NPS team makes key breakthrough on path to electric aircraft propulsion

Business Announcement

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

 

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NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR. DI ZHANG LED A TEAM OF NPS STUDENTS TO CREATE AND SUCCESSFULLY TEST A CIRCUIT BREAKER THAT COULD SUPPORT LARGE ELECTRIC PLATFORMS RUNNING ON DIRECT CURRENT ELECTRICITY – A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT PROPULSION.

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CREDIT: JAVIER CHAGOYA, NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

As an institution renowned for innovation efforts grounded in education and research, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has often been called upon to tackle some of the most difficult technological challenges facing the Navy and the nation.

Such a challenge emerged in 2020, when NASA charged NPS and two other research teams with solving a critical barrier facing the development of electric aircraft propulsion (EAP): the creation of a circuit breaker that could support large electric platforms running on direct current (DC) electricity. Thanks to the efforts of a diverse team of faculty and students, as well as several Navy and academic research partners, NPS delivered an innovative working prototype.

This past March, the successful test of the “Navy High Speed Solid-State Fault Management System for Electric Aircraft Propulsion” confirmed the breakthrough results. The NPS-led design was able to provide a viable DC circuit breaker to NASA, pushing the project development forward to Level 6 on the Technology Readiness Level scale – a 9-level measurement system used to assess the maturity of a particular technology.

The effort to research and design the DC circuit breaker for EAP was led by Dr. Di Zhang, NPS Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, along with a team of NPS students. Zhang, who came to NPS in 2019 after working on electric power converter designs with General Electric’s Global Research Center, is widely considered one of the nation’s leading experts on large electric vehicles.

As a result of his team’s work, Zhang was awarded a $750,000 research grant by NASA to continue his research with a goal to refine the weight and performance of the team’s initial breaker design.

The breakthrough achieved at NPS could be a critical step in the development of EAP, one of many emerging technologies receiving increased attention due to the emphasis placed by the Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro, on accelerating innovation throughout the Department of the Navy.

“We are indeed in an innovation race — and it is one we must win,” said Del Toro during remarks at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28. “Innovation must permeate every aspect of our Department’s approach to the delivery of the technologies and capabilities at a speed and scale necessary for our Navy and Marine Corps to confront the challenges of today and the future.”

NPS will play a significant role in supporting the development of EAP technology and other relevant innovation efforts following the establishment of the Naval Innovation Center (NIC) at NPS. First announced in December 2022, the NIC will leverage NPS education and research to drive “ideas to impact,” bringing research concepts out of the lab and into the field faster by empowering students, faculty and partners across the entire Naval Research & Development Establishment (NR&DE) to work with the naval innovation ecosystem and industry.

Accelerated innovation for technologies such as EAP is also facilitated through the Secretary of the Navy’s “Climate Action 2030” policy, which prioritizes the development of systems that are not dependent on fossil fuels, expanding the use of renewable energy and electric propulsion.

In addition to supporting Climate Action 2030 and similar policy goals, EAP can also enable numerous new design freedoms and functions, leading to lower energy consumption and higher propulsion efficiency. And, of course, the noise signature of combustion engines could be all but eliminated utilizing EAP, enhancing stealth capabilities of future systems.

“Electric propulsion technology is crucial for future Navy capabilities, offering enhanced design flexibility, supporting power-intensive advanced systems, and ensuring stealth, efficiency, and adaptability in evolving naval environments,” said Zhang. “The technology's integration also paves the way for the adoption of emerging energy sources, solidifying the Navy's technological edge.”

Zhang and his NPS student team were joined in their research efforts by partners from Virginia Tech, Clemson University and the University of Connecticut, and received engineering support from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in China Lake, Calif., and the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Philadelphia division.

According to Zhang, one of the fundamental questions when looking at utilizing electric power is the distinction between products that run on direct current and alternating current (AC).

“A hundred years ago, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison had a battle over the advantages of AC versus DC electric power. Tesla won, and now much of what we use and see is running on AC power,” said Zhang.

