AEI Faculty Spotlight

New dimensions in teaching: Engineering prof earns WVU award for cutting edge educational tools

Writing a popular textbook about chemical engineering was just the beginning for Dr. Richard Turton. A professor at West Virginia University’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, Turton is embracing the latest technology to better educate future chemical engineers.

He recently helped develop a training center for integrated gasification combined cycle power plants – plants that use clean coal technology – that will include a companion 3-D immersive training component. Already equipped to simulate the operations of an IGCC or conventional power plant, the latest innovation will allow professionals and students to navigate a virtual plant using 3-D glasses and a joy-stick-controlled avatar.

The center, known as AVESTAR – Advanced Virtual Energy Simulation Training and Research Center – is the only one of its kind in the world, according to Turton. He helped develop it along with the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory; Invensys, a Texas-based software company; and other partners.

“The simulator is the equivalent of a flight simulator but for power plants,” he said.

For continuing to enhance the educational experience and his commitment to train future engineers, Turton has received the Russell and Ruth Bolton WVU Professorship for Outstanding Teaching. He will receive a salary supplement and a modest amount of annual support to further his professional development. The initial appointment is for five years.

“Richard has demonstrated his passion and dedication to teaching and research over his very successful career at WVU,” said Gene Cilento, Glen H. Hiner Dean of the College. “His work has culminated in lasting improvements in student learning that are widely acknowledged and incorporated into a recognized design textbook. He takes great pride in providing the highest quality teaching effort and a valuable learning experience to our students. He stands among our very best teaching and research faculty.”

“I’m thrilled to get this award and very appreciative to the Boltons for providing the opportunity to have these types of professorships,” Turton said.

Turton, who has been at WVU for 25 years, first made his mark as the lead writer of Analysis, Synthesis and Design of Chemical Processes, which is a required text at more than 40 chemical engineering departments in the U.S. and abroad. The book was originally published in 1998 and is now in its third edition. Turton and co-authors R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting and fellow CEMR professor Joe Shaeiwitz have developed an interactive CD with additional resources as a companion to the 1,000-page book.

When he began teaching in the 1980s, Turton discovered a lack of adequate textbooks on chemical process systems. Over the years, his book has evolved to mirror the latest industry trends.

“From the original book, we’ve probably added eight or 10 new chapters in different areas as we’ve gained new expertise,” he said. “Having a demand for the book and new information is motivation to keep adding to it. We’ll keep adding to it as we find out new material and we’ll write it so that it’s easily understandable by students.”

Turton is not only a textbook author, he is also a frequent contributor to national conferences, peer-reviewed education journals and has written several book chapters for handbooks and encyclopedias.

At WVU, he’s been responsible for developing several new courses, revamping and making significant modifications to existing courses and spearheading the development of new programs within the Department of Chemical Engineering. Also, he’s been a strong advocate for undergraduate research and has mentored many student research projects, including nearly 100 for Chemical Process Design, a class for seniors he has taught for 25 years.

“Finding appropriate research projects, meeting and mentoring students and guiding and troubleshooting their research is an often overlooked part of our mission, but I strongly believe that it is a crucial function in the undergraduate process,” he said.

Turton has earned previous recognition for his teaching. He has won seven WVU teaching awards, including the WVU Foundation Teaching Award in 1992-93 and the West Virginia Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

His latest award won’t have him resting on his laurels

Along with updating his text book for a forthcoming fourth edition, Turton is working with Invensys to produce a more basic chemical plant simulator teaching tool for undergraduates.

He’d also like to explore partnerships abroad, including a possible collaboration with Guanajuato University in Mexico which already has an exchange program with WVU in place.

“Dr. Turton’s wide-ranging interests, his achievements in his field, and his commitment to undergraduate education truly exemplify the spirit of the Bolton Professorship,” said Dr. Michele Wheatly, WVU Provost. “Supporting educators and researchers like Dr. Turton is the reason that John and Ruth funded this award.”

The Boltons are both WVU alums and have given generously to the University. Russell earned a JD in 1949; Ruth earned a bachelor’s degree in speech in 1943. Russell is a native of Morgantown while Ruth is a native of Clarksburg.

They are both charter members of the Woodburn Circle Society, the WVU Foundation’s most prestigious philanthropic society, and the Irvin Stewart Society. They are also members of WVU’s Alumni Association and Emeritus Club.

