The Shell Eco-Marathon has students build vehicles with fuel efficiencies of thousands of miles per gallon. The Tech Eco-Marathon team was founded as a student organization in fall 2016 and spent months leading up to the competition raising funds for the endeavor, leaving only six weeks for actual construction. Still, the Tech team was one of only six hydrogen-based prototype teams to pass a stringent technical inspection at the competition.

“I am extremely proud of our founding class that had the willpower and dedication to put in long hours at the shop,” said Vivek Sandhu, president of Eco-Marathon at Georgia Tech and a mechanical engineering major. This was the first time Tech has fielded a team for this competition.

This summer, students from Eco-Marathon will table at FASET to recruit new students to the team. The team will start building its next car this fall.

“With the administrative framework largely in place, we will move our focus to winning the competition.” The team will also host workshops for students on skills such as machining and welding. All students are invited to get involved.

See the car in action, and learn more about the team here.

In 2011, after seeing the ramifications of the Fukushima disaster, the German government created Energiewende to shift away from potentially dangerous nuclear energy in favor of  renewable energy. The first phase of Energiewende called for shutting down nuclear reactors and 8 were immediately closed in 2011, but all will be closed by 2022. The policies in 2011 also instituted the German Energy Package, which created 8 new laws or amendments to ensure the clear direction for the transfer to renewables. These laws covered all aspects of the shift - from restructuring the grid to increasing energy efficiency.

Dr. Groebel stated that there were some unforeseen impacts as the transition continued. Renewables grew much faster than expected, which led to a dramatic decrease in the price of power, but g rid expansion lags behind the growth of renewables, which makes the current priority to slow down growth and allow the grid to catch up.

Due to these unforeseen consequences, the original regulations and laws have had to be adjusted to accommodate the changes. Since 2015, Germany has been changing its laws to make a transition towards a more flexible energy system. For example, Dr. Groebel explained that renewables require a more flexible energy system, which is best achieved by a market-based approach. In 2016, the Electricity Market Design Act was passed to increase flexibility in the market. The Act made it law that the government would not interfere, and it created a new category of citizen called a “prosumer”, which encompassed those that are both consuming and producing energy through the use of renewables like solar panels.

Dr. Groebel concluded her talk by reaffirming that despite unforeseen consequences and trial and error, she considers Energiewende a positive way forward for Germany. It is a test bed for the transformation of the energy system enabling the integration of increasing renewable energy systems, and thus is a good strategy for other countries hoping to make the transition as well.  She closed by expressing hope that German mistakes can be lessons learned for others.

In May 2016, Frank Lambert, principal research engineer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia Tech, led a group of students from the Student Chapter of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) on a trip to Thoman to provide one of the many resources the village desperately needed—an inexpensive, reliable source of power. The team installed a solar-powered micro grid system in the health center, which now provides 24/7 power and replaces a costly diesel generator.

Lambert, who has been going on mission trips to Haiti since 2013, also extended an opportunity to another student group from ECE’s Opportunity Research Scholars (ORS) Program, which matches undergraduate students with a Ph.D. mentor and a research project. The “Thing in a Hut” team, as they are fondly called by faculty advisor Ron Harley, was working on a prototype for a smaller solar-powered system that would provide LED light and phone charging for single family houses. These solutions, though small, can make a big impact on a community that typically has only kerosene lamps for light and often have to travel several miles to charge cell phones—their only connection to the larger world.

When the ORS team, which was made up of undergraduate students Edlawit “Julie” Bezabih, Elizabeth Robelo, Kyron Longwood, Tshim Tshimanga, Wondewosen Kihinet, and Ph.D mentor Liyao Wu, embarked on this project, they had no idea they would have the chance to actually install their system and see it work. For some, it was the first time they had traveled outside the United States and the experience broadened their world view significantly.

“The trip was something that has left an imprint on me that will last for the rest of my life. Not only was it the first time that I was given an opportunity to travel outside of the United States and grab a taste of the world, but I was also fortunate enough to participate in social and humanitarian efforts that improved the livelihood of the Haitian people. The trip also made me realize how much first world countries take things for granted,” said Longwood.