There are certain advantages to using AC electricity, he says. AC generators are the primary source of electric power, which are driven by steam, nuclear, or other power sources. AC can be transmitted across great distances and is also easily changed to different voltage levels through the use of transformers that can step voltage up and down. As its name implies, AC has an alternating current that runs in a sinusoidal pattern; this makes AC electricity relatively safe and easy to interrupt with a circuit breaker as the waveform naturally crosses zero.

Direct current has its own advantages that are rising in importance as technology looks to the future. DC systems require less cabling and can be smaller and lighter than AC systems, as well as more power efficient. Clean sources of energy – like wind and solar – store power in photovoltaic grids and batteries which are inherently DC compatible. Electric cars that use DC power are also able to use regenerative braking to return energy to their batteries, and they are run in a compact space that does not require long distance transmission.

“The trend we’re seeing in energy industries and in electric vehicles is this switch to DC, and that’s why it is so important to look towards this electric aircraft design,” explained Zhang. “With DC, we can make a design lighter and smaller with the same power which is critical for aviation and Navy applications. The target for this DC breaker design is to get the same amount of power while cutting the weight to one tenth of what’s been developed.”

One thing that doesn’t get smaller and lighter with DC systems is the circuit breaker. The challenge that NASA posed to NPS was to create a circuit breaker that could shut down an electric aircraft running at maximum power in a safe, simple – and size-efficient – way.

“Think of electricity flowing like water through a pipe. A circuit breaker is the tool you need to shut that water off. With DC, high amounts of current and voltage equate to a huge flow of water that is hard to shut down quickly,” explained U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Michael Smith, an NPS electrical engineering graduate. “That quick change from a high to low voltage, or high to low current, creates an electromagnetic field that can interfere with other electric systems.”

Capt. Smith is one of five NPS students who worked on the project with Zhang. Since his graduation in September 2022, he now applies his degree as an Expeditionary Energy Officer for the Marines. His master’s thesis focused on testing circuit boards to ensure they could withstand the electromagnetic interference of a large-scale DC circuit breaker, and he was able to successfully identify manufactured circuit boards that would function under the required conditions.

“The trick to reaching industry standards is in the balance,” said Zhang. “You need to design something new, but not too new or it is unproven and risky. You cannot only be innovative; you must also be practical. So, we had three years during a global pandemic, which hindered manufacturing and access to technology, to produce a result that is as safe and simple as possible.”

In spite of those challenges, the team was able to successfully meet the deadline. While Zhang is pleased with the achievement of his students and the positive feedback from NASA, he is far from done with this research.

“I’m very proud of the students that I’ve worked with who have shown great ability with hands-on research,” said Zhang. “I’m also proud of my team and colleagues here at NPS who have such strong industry experience and perspective towards electrical engineering. It’s with this perspective that we’re able to deliver something so practical, useful, and impactful.”

NPS Vice Provost for Research Dr. Kevin Smith complimented Zhang and his research team, noting the achievement as an exemplar of how basic and applied research at NPS leads to relevant technology solutions.

“Di Zhang’s accomplishment is a great example of how our faculty lead interdisciplinary research at NPS, leveraging our students’ operational insight and our innovation ecosystem of academic and industry partners to solve problems and drive concepts to capability,” said Dr. Smith.

Berkeley Lab awarded two new centers to counter climate change

The programs will advance clean hydrogen and carbon sequestration technologies as part of DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative

Business Announcement

DOE/LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

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THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HAS ANNOUNCED THAT BERKELEY LAB WILL LEAD TWO ENERGY EARTHSHOT RESEARCH CENTERS.

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CREDIT: DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will host two new centers dedicated to advancing clean energy technology and combating climate change. The awards are part of DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative that launched in 2021 with the goal of speeding up technological breakthroughs and lowering costs. 

DOE has so far launched seven Earthshots spanning clean energy and carbon reduction technologies. The Berkeley Lab programs announced today will address two of them: the Hydrogen Shot and the Carbon Negative Shot. Each of the new Energy Earthshot Research Centers will receive $19 million over the next four years. 

The Hydrogen Shot aims to reduce the cost of hydrogen to $1 per kilogram of hydrogen (H2) in one decade. Switching from fossil fuels to clean hydrogen will reduce the emissions that cause climate change and local air pollution, and lowering hydrogen’s cost will open the door to use in new areas – including long-duration energy storage, manufacturing, and heavy-duty trucks and buses. But lowering future emissions is not enough to combat greenhouse gases already warming our atmosphere and exacerbating extreme weather events. The Carbon Negative Shot aims to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it at large scales for less than $100 per metric ton.