-WVU-

ds/12/21/11

CONTACT: University Relations/News
304.293.6997

Dan Carder knows the term “alternative fuels” is in vogue these days, as air quality standards become stricter and hybrid and electric vehicles increasingly dot the nation’s highways.

But the director of WVU’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions has also witnessed his share of next big thing energy sources during his 20 years with the center.

“When CAFEE was started the early 1990s, natural gas was a popular alternative fuel being explored. It was primarily in its gaseous form then, but there was on-going research in gas-to-liquid fuels,” he said.

“Then in the late 1990s biofuels came to the forefront; with corn as feedstock for ethanol,” Carder continued. “Higher alcohols started to gain some traction, but they, too, largely lost momentum.”
“With today’s federal mandate to reduce our dependency on imported oil, hybrid electric transportation is rapidly coming to the forefront, and can be viewed as largely source agnostic,” Carder said, who began his affiliation with CAFEE as an hourly undergraduate student.

“If we move our infrastructure and our technology in the direction of electric power, we can take advantage of everything – from fossil fuels to nuclear to wind to ? anything,” he said.
All of which sits well with Carder and CAFEE, which lists its two most important goals as:

• Improving the environment by reducing vehicle exhaust emissions, and
• Reducing the consumption of petroleum-based fuels and U.S. dependence upon imported oil, through the use of alternative energy sources

While the Alternative Fuels part of its name makes headlines these days, CAFEE made its reputation for its work in engines and emissions.

Over the past two decades, CAFEE has measured heavy-duty vehicle emissions from over 1,000 buses and trucks at more than 100 locations across North America. CAFEE experience includes vehicles operating on ultra-low sulfur diesel, biodiesel, CNG, LNG, hydrogen, electricity, and a variety of other energy sources.

Today, CAFEE is a worldwide leader in the research and development of the concepts and technologies necessary to improve transportation and power system efficiency, while working toward a cleaner environment.

A non-profit research center operating within academic surroundings, CAFEE is renowned for its research involving both conventional and alternative-fueled engines, with an emphasis on heavy-duty vehicles, improving their energy efficiency and reducing their environmental impact.

CAFEE is a $3-$4 million annual enterprise and operates within the WVU College of Engineering and Mineral Resource Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. It is comprised of seven faculty members, five engineers, six technicians, and 31 graduate students, 60 percent of whom are master’s level, with 40 percent being Ph.D. It is one of the most experienced organizations in the nation in the characterization of emissions and the performance of heavy-duty vehicles.

CAFEE focuses largely on heavy-duty vehicles, but its research extends to all types of engines.

CAFEE developed the world’s first mobile on-board emission testing system, built the largest national database of heavy-duty vehicle exhaust emissions data, and features one of the few engine labs in the country recognized to perform certification and verification emissions measurements for California Air Resources Board and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“One of our core strengths has been our staff and their collected abilities in applied engineering – in our ability to do field measurements and develop very applied solutions to whatever challenges we’ve faced, particularly in heavy-duty engine power systems,” Carder said.

The center’s research appeals extend to both engine and vehicle manufacturers, who must certify their products to meet government emissions and fuel economy performance standards, as well as government agencies, which are charged with developing standards and enforcing regulations.

It receives funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, major engine manufacturers, the California Air Resources Board, fuel providers, and several state and municipal transit agencies, among others.

“CAFEE has always had substantial non-federal support, with the majority of federal support having been competitive in nature,” Carder said.

CAFEE’s graduate students play a large role in its success, Carder said, and as director he mentors students daily.

“CAFEE graduate students are far more engaged than in a traditional academic setting. They are engaged from the inception,” Carder said. “They help write the proposals we submit for funding, then follow that with the programmatic research, and conclude with final reporting and journal/conference publications. I see 60 percent of them every day.”

This hands-on experience has proven beneficial to graduate students, even during lean economic times of recent years.

“Our graduates have always been very well-hired by industry and regulatory agencies – and throughout this economic downturn, from 2008 through 2011, we’ve placed students in good careers at the same rate as we’ve always done,” Carder said. “Our graduates are in high demand. I get phone calls weekly from companies or agencies asking when we’re graduating more students.”

