West Virginia University is kicking off a major new research initiative focused on improving the way electricity is produced and delivered with an event featuring an address by a U.S. Department of Energy expert on energy storage.
The WVU Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage applications and technologies kickoff will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 24) in Assembly Room 101 at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy Research. Dr. Imre Gyuk is the featured speaker for the event that will also be highlighted with exhibits and discussions centered on key aspects of energy research. The kickoff is free and open to the public.
The Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage was established with a $1.3 million Research Challenge Grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission’s Division of Science and Research. Team leader and principal investigator Xingbo Liu, an associate professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, is in charge of the effort.
He explained that large-scale batteries are key to future efforts to regulate and maintain a steady stream of power from both traditional fossil fuel and new emerging renewable sources of electricity.
He added that the electric storage batteries WVU wants to help develop could be the bridge between West Virginia’s heritage of fossil energy production and the promise of renewable energy output that could keep America’s lights aglow and the state’s economy humming for decades.
The kickoff event will feature introductory comments by Jan Taylor, director of the WV Higher Education Policy Commission Division of Science, and WVU Interim Vice President for Research Fred L. King.
For the last decade, Gyuk has directed the DOE Energy Storage Research program including advanced batteries, flywheels, super-capacitors and compressed air energy storage from the laboratory bench to the $185 million field demonstrations funded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
At WVU, Gyuk will discuss multi-megawatt energy applications including major recent storage facilities in California, Hawaii, New York, Texas and West Virginia and how large-scale storage will change the way electricity is produced and delivered.
A reception following the presentation will feature exhibits representing other activities at WVU that are related to the future of energy including: the Advanced Power and Electricity Research Center; ETown City of Tomorrow; Technology, Energy, Economy and the Environment Chair – Transition in Energy Regions; Center for Energy and Sustainable Development; Industries of the Future—WV and TransTech Energy; Team PEAK, the WVU 2012 Solar Decathlon entry; and the WVU Office of Sustainability.
The new WVU Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage takes advantage of the University’s unusual range of expertise. Liu has recruited computational scientists, chemists, a coatings expert, and a characterization specialist from STEM disciplines across WVU to build the technical program.
The materials development team consists of Liu and Xueyan Song, both from Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, Bingyun Li of the Department of Orthopaedics, WVU School of Medicine, and Michael Shi, of the WVU Department of Chemistry in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
A multi-scale modeling team is made up of Ismail Celik, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the Statler College, and James Lewis, of the Department of Physics in Eberly College.
Liu said he also invited Patricia Lee from the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program of the College of Law to work with the WVU Office of Technology Transfer to move resulting research from the labs to the market. Trina Wafle and Kathleen Cullen from the National Research Center for Coal and Energy will provide program management assistance.
“America needs more affordable, large-scale electrochemical storage systems,” Liu said. “They will not only help bring renewable power generation into the power equation but also help traditional fossil fueled plants operate at a more constant rate thereby minimizing equipment wear-and-tear and eliminating emissions that occur when they ramp up to meet demand.”
The center’s plan is to first focus on a new technology that uses lower cost sodium-based composite materials that can allow batteries to operate at half the temperature of current technologies.
“Today’s technologies rely on fairly exotic materials such as lithium whose supplies are limited predominantly to Venezuela while sodium can be found everywhere,” he explained.
Liu invented the proprietary technology that serves as the basis for the center’s initial research project.
Liu said that graduate courses in the field of energy storage are planned that will deliver M.S. and Ph.D. students ready to meet industry’s needs while an affiliates component will provide opportunities for Ph.D. students to work directly with industrial and national laboratory partners. The Center will also develop a research program for undergraduates to work with faculty during the semester and with partner organizations during summer internships.
-WVU-
gg 10/18/12
CONTACT: Gerrill Griffith, WVU Research Corp.
304.293.3743
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