“Our Energy Earthshots are game-changing endeavors to unleash the technologies of the clean energy transition and make them accessible, affordable, and abundant,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Energy Earthshot Research Centers and the related work happening on college campuses around the country will be instrumental in developing the clean energy and decarbonization solutions we need to establish a 100% clean grid and beat climate change.”

Hydrogen Shot: Center for Ionomer-based Water Electrolysis (CIWE)

Berkeley Lab’s Center for Ionomer-based Water Electrolysis (CIWE) will investigate how to improve efficiency and drive down the cost of a process to make hydrogen: “water-splitting electrolysis.”

This kind of electrolysis runs electricity through electrodes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The setups for this process often incorporate materials called “ionomers” – polymers that move charged particles (ions) and speed up the reactions that produce hydrogen. But the way these ionomers interact with other electrolyzer components isn't yet well understood, and even subtle changes can cause big swings in how the materials and the electrolyzer behave.

CIWE researchers will use both physical systems and virtual “digital twins” to study these materials and their interfaces. With these approaches, they can closely examine the chemistry, structure, and reactions, greatly expanding the amount of available data for these complex interactions. With that information in hand, researchers aim to develop, optimize, and test new materials and processes in real-world devices. 

“Our goal is to understand what’s happening at the small scale so we can create durable, efficient, and cost-effective hydrogen technologies,” said Adam Weber, the director of CIWE. “If we can boost the use of clean hydrogen, we can slow down climate change and dramatically improve air quality.”

Partners in the center are Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Colorado School of Mines, Texas Tech University, University of Oregon, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and UC Merced. 

Carbon Negative Shot: RESTOR-C: Center for Restoration of Soil Carbon by Precision Biological Strategies

Berkeley Lab’s RESTOR-C will cultivate ways for plants and microbes to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stably store it for more than 100 years in the soil.  

The multi-disciplinary team will span biology, ecology, chemistry, and computer sciences. Researchers will study how carbon is fixed by plants and channeled into the soil, and test plant- and microbe-based strategies at field sites in California and New Mexico. Finally, the center will evaluate how to spread and scale the approaches to additional locations and crops. 

“We know that the soil is a vast potential reservoir to store carbon pulled out of our warming atmosphere by plants,” said Susannah Tringe, the director of RESTOR-C. “With the right method, we can potentially accumulate carbon in agricultural lands across the United States and move toward a carbon negative future.”

Partners in the center are Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico State University, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and California State University Monterey Bay.

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Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

 

Department of Energy funds new center for decarbonization of steelmaking

Reimagining the steel production process

Grant and Award Announcement

DOE/ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

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ELECTROCHEMICAL DISCOVERY LABORATORY AT ARGONNE. FAR RIGHT: DIRECTOR BRIAN INGRAM; LEFT TO RIGHT: DEPUTY DIRECTORS JUSTIN CONNELL, RAJEEV SURENDRAN ASSARY AND KRISTA HAWTHORNE.

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CREDIT: (IMAGE BY ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY.)

Center to develop cost-effective method for decarbonized manufacturing for steelmaking without a blast furnace.

Steel has a major impact on everyone’s lives and our economy. It is crucial to cars, trucks, airplanes, buildings and more. However, there is a significant issue with its production process. Globally, it accounts for a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced $19 million in funding over four years for DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory to lead the multi-institutional Center for Steel Electrification by Electrosynthesis (C-STEEL). The center’s charge is to develop an innovative and low-cost process that would replace blast furnaces in steelmaking and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85%.

“It’s a big target that has a high reward if successful,” said Brian Ingram, the C-STEEL director and an Argonne group leader and materials scientist.

C-STEEL is a key project of the DOE’s Industrial Heat Energy Earthshot initiative, which aims to significantly cut emissions from the energy-intensive process of industrial heating. Partners in the center include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Case Western Reserve University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University Northwest and the University of Illinois Chicago.