After lengthy testing in Atlanta, the team’s focus shifted to the installation of two identical prototypes. The first system was installed in the local pastor’s house. Unsure of what type of houses they would be working on, they faced some unexpected challenges. They found that the installation kit they brought wasn’t useful. The roof tops were weak, which meant only Bezabih and Robelo were light enough to perform the installation of the solar panels. In the case of the second house, which belonged to a woman and her children, the team had to create a new mount for the solar panels in order for them to be correctly positioned for maximum sun exposure. Luckily, the larger IEEE PES group was on hand to provide guidance and troubleshooting. While the first installation took three days, the second installation went more smoothly and took only one.

Ph.D. mentor Wu explained that the end result consisted of a controller board that interfaced with the roof panels to charge LED lights and phones via USB ports. After each installation, the team showed the family how the system worked and how to use it.

“Living in the US, we take electricity for granted; you do not think about whether a building will have it or not. It’s incredible that our system can change a life so drastically. Now they will not have the inconvenience of traveling several miles just to charge their cell phones. They will no longer have to use kerosene lamps at night. It's a great feeling knowing that you've given these people who have nothing one less thing to worry about it. The best part is knowing that as long as the sun is shining they will have electricity readily available,” said Robelo.

Two houses are now outfitted with the system, but there are millions more that could benefit from the work that future ORS teams hope to do. Now the task at hand will involve improving the prototype to make it lighter, smaller, and more efficient. And the possibility that Georgia Tech teams could teach the Haitians how to build and install the systems themselves would mean a scalable solution that provides employment.

To learn more about Opportunity Research Scholars and to get involved, please visit the website.

Images: 1) Julie Bezabih 2) ORS Team in Atlanta (from left): Elizabeth Robelo, Julie Bezabih, Wondewosen Kihinet, Liyao Wu, Kyron Longwood. 3) ORS Team inside the 2nd house with the owner and her daughter. 4) Liyao Wu, Kyron Longwood, Elizabeth Robelo, and Julie Bezabih. 5) Liyao Wu and Patrick Pierre. 6) Elizabeth Robelo and Julie Bezabih.

Pierre didn’t always want to be an electrical engineer. His talent in math actually led him down a different path. His first bachelor’s degree was in economics from the State University of Haiti where he was the school’s top student. He imagined that he would pursue a position in business management or possibly enter an MBA program with a scholarship offered by the Haitian government. In order to get ready for the next steps in his career, he attended a language institute at Georgia Tech in 2000 where he spent two semesters learning English. Upon his return to Haiti, he was devastated to learn that his scholarship for graduate study had evaporated due to political unrest.

Discouraged and unsure what to do next, he moved back to the United States where he had some family and hoped he could build a better life with more opportunities than he could find in Haiti. Pierre worked at a number of jobs in Florida and Massachusetts and eventually met his wife, who is also Haitian, in Boston. Life was stable, but something was still missing.

“I looked at how Haitian immigrants in the States lived. Most couldn’t use their degrees and were working two or three jobs just to survive. They were never home; they never saw their kids,” said Pierre.

In order to provide the kind of life that he wanted for his family, Pierre realized that he needed to go back to school. He enrolled in Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, and essentially started over. He took calculus and physics courses and began studying for an associate’s degree while working full-time. Toward the end of his program at Hillsborough, Pierre went back to Haiti for a visit. It was then that he had his “light bulb moment.”

“Growing up, I remember studying by the light of a kerosene lamp. Going back in 2010, I saw the same struggles that I dealt with as a kid. Most homes still didn’t have reliable access to electricity. People’s quality of life hadn’t really improved at all in the years since I was young,” said Pierre.

The path became clear to Pierre—he would get a degree in electrical engineering so that he could do something to help countries like Haiti. While weighing his electrical engineering program options (he was considering both Georgia Tech and the University of South Florida), he saw something on the Georgia Tech website that cemented his decision. Following the devastating Haitian earthquake in January 2010, Pierre saw an announcement on Georgia Tech’s website for a campus-wide vigil.

“I knew then—those are my people, that will be my academic home,” said Pierre.

The years at Tech were tough, but Pierre’s desire to earn a degree that could be used to help improve people’s lives kept him going.

“If it was just for me, I would probably have dropped out. But it was bigger than me. I got an EE degree to be a voice for people in countries like Haiti,” said Pierre.

Fast forward to spring 2016 and Pierre was on the cusp of gaining his electrical engineering degree when a serendipitous opportunity presented itself. Teams of students in the IEEE Power and Energy Society and the Opportunity Research Scholars Program were traveling to Haiti to install solar-based microgrid systems in a remote village called Thoman. The systems would provide cheap, reliable power to people who either had none or relied on expensive diesel generators. Pierre knew he had to go.