Since becoming CAFEE director last year, Carder has implemented a Graduate Presentation Series, where research projects and findings are reported over pizza in a casual atmosphere every other week.
“It gets the graduate students functioning at a higher level,” Carder said.

As for future CAFEE endeavors, Carder sees research opportunities stemming from greenhouse gas legislation and stricter fuel economy standards.

“We are currently maintaining and expanding our strengths and our historic focus, but we’re also going to use those to leverage new areas,” Carder said. “For instance, we’re trying to develop critical mass in the wind energy industry, and I think we’ve made some strides there.

“I’d also like to see CAFEE become more involved in climate change and climate accommodation research,” he said, “and to see our leading faculty become pioneers in the fields that interest them, differentiating our research portfolio.”

“I’m definitely committed to seeing this center prosper and continue. Our strength is really in our people,” Carder said. “It’s exciting in that every day is a different challenge or opportunity. But if you’ve got a good core group like we have, we can meet any challenge that’s out there.”

Dr. Ismail Celik says he’s not a perfectionist.

He’s just trying to get the numbers right.

A renowned scholar in the area of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), where computer codes play a major role in the scientific analysis and investigation of complex engineering systems, Dr. Celik’s research over the past three decades has received worldwide acclaim.

But he is perhaps equally noted for his work in the corresponding field of “numerical uncertainty,” an issue inherent in any CFD application. His research has led to breakthroughs in the challenging areas of CFD assessment and accuracy, aspects crucial to any project’s success.

“Today, CFD is commonly applied across all sectors of industry – energy, automotive, aerospace, even the food industry,” Dr. Celik said. “But when engineers try to solve physics-based equations, there are inherently going to be errors. We try to minimize the errors.”

The two most common types of CFD errors are numerical, which stem from the approximate/finite nature of numerical materials, and modeling, caused by inexact assumptions in deriving the model equations.

“For example, continuous physical media such as a river is represented by a finite number of points or cells. Or an engineer might use a governing equation that’s not an EXACT description of physical phenomena, but rather an APPROXIMATE description. Both will cause errors,” Dr. Celik said.

“So when we attempt to solve engineering problems, we have to identify all types of potential errors and track them closely. And then we have to quantify how much error we can expect in our solution.”
Dr. Celik is the worldwide leader in quantifying potential CFD errors.

He said last summer’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provided a primer on computational fluid dynamics in action – and the need to reduce errors in predictions.

“During the Gulf oil spill, for instance, you could calculate how the oil mixed with ocean water. You could also calculate and get some idea of the distribution level from the well,” he said. “So then, you could calculate that within a certain number of days, the front of the spill would reach a certain point.

“But the question remains: How accurate are you? In order to have some confidence in this, we need to examine the type of the errors – both numerical and modeling – that come from the equations and approximate numerical solutions. If done, we can properly give an answer that is, say, within plus or minus ten percent.

That’s why it’s so important to do these quantifications – and that’s my expertise.”

Dr. Celik has organized symposiums, panels , and forums on “numerical uncertainty.”

He has published more than 60 scholarly papers, as well as authored the textbook “Introductory Numerical Methods for Engineering Application.” As the former chair of the Coordinating Group on CFD, ASME Fluids Engineering Division, he was instrumental in developing Journal of Fluids Engineering policies regarding a statement of numerical uncertainty in CFD-related publications.
Research conducted by Dr. Celik also extends to the areas of combustion and emissions, turbulence prediction, transport processes within fuel cells, assessment of worker exposure to hazardous contaminants, and transmission of influenza via aerosols.

“I’m still doing a lot of research on a wide range of topics – for example, using fuel cells in order to burn fossil fuels in a cleaner manner, or using batteries to store wind and solar energy so that energy is transportable, or using flexible fuels in gas turbines, or researching combustions and emissions,” he said.

In his latest challenge, Dr. Celik has been named Associate Chair for Research in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department.

“Based on my experiences in a wide range of research areas, I’ve been asked to serve as associate chair so that I might help faculty, sharing my experience and assisting with proposals, funding opportunities, and administrative activities,” he said.

Among the highlights of his career thus far, Dr. Celik notes two items of which he is particularly proud – the 2002 Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award for excellence in research and the 2010 Robert C. Byrd Professorship, honoring the outstanding researcher at West Virginia University.