“While current steelmaking requires intense heat from blast furnaces, our electrodeposition process will need low or even no heat input at all.” — Brian Ingram, C-STEEL director and an Argonne group leader and materials scientist

The most energy-intensive step in steel production involves converting iron ore into purified iron metal or iron alloys using blast furnaces. This demands temperatures of 2500 to 2700 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than an erupting volcano. The center’s target is to develop a process that will essentially eliminate that heat demand, achieving an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

“While current steelmaking requires intense heat from blast furnaces, our electrodeposition process will need low or even no heat input at all,” Ingram said. ​“It will also be cost efficient and adaptable to industrial-scale operations.”

The electrodeposition process involves dissolving iron ore in a solution and using electricity to initiate a reaction that deposits a useable iron metal or alloy for steelmaking. The solution is a liquid electrolyte similar to those found in batteries.

“We will be building upon the immense knowledge base we gained about different battery electrolytes from the work done by the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, led by Argonne,” Ingram said.

The project has three thrusts. Two of them will investigate different processes for electrodeposition. One process will operate at room temperature using water-based electrolytes. The other will use a salt-based electrolyte and will function at temperatures 1800 to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit below current blast furnaces. The energy for this process is low enough that it could be provided by renewables or waste heat from a nuclear reactor.

A third thrust will focus on gaining an atomic-level understanding of each process. The goal of this thrust is to exert precise control over both the structure and composition of the metal products so that they can be incorporated into existing downstream processes of steelmaking.

Each thrust will incorporate an artificial intelligence-based platform to ensure a unified approach to electrolyte design. To that end, C-STEEL will be drawing upon the world-class computational resources of two Leadership Computing Facilities, one at Argonne and the other at Oak Ridge. Both are DOE Office of Science user facilities.

C-STEEL will also take advantage of the materials characterization capabilities of two other DOE user facilities at Argonne, the Advanced Photon Source and the Center for Nanoscale Materials.

“Another key part of the center is that one of the partner universities is a minority-serving institution, the University of Illinois Chicago,” said Ingram. ​“Through their participation and other actions, we will be forming a diverse team to contribute to our research efforts.” C-STEEL also plans to implement outreach initiatives, mentorship programs and career development opportunities for students and postdocs to excite the next generation of scientists.

This research is being funded by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences and the DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.

About Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials
The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https://​sci​ence​.osti​.gov/​U​s​e​r​-​F​a​c​i​l​i​t​i​e​s​/​U​s​e​r​-​F​a​c​i​l​i​t​i​e​s​-​a​t​-​a​-​G​lance.

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility provides supercomputing capabilities to the scientific and engineering community to advance fundamental discovery and understanding in a broad range of disciplines. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, the ALCF is one of two DOE Leadership Computing Facilities in the nation dedicated to open science.

About the Advanced Photon Source

The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nation’s economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.

This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

 

Ball milling provides high pressure benefits to battery materials

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Cheaper, more efficient lithium-ion batteries could be produced by harnessing previously overlooked high pressures generated during the manufacturing process.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have discovered that routine ball milling can cause high pressure effects on battery materials in just a matter of minutes, providing a vital additional variable in the process of synthesizing battery materials.

The research (part of the Faraday Institution funded CATMAT project), led by Dr Laura Driscoll, Dr Elizabeth Driscoll and Professor Peter Slater at the University of Birmingham is published in RSC Energy Environmental Science.

The use of ball milling has been a huge area of growth in the lithium-ion battery space to make next generation materials. The process is simple and consists of milling powder compounds with small balls that mix and make the particles smaller, creating high-capacity electrode materials and leading to better performing batteries.

Previous studies had led experts to believe that the synthesis of these materials was caused by localised heating generated in the milling process. But now researchers have found that dynamic impacts from the milling balls colliding with the battery materials create a pressure effect which plays an important role in causing the changes.

Peter Slater, Professor of Materials Chemistry and Co-Director of the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage at the University of Birmingham, said: “This discovery was almost an accident. We ball milled lithium molybdate as a model system to explore oxygen redox in batteries, and noticed that there was a phase transformation to the high-pressure spinel polymorph, a specific crystal structure that has only previously been made under high-pressure conditions.