Helping with the installation, as well as acting as an unofficial translator, Pierre was an oddity to some of the villagers, especially the children.

“The kids were really interested in all of the visiting engineers and would flock to us. Because I spoke Creole (the native language of Haiti) as well as English, they didn’t know what to make of me. I overhead them asking each other, ‘Is he one of us or one of them?’ The adults in Thoman said it was the first time they had seen a Haitian come to help,” said Pierre.

In a few weeks, Pierre and his wife and daughter will move to Miami where he has a job waiting with Florida Power and Light. He hopes to continue the work that was started in Haiti and is open to the possibility of leading more projects there in the future. For now, he is satisfied with the way his Georgia Tech journey brought him back to his roots.

“I like to use an electrical engineering analogy to describe my experience. When you build a circuit, you always have to come back to close the loop if you want it to work. That’s the best way to describe my journey so far,” said Pierre.

Images: 1) Jiaqing Li and Patrick Pierre hang with the Thoman locals. 2) Patrick Pierre on the Thoman health center roof.

Now, researchers have developed a new type of low-temperature fuel cell that directly converts biomass to electricity with assistance from a catalyst activated by solar or thermal energy. The hybrid fuel cell can use a wide variety of biomass sources, including cellulose, lignin – and even switchgrass, powdered wood, algae, and waste from poultry processing. The device could be used in small-scale units to provide electricity for developing nations, as well as for larger facilities to provide power where significant quantities of biomass are available.

“We have developed a new method that can handle the biomass at room temperature, and the type of biomass that can be used is not restricted,” said Yulin Deng, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Renewable Bioproducts Institute. “This is a very generic approach to utilizing many kinds of biomass and organic waste to produce electrical power without the need for purification of the starting materials.”

The challenge for biomass fuel cells is that the polymer chains in the biomass cannot be easily broken down by conventional catalysts. To overcome that challenge, scientists have developed microbial fuel cells in which microbes or enzymes break down the biomass. But that process has drawbacks: Power output is limited, microbes or enzymes can selectively break down only certain types of biomass, and the microbial system can be deactivated by many factors.

Deng and his research team overcame those challenges by altering the chemistry to allow an outside energy source to activate the fuel cells’ oxidation-reduction reaction.

The work has been described in the journals Nature Communications and Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

This article originally appeared in Research Horizons, Issue 3, 2014.

Georgia Institute of Technology is one of 16 universities participating in the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition, EcoCAR 3. The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors Company are among the sponsors.

The teams are tasked with developing and implementing an innovative vehicle powertrain that will lower emissions by incorporating alternative fuels. They must keep the Camaro’s body design, retain safety standards and maintain consumer satisfaction with performance and cost.

“It is a great opportunity to develop our own vehicle based on our own innovation,” said Justin Wilbanks, a graduate research assistant in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “This is real-world experience while we’re still in school. And it’s exciting to know we’re going to work on a Camaro.”

Wilbanks was among a group of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty who worked on Georgia Tech’s application for the competition.

When the fall semester starts later this month, students will begin work on their overall design concept. They will receive a new Camaro during fall 2015 and continue to work on the car through 2018.

Students applied for membership on the team through Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP). The program allows undergraduate and graduate students to work on multidisciplinary projects that can last for years.

Three advisors will work with the team: Tom Fuller, professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering; Michael Leamy, associate professor in mechanical engineering; and David Taylor, professor in the School of Electrical of Computer Engineering.

The other 15 competing institutions are: Arizona State University, California State University (Los Angeles), Colorado State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, McMaster University, Mississippi State University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Tennessee (Knoxville), University of Alabama, University of Washington, University of Waterloo, Virginia Tech, Wayne State University and West Virginia University.

By inserting enzymes from trees into the bacterium, first author and Georgia Tech graduate student Stephen Sarria, working under the guidance of assistant professor Pamela Peralta-Yahya, boosted pinene production six-fold over earlier bioengineering efforts. Though a more dramatic improvement will be needed before pinene dimers can compete with petroleum-based JP-10, the scientists believe they have identified the major obstacles that must be overcome to reach that goal.

Funded by Georgia Tech startup funds awarded to Peralta-Yahya’s lab and by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the research was reported February 27, 2014, in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.