A native of Turkey, Dr. Celik holds a doctorate in Mechanics and Hydraulics from the University of Iowa, as well as degrees in Civil Engineering and Mathematics from Bogazici University in Istanbul.
He resides in Morgantown with his wife, Perihan, an instructor in the WVU Department of Foreign Languages. The couple’s daughter, Seyran, holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from WVU and a masters’ degree in Geotechnical Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Joyce McConnell calls herself “an impatient Dean,” not out of frustration, but from her enthusiastic desire to create a national reputation for WVU’s College of Law as a center for policy research and practice in energy and sustainable resource development.

She came to the College of Law in 1995 as a property law professor (she is Thomas R. Goodwin Professor of Law), but her professional interests have migrated to natural resources, conservation and energy law.

“When I became Dean two and a half years ago, I was looking for the most logical place to grow and advance our reputation,” McConnell said. She thought that energy and natural resources made sense in a resource-rich state like West Virginia. Most law schools emphasizing energy, however, focus just on oil and gas. “In fact, my market research shows that most of what is being taught in energy is just smoke and mirrors. No one is offering a serious comprehensive energy curriculum that balances the need for energy with the need for sustainable development.” Thus was born a curriculum plan that will span the complex nature of energy and natural resources law.

“I thought, okay, here’s where we can really build our reputation,” she said, but added quickly, “but I knew that to be successful, I would have to balance the coal, gas and other resource industries needed for energy production with the environmental concerns that must be addressed for sustainable development of essential natural resources.”

McConnell envisions a curriculum guided by the principles of energy development and environmental sustainability. “Our intent is to capture the need for the production and transmission of energy balanced against the sustainability of energy and other natural resources as well as the environment.”

To make the vision a reality, McConnell recruited James Van Nostrand to develop the curriculum and to establish a center for energy policy at the WVU College of Law. Van Nostrand seems perfect for the job. He comes to WVU from Pace University where he was Director of the Energy and Climate Center.

“Jamie’s background is phenomenal,” McConnell explained. “He’s been a practicing attorney at leading energy law firms in the Pacific Northwest, so he’s familiar with the struggles of energy producers and utilities, but layered upon that is the fact that he is an outstanding academic with a speciality area in environmental law.”

McConnell thinks Van Nostrand may be one of the few legal academics in the U.S. who can truly speak to both sides of the energy issue. “I can see that he will be the kind of person who will be open to the concerns of environmentalists, but will be fully accepted at a coal association or chamber of commerce meeting.”

The curriculum will also reflect two distinct tracks of legal training: one focused on energy production and transmission, including regulatory and private property law; the other on business transactions, or as McConnell refers to it—“the trade piece,” with a recognition of the growing importance of international law to energy. “The two tracks reflect two very different kinds of legal practice, yet overlaid on that, both have an international perspective,” she explained. “Some people think that’s crazy,” she laughed, but noted that even the domestic coal industry increasingly is involved in international trade.
And McConnell’s vision extends beyond curriculum. She hopes to establish an energy policy center at the College of Law that will be part of the Advanced Energy Initiative. “If I can secure funding, I’d like to give the center a physical presence in the new wing of our building.

The Center would be the tangible expression of the principles of energy development and environmental sustainability around which the curriculum is being developed. McConnell wants the center to produce energy policy white papers on various interdisciplinary topics, as well as develop several annually programmed events, such as the first-of-its-kind Energy Moot Court Competition recently held at WVU.

But McConnell’s vision remains a balanced one. “I don’t want an advocacy model. I want to say: “Here’s the problem. Here are different solutions. Here are the implications of these different solutions. “

What is most impressive about Dean McConnell’s vision is the degree to which it is rooted in the practicality of the State of West Virginia itself. “We have a tradition here of hiring really great academics who also have a solid legal practice base. It makes us an unusual law school in that respect,” she concluded. “If you look at our grads practice, many end up in firms involved in natural resources or regulatory agencies. So if we label what we’re already doing, make it more robust with many different pathways through the curriculum, and then have a Center with a reputation for national programming, it will change who we are and change who wants to come here…really change our profile.”

Kaushlendra Singh contributes to a WVU research team of chemists, biologists and engineers seeking to combine West Virginia’s vast coal and forest resources into new biofuels. His work explores both liquifaction and gasification of coal/biomass mixtures. But he started his professional career, as he says, as “a big machine guy and a human resource trainer.”