“Local heating alone could not explain this transformation. To test this theory, we then ball milled three other battery materials and our findings from these milling experiments reinforced our conclusion that local heating could not be the only reason for these changes.”

The researchers also found that applying heat would cause some compounds to return to their pre-milled state, signifying that an additional variable was at play in the original synthesis: pressure being key.

As an example, production of the high-pressure spinel polymorph of Li2MoO4 was only previously achieved in a high temperature and high-pressure chamber under a pressure more than 10,000 times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere. The new research shows, however, that just a few minutes of ball milling can have the same effect.

Co-author Dr Elizabeth Driscoll said: “This discovery provides the opportunity to develop cheaper, more energy efficient processes for battery manufacturers, and also to explore avenues for new materials.  We found similar results, for example, when we ball milled disordered rocksalt phases which could be the key to producing better performing batteries.

“This improved understanding of the effect of ball milling on battery materials is incredibly exciting for researchers in this space, but also for the future of battery development as we were able to show that from five minutes of ball milling we could achieve the transformations that would usually require energy intensive and specialist equipment.

“As we move towards an increasingly electric future in order to limit pollution and reach net zero, it is vital that we continue to expand our knowledge and understanding of battery technology, so we can create the most efficient batteries possible. Our findings open the door to a world of new possibilities and discoveries and will hopefully play a part in a greener future for us all.”

ENDS

For more information please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham at t.moran@bham.ac.uk  or alternatively on +44 (0)7827 832312. You can also contact the Press Office out of hours on +44 (0)121 414 2772.

Notes to editors

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• 'Under Pressure: Offering Fundamental Insight into Structural Changes on Ball Milling Battery Materials' - Laura L. Driscoll, Elizabeth H. Driscoll, Bo Dong, Farheen N. Sayed, Jacob N. Wilson, Christopher A. O’Keefe, Clare P. Grey, Phoebe K. Allan, Adam M. L. Michalchuk, and Peter R. Slater.

 

 

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Under Pressure: Offering Fundamental Insight into Structural Changes on Ball Milling Battery Materials

 

Ghent University’s research team envisions a bright future with active machine learning in chemical engineering

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ENGINEERING

 

IMAGE: THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF THRESHOLDS FOR THE BREAKTHROUGH OF ACTIVE MACHINE LEARNING (AML). view more 

CREDIT: YANNICK UREEL ET AL.

Chemical engineering researchers have a powerful new tool at their disposal: active machine learning. In a recent perspective article published in Engineering, Kevin M. Van Geem’s research team at Ghent University explores the potential of active machine learning in revolutionizing the field of chemical engineering. By combining machine learning with the design of experiments, active machine learning promises to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of research, spanning all length scales of chemical engineering.

Active machine learning algorithms offer greater flexibility and superior performance compared to traditional design of experiment algorithms. However, despite their potential, the applications of active machine learning in chemical engineering are still limited. The article identifies three key challenges hindering its widespread adoption: convincing experimental researchers, ensuring flexibility in data creation, and enhancing the robustness of active machine learning algorithms.

The survey conducted by Van Geem’s team highlights the broad spectrum of active machine learning applications in chemical engineering. Nevertheless, the article emphasizes the need to popularize active machine learning among experimental researchers and overcome the existing barriers. To address these challenges, the article proposes collaborative efforts between machine learning experts and chemical engineers.

The collaboration would not only raise awareness about active machine learning but also facilitate the customization and optimization of algorithms based on specific experimental units and procedures. Overcoming the barrier of suboptimal initial experimental selection, the integration of transfer learning and active learning with multi-fidelity models is suggested. Furthermore, the article emphasizes the importance of adapting general active machine learning algorithms to meet the constraints of different setups, thereby extending the application domain of active machine learning.

Active machine learning has the potential to revolutionize various aspects of chemical engineering research, from molecule and catalyst design to reaction and reactor design. However, to unlock its full potential, it is crucial to bridge the gap between machine learning experts and chemical engineers. By doing so, not only can active machine learning algorithms be fine-tuned, but also the performance of these algorithms can be improved.

The article concludes by highlighting the significance of harmonizing synthesizability and creativity in active machine learning. Promising breakthroughs in this field will enable chemical engineers to leverage active machine learning as an essential tool, facilitating autonomous and efficient scientific discoveries. Ultimately, this will contribute to a more sustainable chemical industry in the future.