“We have made a sustainable precursor to a tactical fuel with a high energy density,” said Peralta-Yahya, an assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. “We are concentrating on making a ‘drop-in’ fuel that looks just like what is being produced from petroleum and can fit into existing distribution systems.”

Fuels with high energy densities are important in applications where minimizing fuel weight is important. The gasoline used to power automobiles and the diesel used mainly in trucks both contain less energy per liter than the JP-10. The molecular arrangement of JP-10, which includes multiple strained rings of carbon atoms, accounts for its higher energy density.

The amount of JP-10 that can be extracted from each barrel of oil is limited, and sources of potentially comparable compounds such as trees can’t provide much help. The limited supply drives the price of JP-10 to around $25 per gallon. That price point gives researchers working on a biofuel alternative a real advantage over scientists working on replacing gasoline and diesel.

“If you are trying to make an alternative to gasoline, you are competing against $3 per gallon,” Peralta-Yahya noted. “That requires a long optimization process. Our process will be competitive with $25 per gallon in a much shorter time.”

While much research has gone into producing ethanol and bio-diesel fuels, comparatively little work has been done on replacements for the high-energy JP-10.

Peralta-Yahya and collaborators set out to improve on previous efforts by studying alternative enzymes that could be inserted into the E. coli bacterium. They settled on two classes of enzymes – three pinene synthases (PS) and three geranyl diphosphate synthases (GPPS) – and experimented to see which combinations produced the best results.

Their results were much better than earlier efforts, but the researchers were puzzled because for a different hydrocarbon, similar enzymes produced more fuel per liter. So they tried an additional step to improve their efficiency. They placed the two enzymes adjacent to one another in the E. coli cells, ensuring that molecules produced by one enzyme would immediately contact the other. That boosted their production to 32 milligrams per liter – much better than earlier efforts, but still not competitive with petroleum-based JP-10.

Peralta-Yahya believes the problem now lies with built-in process inhibitions that will be more challenging to address.

“We found that the enzyme was being inhibited by the substrate, and that the inhibition was concentration-dependent,” she said. “Now we need either an enzyme that is not inhibited at high substrate concentrations, or we need a pathway that is able to maintain low substrate concentrations throughout the run. Both of these are difficult, but not insurmountable, problems.”

To be competitive, the researchers will have to boost their production of pinene 26-fold. Peralta-Yahya says that’s within the range of possibilities for bioengineering the E. coli.

“Even though we are still in the milligrams per liter level, because the product we are trying to make is so much more expensive than diesel or gasoline means that we are relatively closer,” she said.

Theoretically, it may be possible to produce pinene at a cost lower than that of petroleum-based sources. If that can be done – and if the resulting bio-fuel operates well in these applications – that could open the door for lighter and more powerful engines fueled by increased supplies of high-energy fuels. Pinene dimers, which result from the dimerization of pinene, have already been shown to have an energy density similar to that of JP-10.

Co-authors from the Joint BioEnergy Institute included Betty Wong, Hector Garcia Martin and Professor Jay D. Keasling, co-corresponding author of the paper.

CITATION: Stephen Sarria, et al., “Microbial Synthesis of Pinene,” (ACS Synthetic Biology, 2014). (http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/sb4001382).

This work was started at the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and finished at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The work at JBEI was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research through contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. The work at the Georgia Institute of Technology was funded by startup funds awarded to the Peralta-Yahya laboratory. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the DOE.

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A $2.9 million cooperative agreement with the Georgia Institute of Technology will advance that goal by developing information that military resource planners can use to optimize energy consumption depending on mission needs and local conditions. By developing, evaluating and integrating dynamic modeling and simulation tools for this task, the researchers will help the DoD meet energy needs while reducing liquid fuel consumption and logistics support.

The four-year project is part of the Consortium for Optimally Resource-Secure Outposts (CORSO), a first-of-its-kind research consortium involving academia, industry and government laboratories.

“Our role is to develop physics-based simulation approaches for a number of promising technologies that support heating, ventilation and air conditioning needs at these forward operating bases,” said Yogendra Joshi, a professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the project’s principal investigator. “These applications are the largest non-propulsion consumers of liquid fuels, though we will also look at other uses of energy.”