Dr. Singh, Assistant Professor of Wood Science and Technology (Biofuels and Bioenergy) in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, and a native of India (city of Lucknow within the state of Uttar Pradesh), received his Bachelors Degree and his Master of Technology degree in Agricultural Engineering. His Masters (from the India Institute of Technology, Kharagpur) thesis was on computer simulations of tractor hydraulic systems.

After receiving his degree in 1999, Singh took a job with the Department of Rural Development, State of Uttar Pradesh of India. The job was similar to the work done by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. “That job really opened my mind,” Singh said. “I was a completely technical guy before that. Now I had to become a more practical guy.”

Dr. Singh’s job was both as a agricultural production engineer and a human resources trainer. “I learned a lot from that job,” he laughed, “I learned that from a human resources standpoint, things don’t always work the way they work in the classroom.” Singh’s job was wide-ranging, including training program design on areas related to rural development, budgeting and project financing for the whole state. Part of his job was to sort through projects coming into his office from 55 centers in the state and decide which projects deserved government support.
“You have to get outside the classroom and talk to people, form a network, and be ready when opportunity comes,” he explained. “The value of collaboration is something I learned outside the classroom. To be successful, you need to learn real world things.” These were lessons that have served him well in his work at WVU.

Following completion of his doctorate and post-doctoral research in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Georgia, he came to WVU in 2010 with support from the Advanced Energy Initiative in answer to a position opening in coal-to-biofuel technology. “Basically, engineering principles are the same, whether you’re designing a tractor or a gasification system,” Singh said smiling. “So when I saw the description for this coal-to-biomass position opening, I said, well it looks like fun!”

Singh and his team are working on several processes that can merge West Virginia’s coal and timber resources to create new fuels that will be less carbon intensive than coal alone. “West Virginia is a perfect place to do this work,” Singh explained. “The State has well established mining, transportation, and processing operations for coal as well as established interests in harvesting and process biomass through our saw mills.”

And as a former human resources trainer, Singh also recognizes the value of the human resources in the state. “How often do you have natural resources, infrastructure, and human resources all together? With AEI as the umbrella organization, WVU can take advantage of these resources.”

Singh’s team is truly a multi-disciplinary collaboration of engineers, chemists, biologists, and others. “The team approach gives us a better picture of the technology and what infrastructure will be needed to support it,” he explained. Then he laughed, “We even have a nano technology guy working side-by-side with a big machine guy like me to develop new products.”
He explained his vision of the work this way: “The question Dr. Wang (Chair and Associate Professor of Wood Science and Technology) always asks us is: what are the products? How do we create new business opportunities and jobs within West Virginia using these natural resources and this infrastructure? That’s what we’re trying to do.”

West Virginia University geologist Amy Weislogel studies grains of sand for a living.

As a sedimentary geologist, she has worked in Montana, the Gulf Coast, and provinces in China examining grains of sand in geologic formations to help explain the earth’s dynamic history and trace the location and the age of ancient mountains.

Weislogel’s work mapping ancient windblown dune deposits or the sand channels of ancient river beds can play a major role in helping an energy-challenged world continue to use one of its most abundant natural resources by helping locate potential underground storage sites for carbon dioxide produced from burning coal and other fossil fuels – a process known as carbon sequestration and storage.

She will team with WVU Geology and Geography Department colleague Timothy Carr to evaluate potential carbon sequestration sites in China as a part of the recently signed US-China Clean Energy Research Initiative that is being led by WVU as part of its Advanced Energy Initiative.

“We will make a trip there in February,” she said.

Weislogel joined the WVU Geology and Geography Department in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences last year after teaching at the University of Alabama. A native of Erie, Pa., she first came to West Virginia for a rafting trip as a college student.

Though all of her degrees are in geology, she began her college career thinking she would major in government or political science.

“But, I liked the field trips in the geology courses I took as an undergrad,” she said. “That’s what got me hooked.”

While pursuing her Master’s Degree at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, she met her husband, Philip Dinterman, a geologist who now works for the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey.

She received her doctorate from Stanford University, where she worked on basin analysis and tectonics in China.

“Working in China was great,” she said. “The geology was interesting, the scenery was beautiful, and I really liked the people I met.”