Nan Zhang, editor of the subject of chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering of Engineering, commented, “As active machine learning continues to mature, the future looks bright for chemical engineers. Increasing automation and the development of more efficient algorithms will pave the way for novel discoveries and advancements in the field. With better collaboration and wider adoption, active machine learning is poised to become a trusted asset in the chemical engineer’s toolkit.”

The paper “Active Machine Learning for Chemical Engineers: A Bright Future Lies Ahead!”, authored by Yannick Ureel, Maarten R. Dobbelaere, Yi Ouyang, Kevin De Ras, Maarten K. Sabbe, Guy B. Marin, Kevin M. Van Geem. Full text of the open access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2023.02.019. For more information about the Engineering, follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/EngineeringJrnl) & like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EngineeringPortfolio).

 

About Engineering

Engineering (ISSN: 2095-8099 IF:12.8) is an international open-access journal that was launched by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in 2015. Its aims are to provide a high-level platform where cutting-edge advancements in engineering R&D, current major research outputs, and key achievements can be disseminated and shared; to report progress in engineering science, discuss hot topics, areas of interest, challenges, and prospects in engineering development, and consider human and environmental well-being and ethics in engineering; to encourage engineering breakthroughs and innovations that are of profound economic and social importance, enabling them to reach advanced international standards and to become a new productive force, and thereby changing the world, benefiting humanity, and creating a better future.

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JOURNAL

Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.eng.2023.02.019 

ARTICLE TITLE

Active Machine Learning for Chemical Engineers: A Bright Future Lies Ahead!

 

Researcher aims to accelerate EV charging times with CAREER award

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

 

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DR. YUE ZHOU IS DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY TO CHARGE EVS 10 TIMES FASTER.

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CREDIT: THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

The time it takes to charge an electric vehicle (EV) is often cited as the reason drivers are reluctant to switch from gas-powered cars. They can take several hours to charge at home and up to an hour at fast-charging, public stations.

A University of Texas at Dallas researcher, however, is working on technology to charge EV batteries 10 times faster.

Dr. Yue Zhou, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award to support the project. CAREER grants are the NSF’s most prestigious award for early-career faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars and are likely to become leaders in their fields. Zhou, who joined UT Dallas in fall 2022, will receive $500,000 over five years.

“The charging time for electric vehicles is a real limitation compared to traditional cars that we can fill at a gas station in five minutes,” said Zhou, who also is one of several UTD faculty members involved in a $30 million battery research project funded by the Department of Defense.

“If we can resolve this issue, we can attract more people to use electric vehicles so we can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gases and pollution, and distribute energy more efficiently. That’s our goal,” he said.

Zhou, who leads the Energy Storage and Conversion Lab at UTD, and his team of researchers are working to reduce EV charging time by modifying the structure inside lithium-ion batteries. These batteries, which are used in EVs and a variety of electronic devices, generate electricity when ions move inside the battery and create a charge. The researchers’ solution involves introducing an internal electric field into the electrodes, which will accelerate the ions and lower the amount of energy needed to activate them.

The research also could be applied to lithium-ion batteries used in other electronics, such as cellphones, drones and cameras, Zhou said. Batteries also are critical for storing energy generated from wind turbines and solar panels.

“For renewable energy, we need energy storage,” Zhou said. “Wind and solar power do not flow continuously, so we have to capture and store energy so it can be used at a later time.”

An expert in energy-storage technology, Zhou also received an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award last year before he joined UT Dallas. The three-year project is designed to use structural batteries to expand energy storage in electric airplanes. Structural batteries are incorporated into the structure of the plane to provide both battery power and structural support.

 

DOE announces $264 million for basic research in support of Energy Earthshots™

11 new national lab-led Energy Earthshot research centers and 18 university projects will address tough scientific challenges to help achieve net-zero carbon by 2050, solve climate crisis

Grant and Award Announcement

DOE/US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $264 million in funding for 29 projects to develop solutions for the scientific challenges underlying DOE’s Energy Earthshots™ Initiative to advance clean energy technologies within the decade. The funding will support 11 new Energy Earthshot Research Centers led by DOE National Laboratories and 18 university research teams addressing one or more of the Energy Earthshots™ that are focused on six different areas, including industrial decarbonization, carbon storage, and offshore wind. The Department launched the Energy Earthshots Initiative to spur decarbonization efforts that will help the United States meet President Biden’s ambitious climate and clean energy goals, including a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.