Supported by the DoD’s Operational Energy Capabilities Improvement Fund through the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the project will also involve researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), DoD laboratories, and a number of companies that are producing energy-related technologies. The consortium won’t be developing new hardware, but will instead focus on how best to integrate existing technologies – including renewables where they meet other mission criteria.

“Better energy options make our forces more flexible and adaptive in combat,” said Sharon E. Burke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs. “Tapping academia and the national labs will give us access to a greater range of expertise in this dynamic area.”

Forward operating bases are typically located in remote areas far from reliable power grids. To carry out military missions and support the personnel there, U.S. Marines in Afghanistan consume 200,000 gallons of fuel per day, Sea Power Magazine recently reported. Air conditioning in the summer months can consume as much as 60 percent of a base’s fuel.

The consortium will focus a broad range of expertise on addressing these energy needs.

“This is a unique collaboration between the Department of Defense and the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop modeling approaches to enhance the operational effectiveness and resource security of expeditionary outposts by reducing battlefield fuel consumption,” said Mark S. Spector, program officer in the Ship Systems and Engineering Division of the Office of Naval Research (ONR). “A key aspect of the Georgia Tech consortium will be their engagement with innovators who have not previously worked directly with the government. This effort is a critical piece of a larger effort led by the Office of Naval Research in partnership with the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy to determine the optimal balance of energy resources in an operational environment.”

Beyond heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, the bases typically need power for weapons systems. Those systems often require large amounts of energy for short periods of time, while the HVAC needs are more consistent over time. Fresh water production and waste disposal also require energy.

In optimizing the energy use, the researchers will have to take into account unique aspects of the forward operating bases. Wind turbines, for example, might be attractive from an energy perspective in certain locations, but could attract unwanted attention. Highly efficient HVAC systems use less energy, but might be more difficult to transport because of their weight.

“The key issue is that these bases are off-grid, so you have to be able to store energy and supply it when needed,” Joshi noted. “There is a lot of good work going on in terms of technologies that are already in the commercial world that might be useful in these unique conditions.”

At Georgia Tech, the research team will include four faculty members from the College of Engineering. In addition to Joshi, who specializes in energy efficiency, they include:

• Sam Graham, a professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, who will contribute expertise in solid-state lighting, photovoltaics and hybrid systems;
• Paul Kohl, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering who specializes in energy storage systems and fuel cells, and
• Satish Kumar, a professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering who specializes in heat transfer, combustion and energy systems.

Among the technologies that will be studied are ground-coupled heat pumps. These devices take advantage of relatively constant subsurface temperatures to provide heating and cooling. Because they take advantage of natural differences between surface and subsurface conditions, they can be more efficient than the liquid-fueled HVAC systems the military has used.

The team will also examine renewables, such as solar, and how they could be integrated with other energy sources. Information about these energy sources will be integrated into large-scale system models already developed by NREL, Joshi said.

Beyond academic and national lab resources, the consortium will identify and collaborate with companies that are developing energy technologies that may help the DoD reach its goals. In particular, the consortium is seeking innovative ideas from small businesses and non-traditional defense contractors.

“We will find companies that have really compelling technologies for these outposts and we will then be able to provide test data on their technologies,” Joshi explained. “The companies will also help with validating the models we develop.”

The project will also include an educational component to share energy optimization information with DoD planners and engineers through curriculum being developed by the Naval Postgraduate School. Technology transfer could also use short-term MOOCs, which would reduce the need for DoD personnel to travel to centralized classes.

While the primary goal will be improved support for military bases, the project could also benefit large-scale humanitarian relief missions, which also must operate without grid electricity. Ultimately, reducing the energy required to operate remote bases could impact the way future missions are carried out.

“Optimizing energy consumption in these forward bases is an issue that could have major impacts going forward,” Joshi said. “The mix of technologies that could be useful will shift and the overall approaches will shift. That’s the kind of exciting research and development framework that we intend to bring to bear on this challenge.”

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AWEA will host Windpower 2012, a conference and exhibition,in Atlanta from June 3–6. It is offering scholarships to those students, faculty or staff whoapply and demonstrate the highest level of commitment to furthering theirknowledge of the wind industry. Applications are due Friday, March 16; winnerswill be notified by Monday, April 2. The award will cover the cost ofconference registration and some travel expenses. Learn more atwindpowerexpo.org and apply online at the AWEAwebsite.

