but not produced in the plant is supplied by burning fossil fuels and transported around the plant as high pressure and temperature steam. The global chemical manufacturing infrastructure has been based on this model since the beginning of the industrial revolution. In contrast, the future electrified chemical plant will rely on fundamentally different unit operations powered by electrochemistry. This project envisions for transforming the present-day chemical industry from an enterprise that relies on fossil-fuel-derived heat as power source to one that is based on renewable electricity. Towards this end, plans for initiating the formation of an Engineering Research Center for Electrification of the Chemical Industry (CECI) are proposed. This team proposes to engage a broad and diverse group of experts and stakeholders through a call for solutions to CECI's target technology needs and a workshop to generate actionable ideas and interdependent research tasks. The goals are (1) to facilitate the formation of a community vested in CECI's vision, (2) to identify and bring together the necessary skills and capabilities to surpass the existing barriers for the electrification of the chemical industry, (3) to plant the seeds for the formation of a community and the accompanying.CECI will concentrate on three key bottlenecks for the deployment of electrochemical manufacturing on large scale: electrochemical reactors, electrochemical separation units, and electrochemical energy recycling. The technological development in these three technology areas will be supported by exploration on four research platforms: components, unit operations, systems integration, and societal impact. The component research platform will comprise a team of chemists, material scientists and chemical engineers who will develop membranes, electrocatalysts, and molecular redox energy carriers that satisfy the needs of the unit operations. The unit operations platform will comprise chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineers who will develop electrochemical cells that incorporate the components developed in CECI to impact each of the three technology areas. The systems integration platform will comprise power and systems engineers who will develop protocols to integrate unit operations with each other, renewable energy generators, and/or the electric grid. The impact research platform will comprise, energy economists and sustainability experts who will develop and employ techno-economical and life-cycle assessment tools to provide CECI with societal, economic, and environmental welfare targets. This multi-level interdisciplinary and ambitious effort would only be possible through large convergent research approaches enabled by an NSF ERC. CECI will aim to reduce the overall energy consumption and cost, making its impact on the society both environmental and economical. Importantly, CECI will educate the next generation of scientists and engineers with technical, entrepreneurial, and communication skills necessary for realizing CECI's vision. The diverse CECI team will also endow these students with policy knowledge and awareness necessary for successful implementation of technological advances achieved by CECI. The New York Metropolitan area and surrounding states (e.g., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut), is well-suited for nucleating and assembling the CECI team because it provides access to a diverse population of students, an abundance of higher education institutions, including some designated as minority-serving, proximity to chemical companies and capital, and a well-established culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。ERC竞赛不需要规划赠款，但旨在培养团队规划集中的中心规模工程研究的能力。化工行业是最大的能源消耗者之一，将其能源来源从煤炭和天然气转变为可再生电力将对减少二氧化碳排放和扭转气候变化产生重大影响。 在传统的化学工厂中，工厂中所需但不产生的能量通过燃烧化石燃料来供应，并作为高压和高温蒸汽在工厂周围输送。自工业革命开始以来，全球化学制造基础设施一直基于这种模式。相比之下，未来的电气化化工厂将依赖于由电化学提供动力的根本不同的单元操作。该项目旨在将当今的化学工业从依赖化石燃料产生的热量作为能源的企业转变为基于可再生电力的企业。为此，提出了建立化学工业电气化工程研究中心（CECI）的计划。 该团队建议通过呼吁CECI目标技术需求的解决方案和研讨会来吸引广泛而多样化的专家和利益相关者，以产生可操作的想法和相互依存的研究任务。CECI的目标是（1）促进形成一个符合CECI愿景的社区，（2）识别并汇集必要的技能和能力，以克服化学工业电气化的现有障碍，（3）为社区的形成和伴随种植种子。CECI将集中精力解决大规模部署电化学制造的三个关键瓶颈：电化学反应器、电化学分离单元和电化学能量回收。这三个技术领域的技术发展将得到四个研究平台的支持：组件，单元操作，系统集成和社会影响。组件研究平台将由化学家，材料科学家和化学工程师组成，他们将开发满足单元操作需求的膜，电催化剂和分子氧化还原能量载体。单元操作平台将由化学、电气和机械工程师组成，他们将开发电化学电池，这些电池将采用CECI开发的组件，以影响三个技术领域中的每一个。系统集成平台将由电力和系统工程师组成，他们将开发协议，以将单元操作彼此、可再生能源发电机和/或电网集成在一起。影响研究平台将由能源经济学家和可持续发展专家组成，他们将开发和使用技术经济和生命周期评估工具，为CECI提供社会，经济和环境福利目标。这种多层次的跨学科和雄心勃勃的努力只有通过NSF ERC实现的大型融合研究方法才有可能。 CECI将致力于降低整体能源消耗和成本，使其对社会的影响既环保又经济。重要的是，CECI将教育下一代科学家和工程师，使他们具备实现CECI愿景所需的技术、创业和沟通技能。多元化的CECI团队还将为这些学生提供成功实施CECI所取得的技术进步所需的政策知识和意识。纽约大都会区和周边各州（例如，新泽西，宾夕法尼亚州，康涅狄格州），是非常适合成核和组装CECI团队，因为它提供了一个多样化的学生群体，丰富的高等教育机构，包括一些指定为少数民族服务，接近化学公司和资本，还有一个该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。