Her anticipated work in China may help the US and China with carbon storage issues that are critical to continued responsible use of fossil fuels without further contributing to global climate change. Weislogel explained that the first trip to China will likely be what she called a “pre-feasibility study.”

“Basically, we will search the literature and the data Chinese scientists can make available to us, and then make a rough identification of potential sequestration targets,” she explained.

Weislogel expects to return to the Shanxi Province where she has done field work in the past.

“Longer term, we hope we can assess the suitability of the region as demonstration sites for carbon storage,” she added. “We look for the same things that the petroleum geologists look for: high porosity; a trap rock above, and the right structural configuration.”

In the meantime, Weislogel stays busy teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses.

“I like teaching – particularly the undergrad geology majors,” she said “They’re excited, and the whole world of geology is just beginning to open up to them.”

She stresses the importance of understanding the fundamentals of the discipline.

“The issues of the day are interesting,” she said, “but we aren’t here to teach the issues of the day. We are here to teach the fundamentals. Geology is like medicine. You need to learn the whole system before you can specialize in a part.”

CONTACT: Gerrill Griffith, WVU Research Corp.
304-293-3743; Gerrill.Griffith@mail.wvu.edu

Tim Carr’s recommendation regarding U.S. energy policy can be summed up in one word: “MORE!”

Carr, Marshall S. Miller Professor of Energy in the Geography and Geology Department, says the U.S. and the world will need more of everything: more renewables, more nuclear and—yes—more fossil fuels. “Increasing world populations have justified demands for higher standards of living that require more access to energy. Without energy, our entire industrial, cultural and health infrastructure would collapse.”

Carr’s research focus these days in on the evaluation of geologic formations that would be suitable for the underground storage of carbon dioxide captured from fossil fuel burning. “We could begin geologic sequestration tomorrow, but it would be very expensive. We need more research on ways to reduce cost and to scale it up to handle the large amount of CO2 we produce.” Carr explained that sequestration already takes place at a smaller scale in the oil and gas industry, where CO2 is injected into older oil and gas fields to stimulate additional oil production. “Although we started dealing with emissions from energy use more than 50 years ago, more progress is required. Reducing environmental impact is a fundamental prerequisite to energy use.”

Although he suspects that carbon storage in geological formations may never be “cheap”, Carr is convinced that costs will come down. And he believes that risks related to unplanned leaks of CO2 from geologic sites are overstated by opponents of such storage.
“For example, every year we store three trillion cubic feet of natural gas in underground geologic storage sites around the country,” he noted. “We inject gas into the earth (in this case, methane), take it out, repeatedly without incident.” This is equivalent to many millions of tons of CO2.

He is very enthusiastic about the research possibilities that will evolve from the recent announcement that the US-China Energy Center at WVU’s National Research Center for Coal and Energy will be recognized as a formal participant in the official energy agreement between the U.S. and China. “They are doing things in China that we just aren’t doing here, at least not to the same extent.” Carr, who has traveled to China three times in the past year, noted that China is ranked #1 in the use of renewable energy, but is also building one new coal plant per week and a new nuclear plant every month.

In particular, China’s coal-to-liquids (CTL) projects hold particular relevance for Dr. Carr’s own work in sequestration. “The challenge, from a research perspective, in investigating capture and sequestration of CO2 from power plants is that the CO2 comes out of the plant at very low concentrations. With CTL, you get a pure stream of CO2 with which to work.”

With support from several grants, including a recent one from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Carr also is working with the Department of Energy on an ‘online carbon atlas’ for North America that makes available key geospatial data (carbon sources, carbon sinks, etc.) required for implementing carbon capture and storage on a broad scale.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the data is scattered,” Carr said. “Through NatCarb (The National Carbon Sequestration Database and Geographic Information System), we are pulling the information together in a web-based system along with analytic tools such as pipeline measurement, carbon storage capacity and cost estimation.”

His doctoral work was in paleontology and he began his professional career in the oil and gas industry, where he spent more than a decade working on research projects and on exploration projects in Alaska, the North Sea, and East Greenland as well as the lower 48 states.
Prior to coming to WVU, Carr was Chief of Energy Research and Senior Scientist for the Kansas Geological Survey as well as the co-director of the Energy Research Center at the University of Kansas.