Schneider Electric is also hosting an event June 21–22called Go Green in the City in Paris. The event is currently looking forapplications of teams from engineering and business programs from around theworld. One hundred pairs of students will participate in a case competitionfocused on energy management. Applications are due Thursday, March 1. Learnmore and apply online at gogreeninthecity.com. 

In a competitionhosted by the City of Atlanta and Emory University’s Goizueta Business School,a team of Georgia Tech students earned first prize and a monetary award forproposing a system for electric vehicle adoption in Atlanta.

Undergraduate studentsCorbin Klett, Matt Jacobson, Logan Marett, Kevin Miron and Andrew Vaziri earned$5,000 for their proposal of how to drive demand for 50,000 electric cars on Atlanta’sroads during a two-year period. The students represent both Solar Jackets, GeorgiaTech’s student group dedicated to the design, creation and expansion of solartechnology, and the College of Management's Technology and Management Program.

“Our approachwas to devise creative and unique solutions to electric vehicle adoption,emphasizing ways of reducing the cost to the city government,” said Jacobson. “Westressed branding and education, creating a new ‘EV Brand’ we dubbed ChargeATL,and a website mockup to go along with it.”

The City will use funding received from the Department of Energy to implement ideas generated from the competition, with the goal of the Atlanta area being the first region in the country to have 50,000 electric vehicles on its roads. The Mayor’s office wanted to utilize the creativity of Georgia students to find ways to make the state competitive in this market.

“The Solar Jackets were incredible, coming up with as much as they did on their own,” said Jules Toraya, program manager in the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. “They stood out over the rest because they had answers — answers to tough questions, how to get budgets — and you could tell they had scoped out their ideas and had conviction about them.” Execution of these ideas will begin with an effort to pass electric vehicle-related legislation in the fall.

Four otherteams presented at the competition on Sept. 13, including three from Tech andone from Emory. The groups were chosen from a pool of nearly 30 teamapplications spanning many Georgia universities, including Tech, Emory and theUniversity of Georgia.

“It was anexciting opportunity to be able to tackle a problem the City of Atlanta isfacing and feel like we could have an impact,” said Melissa McCoy, whoparticipated on another Georgia Tech team. “The Solar Jackets team did a trulyamazing job.”

"Desalination is really just a super-fine filtration that's actually able to pull even ions out of the water, and ions are incredibly small entities," Dr. Koros says. However, although desalination is a relatively simple process that has been used since the end of World War II, he does not believe that it is an economically realistic option for Georgia.

Dr. Koros explains that for every 100 gallons of untreated ocean water that come into the filter, 60 gallons come out and return to the ocean, but the remaining 40 gallons come out as purified fresh water. It takes ten times the energy to desalinate ocean water than to purify ground or surface water, and because Atlanta is landlocked, piping it into the city would be an expensive operation. Atlanta is approximately 250 miles from the shores of Savannah, Ga. and almost 300 miles from Panama City, Fla. Although it is reasonable to understand why desalination is a viable solution for coastal cities like Tampa, Fla., which provides 10% of the city's 2.4 million inhabitants with fresh water, Dr. Koros says that "I think the wisest thing is not to try to run off and spend a lot of money doing that but rather to figure out how to do things more efficiently."

Although membranes can be used for water purification, Dr. Koros is currently using water to help solve another crisis on the minds of Georgians, the rising cost of gas. Dr. Koros, along with Dr. Sankar Nair and a team of researchers, is working on two separation projects aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the biofuel process so as to eliminate the expensive and energy-intensive distillation process. A membrane-based approach minimizes the need to supply heat energy, and instead relies on differences in the transport rates of the components through a membrane to achieve separation. The challenge is in producing selective membrane systems that can produce pure ethanol.

Currently, Drs. Koros and Nair are exploring membranes that contain nanoparticles of porous inorganic materials called zeolites that are so small they can be dispersed efficiently into a polymer matrix. The very specific porosity of the zeolite should allow separation of ethanol from water. By using two membranes in series

The longstanding competition between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech is well known on the gridiron. But elsewhere, beyond the hedges and out of sight of the ghost of Bobby Dodd, there exists another front to the rivalry. These opposing warriors wear lab coats instead of shoulder pads, and nary a one can throw anything approaching a tight spiral, but the division between Tech and the state's flagship university is just as wide as ever. It can be found within the labs and facilities that make up Georgia's rough and tumble field of biofuel research.

