Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) recently selected Martha Grover, PhD, for a joint appointment.

Grover is a professor and the associate chair for graduate studies at Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering. Her research interests include feedback control of colloidal crystallization for photonic materials; chemical evolution in the origins of life; modeling and control of pharmaceutical and nuclear waste crystallization; and process-structure-property relationships in polymer organic electronics. 

SRNL intends to collaborate with Grover to utilize her expertise and experience to:

• Facilitate research and development activities pertaining to in-situ analysis of process streams for DOE tank waste treatment programs, including application of instruments and calibration techniques.
• Analyze SRNL data generated during testing of in-situ instruments in non-radioactive simulants of high-level waste.
• Expand and develop relationships within Georgia Tech to facilitate further collaboration 
• Develop the next generation of outstanding engineering talent with interest to pursue research career opportunities in the national laboratory system

“Dr. Grover’s efforts contribute directly to SRNL’s strategic goal of providing applied science and engineering for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management’s active cleanup sites and Office of Legacy Management’s post-closure management sites,” said SRNL Deputy Lab Director, Science and Technology, Sue Clark, PhD. “Dr. Grover will strengthen SRNL’s core competency of accelerating remediation, minimizing waste, and reducing risk by supporting process stream characterization associated with treatment of DOE tank waste.” 

In addition to her primary research, Grover focuses on creating an even more inclusive community, exploring issues relevant to women, underrepresented minorities, and international students. She co-leads the GT-Equal (Graduate Training for Equality in Underrepresented Academic Leadership) Program and, in 2020, was named a National Science Foundation Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE) Professor.  Georgia Tech’s ADVANCE Program builds and sustains an inter-college network of professors who are world-class researchers and role models to support the community and advancement of women and minorities in academia.  Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering also was one of two institutions selected nationwide to be inaugural sites for the American Chemical Society’s Bridge Program, which aims to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who receive doctoral degrees in chemical sciences.

The Joint Appointment Program at SRNL provides university faculty opportunities to engage in the laboratory’s research and development that address the nation’s challenges in energy, science, national security, and environmental stewardship. Together, SRNL staff and joint appointees help ensure America’s security and prosperity through transformative science and technology solutions. Joint appointees serve as a bridge between their university, SRNL researchers and students.

Savannah River National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy multi-program research and development center that’s managed and operated by Battelle Savannah River Alliance, LLC (BSRA). SRNL puts science to work to protect the nation by providing practical, cost-effective solutions to the nation’s environmental, nuclear security, nuclear materials management, and energy manufacturing challenges (https://srnl.doe.gov/).

Gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel — the most commonly used transportation fuels — are among the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and their use is affecting the climate in significant and long-term ways. A new national report, however, provides a powerful toolkit to help researchers and policymakers better evaluate low-carbon technologies and work toward reducing emissions.

Valerie Thomas, Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, served as chair for the report titled “Current Methods for Life Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States.” Issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the report presents life-cycle assessment as an essential tool in helping researchers and policymakers evaluate low-carbon fuel standards to reduce emissions. Thomas, whose research focuses on energy, environmental impacts, and technology development and policy, is affiliated with Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, and Renewable Bioproducts Institute.

Alternative fuel sources such as electricity for electric vehicles, biofuels for aircraft, and hydrogen for fuel-cell trucks do emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, whether by resource extraction, production processes, or other supply-chain and market contributions. When considering low-carbon fuel standards to reduce emissions, policymakers are often met with a range of questions from stakeholders, from potential impacts of a specific policy to total emissions released from the production of a particular fuel.

“If a new transportation fuel is meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we need to be confident that emissions are indeed likely to be reduced,” Thomas said. “Determining the total net emissions of alternative fuels requires an understanding of how they are made and how they affect markets.”

Life-cycle assessments are a method used to evaluate environmental impacts of fuels and technologies throughout their production and use, but according to Thomas, more research is needed to strengthen their reliability. The 16-member committee led by Thomas evaluated current methods for life-cycle analyses of low-carbon transportation fuels in the U.S., with the goal of establishing a comprehensive and reliable approach for applying life-cycle assessment to developing low-carbon fuel standards.

In preparing the report, the committee gathered input from life-cycle assessment experts, including researchers specializing in aviation fuels, biofuels, hydrogen fuels, fossil fuels, and soil carbon implications of biofuel production. The report, which includes 70 total recommendations, includes suggestions for improving models, increasing transparency, and verifying emissions. The report provides an understanding of the state-of-the-science in quantifying the climate impact of a transition to new transportation fuels.