Although his work now focuses primarily on fossil fuels and providing solutions for the CO2 emissions challenge, he remains supportive of a broad palette of energy sources. “Scientists should provide a factual basis for making decisions, not just promote their niche,” Carr explained. “If you pressed me, I suppose I would say that we need to do more to expand the use of nuclear power.”

In Carr’s view, providing the growing world population with the energy resources it will need requires what he calls, “a long hard slog” of deliberate action, extremely high technology and high capital investment.

“One of the reasons this is so challenging,” he said, “is that the scale of the effort is extraordinary. As an example, he noted that if you could build a million wind generators “cheek to jowl” across an area the size of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, you would still meet only 1/7th of future U.S. energy needs. “History tells us that energy transitions are long term, deliberate affairs.”

But Carr brings an entrepreneur’s optimism to the challenge. (During his undergraduate days, he was a licensed private detective and ran a night watchman business and has been involved in a start-up company developing projects using CO2.)

“There’s plenty of energy out there. We can make it available in an economically viable and environmentally sound way with hard, dedicated work over many decades by large numbers of bright, young people with strong technical backgrounds in the geoscience and engineering disciplines.” Providing those skills, he says, is a primary mission of WVU and the Advanced Energy Initiative.

Xingbo Liu is an award-winning materials scientist and assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the West Virginia University College of Engineering and Mineral Resources who is working hard with a group of WVU students in the struggle to improve ways to use coal and help the US become energy independent.

Liu, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in materials science from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, was awarded the 2010 Early Career Faculty Fellow Award from the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and has collaborated in nearly $15 million worth of externally funded research at WVU.

He is focused on discovering ways to cleanly and responsibly use West Virginia’s vast coal reserves to help the US become energy independent. Liu and his students have been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory on a new type of coal-fired power plant called the Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell system that will allow for easy capture of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas and keep coal an important part of America’s energy mix. Another one of his breakthroughs was the development of a new electroplating method that makes connections among multiple fuel cells more efficient resulting in higher efficiency. Liu has also been working on superalloys for steam turbine blades and advanced battery technologies. Liu has published 33 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 32 conference papers, and he has submitted two patent applications. He was named the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources Outstanding Researcher in 2008 and 2009.

Energy from the Earth

A team of researchers led by chemical engineering faculty member Brian Anderson, received $1.2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a three-year research project aimed at expanding the use of geothermal energy, which is energy stored beneath the surface of the earth.

“The Department of Energy is aggressively pursuing the development of geothermal systems that will enable the production of energy from any region in the country,” said Anderson. “We are happy to be contributing to that effort, and to demonstrating that geothermal energy can effectively help us meet our energy needs.”

Anderson is the lead researcher on the project, along with colleagues from Cornell University, Iowa State University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Engineered geothermal energy systems (EGS), Anderson explained, would involve drilling into the earth in an area with hot or warm rocks, pumping water through those rocks, bringing the heated water back to the surface and using that water to heat buildings or generate electricity.

In the U.S., geothermal resources today are generally restricted to isolated areas of the west, where rocks are hot at relatively shallow depths and where some states already use geothermal energy for heating and electricity.

In the eastern U.S., rocks under the earth are not as hot. Anderson and his colleagues will investigate new methods of using the lower-temperature eastern resources, some involving the use of geothermal resources in combination with other forms of renewable energy such as biomass.

The ultimate goal is to develop innovative uses of the lower-temperature geothermal resources in the eastern region.

“We are leading the effort to integrate what we learn into national energy deployment models,” said Anderson.

Last year Morgan Ames, a WVU chemical engineering major, conducted research focused on using geothermal energy to heat Elkins High School in Elkins, West Virginia.

“Morgan’s research showed that it is possible to heat buildings with low-temperature geothermal energy,”said Anderson. “We will be developing plans for putting this theory into practice on a much larger scale.”

“If we can realize the full geothermal potential of the high-temperature resources in the west and the lower-temperature geothermal resources in the east, it will make a huge difference in the overall energy picture of our country,” he added.

For more information on news and events in the WVU College of Engineering and Mineral Resources:
Email: engineeringwv@mail.wvu.edu
Phone contacts:
College Relations office, 304-293-4086
Office of the Dean, 304-293-4157
Other College administrative and department offices:
http://www.cemr.wvu.edu/welcome/administration