"I would say there is a rivalry," says John Muzzy, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor at Tech. "But it's not like the football rivalry."

That's true. Tech has better footing in this version. When they hear alternative fuel research, average Georgians think, "Georgia Tech." After all, it is an institute of technology. But UGA has been quietly making a name for itself in biofuel research. Still, one can't help but get the idea that maybe Tech doesn't really respect UGA's research as fully as the school's defensive line will respect Knowshon Moreno next month.

"[The two schools] are kind of going in different directions," Muzzy says. "UGA is working on a lot of biodiesel and agricultural-type feed stocks. That's not really Tech's forte."

Muzzy is quick to point out, however, that despite the rivalry between Tech and Georgia, researchers from the two schools have a good history of working together. Muzzy himself is part of a team that consists of both Tech and UGA researchers that looks like it will produce a healthy start-up company, and Muzzy says he can guess where the perfect location for the corporate offices would be.

"We will probably set it up in Gwinnett County, because it's between Tech and Georgia," he says.

Of course the researchers will work together: There's a lot on the line. Money, prestige, careers

Georgia Tech Interim President Gary Schuster welcomed Secretary Peters and Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham to GTRI's Cobb County research facility and was pleased to share Georgia Tech's ongoing research with them.

"One of the broad thrust areas on which we are focused is energy and environmental sustainability, and much of our work in this arena has a direct bearing on transportation," said Schuster. "More specifically, our work in energy focuses on efficiency, conservation and new sources, and all three of these areas have significance for transportation."

Secretary Peters and Commissioner Abraham viewed important components of Tech's research in conservation and new energy sources. GTRI researcher Bob Englar described his work on aerodynamics technology developed for jet plane wings and how his team is applying it to tractor trailer trucks to help them conserve fuel.

Their goal is to reduce the drag on 18-wheelers by at least a third, and perhaps even as much as half, which would improve their fuel efficiency by 12 percent or more. A 1 percent improvement in fuel economy in the U.S. heavy truck fleet conserves 200 million gallons of fuel. So a 12 percent improvement means saving more than 2 billion gallons of fuel.

Tom Fuller and his team in the GTRI Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technology presented their research with fuel cells. The fuel cell is expected to be the next significant new energy source for transportation. Both Honda and Toyota are road-testing fuel-cell cars, which are much more efficient than today's hybrids. And last year Georgia Tech successfully flew the largest hydrogen fuel cell-powered aircraft to date.

Coca Cola Enterprises also unveiled the company's new hybrid Coca Cola delivery vehicles. According to Peters, Georgia Tech researchers are working hard to solve real problems affecting the transportation industry, and Coca Cola Enterprises is showing how new technology is being embraced by industry.

In addition, Secretary Peters announced a new funding plan for the U.S. Transportation Department and used Atlanta as a model for a city willing to try new ways to save and use energy efficiently.

EcoCAR will challenge university engineering students across North America to reengineer a 2009 Saturn VUE to achieve improved fuel economy and reduced green house gas emissions, while retaining the vehicle's performance and consumer appeal.

Students will design and build advanced propulsion solutions that are based on the vehicle categories from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) regulations. They will be encouraged to explore a variety of cutting-edge clean vehicle solutions, including full-function electric, range-extended electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell technologies. In addition, they will incorporate lightweight materials into the vehicles, improve aerodynamics and utilize alternative fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen.

During the three-year program, General Motors will provide production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. The U.S. Department of Energy and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, will provide competition management, team evaluation, and technical and logistical support. Through sponsoring such advanced vehicle technology competitions, GM and the U.S. Department of Energy are developing the next generation of scientists and engineers.

"I couldn't be more excited about the project. It's a great opportunity for Georgia Tech's students to show their creativity and technical excellence in addressing one of society's greatest needs," said Dr. Tom Fuller, director of the Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies in the Georgia Tech Research Institute, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech and a lead faculty advisor for the project. "Working together with Georgia Tech's world-class research community and coordinating with industry, EcoCAR will serve as a significant demonstration project for the College of Engineering and the Institute. The interdisciplinary and multifaceted nature of this project will foster collaboration among students in Mechanical, Electrical and Computer, Civil and Environmental, and Chemical Engineering as well as students in the Colleges of Management, Sciences, and Liberal Arts. Furthermore, this project fits well within the scope and heart of Georgia Tech's Strategic Energy Institute, whose charge is to actively engage in and facilitate energy technology development."