“We suggest that the approach to life-cycle assessment needs to be guided by the question the analysis is trying to answer,” Thomas said. “Different types of assessment are better suited for answering different questions. While some methods work well for fine tuning a well-defined supply chain, other methods are needed to understand the global, economy-scale effect of a major technology or policy change.”

Thomas hopes that research programs will be created to advance key theoretical, computational, and modeling needs to better evaluate the transition to low carbon fuels.

The National Academy of Sciences was founded in 1863 by an act of Congress and it includes the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Its charge is to “provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions.”

CITATION: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. “Current Methods for Life Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States.” Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/26402

Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has been renewed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a third round of funding ($13.2 million over four years) for its Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) to study materials used in clean energy technologies.

This multi-institution EFRC, known as the Center for Understanding & Controlling Accelerated and Gradual Evolution of Materials for Energy (UNCAGE-ME), has advanced understanding of how acid gases interact with energy-related materials since its inception in 2014. The Center, with Georgia Tech as the lead participating institution, was first renewed for four years of funding in 2018.

“The selection for a third phase of funding is unusual, and speaks to the impact of the research already reported by the center in its first two phases,” said Christopher Jones, the John F. Brock III School Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. “I believe this is attributable to the strong leadership provided by our current and former directors, Ryan Lively and Krista Walton. An additional constant throughout all three phases of the center has been strong collaboration between Georgia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lehigh University, and the University of Alabama.”   

In the next four-year phase, UNCAGE-ME will leverage capabilities developed over the last eight years to address basic science questions associated with the evolution of materials to be used in clean energy technologies, including systems designed to capture and convert CO2 from the air into useful chemicals.

“Two of the most basic commodity chemicals in the clean energy economy will be H2 and CO2. A special emphasis has been given to these two molecules with DOE’s Energy Earthshots that were announced in November 2021 – the Hydrogen Shot and the Carbon Negative Shot” said Ryan Lively, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the director of UNCAGE-ME.

“These are all-hands-on-deck calls for innovations in technologies and approaches that will reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 kg in one decade and remove CO2 from the atmosphere and durably store it at meaningful scales for less than $100/net metric ton of CO2-equivalent,” said Krista Walton, professor in ChBE as well as the inaugural director of UNCAGE-ME. Walton is also a faculty member in the Renewable Bioproducts Institute at Georgia Tech.

To help reach these goals, UNCAGE-ME will employ an interdisciplinary, matrixed research structure that combines novel materials synthesis, in situ characterization techniques, molecular modeling, and data science approaches to achieve an unprecedented level of design, prediction, and control over (electro)catalysts, sorbents, and membranes.

From 2014 to 2022, the UNCAGE-ME’s research accomplishments (appearing in more than 200 publications) provided detailed descriptions of the impact of acid gas exposure on metal-oxides, metal-organic frameworks, carbons, supported amines, porous organic cages, and other materials. This fundamental knowledge base directly supports the mission of the DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences program to provide the foundational science to guide the development of new energy technologies under realistic process environments.

“The College of Engineering is proud to continue leading this important initiative for an additional four years,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College of Engineering and Southern Company Chair. “This second renewal from DOE is a testament to Krista and Ryan’s leadership, as well as the vision and innovation of a science team comprised of Georgia Tech researchers and our collaborators around the nation.”

In addition to Georgia Tech, the partner institutions for UNCAGE-ME include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Alabama, University of Florida, University of California Riverside, Lehigh University, Sandia National Laboratory, and the University of Michigan.

Julia Kubanek, professor and vice president for interdisciplinary research at Georgia tech, said it takes partnership across the Institute to support faculty in developing complex centers such as UNCAGE-ME.

“Research centers like this one benefit from collaborations among faculty experts and grants administrator staff in our schools and colleges, contracting officials in Research Administration, plus two other sets of critical partners: the Office of Research Development, which supports complex proposal preparation, and the interdisciplinary research institutes IRIs,” Kubanek said.

“The IRIs gather information from our Office of Federal Relations and host workshops to help faculty prepare and form teams. In this case, the Strategic Energy Institute, Institute for Materials, and Renewable Bioproducts Institute were all involved in ensuring that faculty had advance notice of this competition and could make the most of expert advice,” she said.

Blair Brettmann, faculty member of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (pictured left in sunglasses), participated in the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Subcommittee on Polymer Terminology sessions in Winnipeg, Canada.

She is part of international teams working to define terminology and plan nomenclature recommendations in polymer science. These recommendations enable cross-culture communication, clarity in scientific publications and collaborations and specific language for use in policy, intellectual property, and other drivers in science. 

Blair Brettman is an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.