RII Track-2 FEC: Tri-state Research Institute of Manufacturing for Managing CO2 (TRIMMing CO2)

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During the past century, our civilization’s technological advances have been driven by the conversion of carbon-rich fossil fuels into electricity, heat, polymers, fertilizers, and other carbon-based products that are the foundation of modern society. It is now clear that, to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must dramatically and rapidly reduce global emissions of CO2, and additionally remove billions of tons of CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere and oceans by mid-century. The mission of the Tri-state Research Institute of Manufacturing for Managing CO2 (TRIMMing CO2) project is to address the challenge of carbon capture and utilization. The team will develop innovative manufacturing processes and fundamental understanding to advance carbon capture and utilization. The work is enabled by a closely collaborative, well integrated, and highly interdisciplinary network of researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, New Mexico State University, the University of New Mexico and West Virginia University, as well as the National Energy Technology Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory. This TRIMMing CO2 project will provide inter-jurisdictional synergistic activities for students, postdocs, and faculty, including exchange of students and faculty, internship at the national labs and industry, and co-advising students while broadening participation in research, with a focus on the engagement of groups currently underrepresented in science. The expertise of the TRIMMing CO2 team spans the areas of electrochemistry, materials design and characterization, manufacturing, theoretical chemistry, spectroscopy, multi-scale modeling, and machine learning. The planned research activity entails the development of three cutting-edge technologies that will: (i) capture CO2 while producing electricity, (ii) utilize CO2 while storing electric energy, and (iii) convert CO2 to high-value chemicals. The first technical thrust involves the development of molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) technology which concentrates CO¬2 while producing electricity. Our research focuses on the use of 3-dimensional electrodes which can improve MCFC performance and stability. The second thrust is the development of a unique energy storage system that utilizes CO2. The third thrust focuses on the conversion of CO2 to high-value chemicals, for instance C2H4 and ethanol. The fourth thrust will assess the quality and economics of component and chemical manufacturing through a “MAP” program: (i) Modeling of manufacturing and chemical processes, (ii) Artificial intelligence for microstructural image analysis, and (iii) Process integration and techno-economic analysis. The MAP program will provide opportunities for teaming with industry partners on the advisory board for process scale-up. These four thrusts closely integrate technical expertise from four universities and two national labs.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.