In the first year, teams will develop their vehicle designs through the use of GM's Global Vehicle Development Process - the modeling and simulation process currently used to develop all of GM's vehicles. Sophisticated hardware in the loop (HIL) and software in the loop (SIL) systems will be utilized, and teams will be challenged to model and simulate the integration of their subsystems into the overall vehicle design.

"EcoCAR is the latest in a series of Department-sponsored student competitions that will foster the training of the next generation of engineers who will develop the clean vehicle technology solutions to enhance our energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Ed Wall, DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program manager. "It will be exciting to watch as the students work over the next three years to design, build, test and showcase their vehicles."

The emphasis is on optimizing a practical, realizable solution that will meet the goals of the competition. During the second and third years of the competition, students will build the vehicle and continue to refine, test, and improve vehicle operation. At the end of years two and three, the re-engineered student vehicle prototypes will compete in a week-long competition of engineering tests. These tests will be similar to the tests GM conducts to determine a prototype's readiness for production.

The Greenhouse gas, Regulated Emissions, and Energy in Transportation (GREET) model, developed at Argonne National Laboratory, will be used to assess a well-to-wheel analysis of the net greenhouse gas impacts, energy consumption and pollutant emissions of each technology approach the teams select.

In addition to sponsorship from GM and DOE, Platinum sponsor Government of Canada is providing extensive operational support. The other Platinum sponsors - dSPACE, National Instruments, The MathWorks and Freescale Semiconductor - are providing critical software and hardware components. Gold sponsors are The National Science Foundation and MotoTron Corporation. Silver sponsors are SnapOn Tools and Renewable Fuels Association. Bronze sponsors are: Delphi Corporation, EcoMotors, CarSim and Bosch.

Funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the Bioenergy Science Center will be located on the ORNL campus in a new facility funded by the state and owned by the University of Tennessee. The center, one of three funded from more than 20 proposals, will employ the interdisciplinary expertise of the team's partners in biology, engineering and agricultural science and commercialization to develop processes for converting plants including switchgrass and poplar trees into fuels.

The ORNL-led project will focus on new methods of processing plants into biofuel. The strategy involves breaking down into simple sugars the lattice of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that makes plant cell walls resistant to the stress of weather, insects and disease. These sugars can then be processed into fuel. To date, no cost effective bioprocessing methods for cellulose-based bioenergy sources have been developed.

Georgia Tech's primary role in the center will focus on characterization, or the fundamental study of plant cell walls. Tech's goal will be to study switchgrass' chemical bonds to help create more efficient methods of breaking the plant down into the sugar needed to make ethanol.

"As part of the center, Georgia Tech will develop new techniques that allow for a very fine detailed analysis of switchgrass," said Arthur Ragauskas, one of the primary investigators for Georgia Tech's portion of the project and a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

The DOE Bioenergy Science Center will focus on achieving the specific goals of:

* Modifying plant cell walls to reduce their resistance to breakdown, with a focus on the poplar tree - whose genome ORNL researchers helped sequence last year-and switchgrass, a native grass that can be easily grown in most of the United States. Such modification would decrease or eliminate the need for costly chemical pretreatments now required.

* Consolidated bioprocessing, which involves the use of a single microorganism or group of organisms to break down plant matter through a one-step conversion process of biomass into biofuels.

In announcing the awards, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said, "These centers will provide the transformational science needed for bioenergy breakthroughs to advance President Bush's goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012, and assist in reducing America's gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years. The collaborations of academic, corporate, and national laboratory researchers represented by these centers are truly impressive and I am very encouraged by the potential they hold for advancing America's energy security."

In addition to ORNL, other DOE Bioenergy Science Center partners include the University of Tennessee, Dartmouth College, the University of Georgia, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and companies ArborGen in Summerville, S.C.; Diversa (now Verenium Corp.) in San Diego, and Mascoma in Cambridge, Mass. The team also includes seven individual researchers from across the country. ORNL's Martin Keller will serve as director for the center.

Other key participants at Georgia Tech include the Strategic Energy Institute; Eberhard Voit, a GRA Eminent Scholar in systems biology in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University; Cameron Sullards, a principal research scientist and director of the Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Biology; and Charles Liotta, a distinguished professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and former vice provost of research at Georgia Tech.