The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy is investing approximately $6.4 million in federal funding in cost-shared research and development projects– and ASU stands behind one of the five projects selected.
Regent’s Professor Jerry Lin, who joined the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering in 2005, has been researching a solution for pre-combustion carbon dioxide capture for the past ten years. Considering the United States’ reliance on fossil fuels, Lin’s work caught the interest of the Department of Energy. His project, “High-Temperature Ceramic-Carbonate Dual-Phase Membrane Reactor for Pre-Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture,” is currently at the lab-scale development stage and will receive $1 million in funding.
Lin’s project focuses on developing a new membrane reactor that captures CO2 from gas produced by fossil-burning power plants. Under current conditions, these power plants emit CO2 into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. With the project’s success, however, the power plant will generate a more environmentally-friendly, CO2-free combustion exhaust gas.
“Our energy reliance on fossil fuel will continue for the foreseeable future,” Lin said. “To avoid global warming, CO2 must be captured economically and efficiently when developing fossil energy.”
The grant was awarded by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which is a part of the Department of Energy. The NETL supports the advancement of energy security in the United States and carried out a spectrum of sustainable energy and environmental programs.
One of these is the Carbon Capture program, which selected five projects, including Lin’s, to receive funding because of their focus on research and development for CO2 capture concepts. The Office of Fossil Energy funds research to reduce the risk and cost of advanced fossil energy technologies while developing sustainable uses of fossil resources nationally. The program strives to meet fossil energy performance goals of CO2 capture development that could reshape previous cost and performance limitations of second-generation systems. The new technology will provide cost-effective carbon capture and storage technologies, which ensure safe, reliable and affordable access to fossil fuel energy in the future.
