Welcome to the Georgia Tech Circular Carbon Fuels Economy Working Group, whose goal is to build a broad based Georgia Tech community that is connected across the full set of cross-disciplinary expert stakeholders, to fuse perspectives related to science, engineering, national security, geopolitics and strategy, policy and regulatory systems, cultural norms and human behavior, economics, business, and equity.

Fuels are means for carrying energy, much like electricity. In today’s current US energy system, electricity and fuels are used to deliver about 40 and 60%, respectively, of energy to their ultimate users. Hydrocarbon fuels consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms which, in today’s energy system, come from fossil fuels. In brief, a “circular carbon fuels economy” describes the “manufacturing” of hydrocarbon fuels that can drop into existing pipeline infrastructure and utilized by existing cars, trucks, airplanes or industrial processes. Rather than using fossil fuels, these carbon and hydrogen atoms are extracted from air and water, respectively, using renewable electricity. They can be directly used, or used as long duration energy storage. After utilization, they are emitted back into the atmosphere in the form of CO2 and H2O, hence the term “circular”.

The goal of this working group is to create an ecosystem at Georgia Tech which fosters the cross-fertilization of ideas among researchers around this critical facet of decarbonization. Participants in this process would be exposed to new and interesting ideas, form new connections and partnerships to pursue funding opportunities and sustain further collaborative work which might ultimately lead to the rapid development and deployment of solutions as well as influence public discussion and policy.