“Our Energy Earthshots are game-changing endeavors to unleash the technologies of the clean energy transition and make them accessible, affordable, and abundant,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Energy Earthshot Research Centers and the related work happening on college campuses around the country will be instrumental in developing the clean energy and decarbonization solutions we need to establish a 100% clean grid and beat climate change.”

The Energy Earthshots™ connect DOE’s basic science and energy technology offices to accelerate innovations toward more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions. These efforts seek to revolutionize many sectors across the United States and will rely on fundamental science and innovative technology to be successful.

The 29 projects were selected by competitive peer review under two DOE solicitations: the National Laboratory Program Announcement for Energy Earthshot Research Centers and the Funding Opportunity Announcement for Science Foundations for Energy Earthshots. Both solicitations covered the first six Energy Earthshots: Carbon Negative Shot™, Enhanced Geothermal Shot™, Floating Offshore Wind Shot™, Hydrogen Shot™, Industrial Heat Shot™, and Long Duration Storage Shot™. Since then, DOE announced a seventh: the Clean Fuels & Products Shot™.

Science Foundations for Energy Earthshots™
DOE’s Office of Science awarded a combined $69.1 million to researchers at 18 different universities across 14 states that will, for example, investigate hydrogen arc plasmas to make steelmaking carbon-free and how to make clean energy systems more resilient using exascale computer simulations and observations.

• Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
• California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
• Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
• Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
• New York University, New York, New York
• The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
• University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
• University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California
• University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
• University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii
• University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois
• University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada
• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas
• Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
• Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Energy Earthshot Research Centers
The Energy Earthshot Research Centers will support multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary teams addressing key basic research challenges relevant to the Energy Earthshots. The centers will be housed at eight DOE National Laboratories and will receive a combined $195 million across four years.

Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois

• C-STEEL: Center for Steel Electrification by Electrosynthesis

Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York

• C4M: Center for Coupled Chemo-Mechanics of Cementitious Composites for EGS

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California

• CIWE: Center for Ionomer-based Water Electrolysis
• RESTOR-C: RESTORation of Soil Carbon by Precision Biological Strategies

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

• Terraforming Soil EERC: Accelerating Soil-Based Carbon Drawdown Through Advanced Genomics and Geochemistry

National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado

• DEGREES: Degradation Reactions in Electrothermal Energy Storage
• FLOWMAS: Floating Offshore Wind Modeling and Simulation

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

• NEETER: Non-Equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficient Reactions

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington

• ACE-FWICC: Addressing Challenges in Energy: Floating Wind in a Changing Climate
• CUSSP: Center for Understanding Subsurface Signals and Permeability

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey

• PEHPr: Center for the Science of Plasma-Enhanced Hydrogen Production

Total funding is $264 million for projects lasting up to 4 years in duration, with $100 million in Fiscal Year 2023 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. The list of projects and more information can be found on the Office of Science Energy Earthshot initiative homepage.

Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.

 

Study highlights the underrecognized contribution of viral pathogens to sepsis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE INSTITUTE

Boston, MA – SARS-CoV-2 accounted for 1 in 6 cases of sepsis during the first 33 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the importance of viral sepsis, according to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. The study comes at the end of Sepsis Awareness Month, a timely reminder of the importance of sepsis research.

The study, “Use of Electronic Clinical Data to Track Incidence and Mortality for SARS-CoV-2-Associated Sepsis”, was published on September 29 in JAMA Network Open.

Sepsis is defined as a severe infection that leads to organ failure.  It is a leading cause of death, disability, and health care costs. Although most clinicians and researchers equate sepsis with bacterial infection, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that viral infections can be an important cause of sepsis. Few studies, however, have quantified the contribution of viral infections to the overall burden of sepsis and how the outcomes of patients with viral sepsis compare to those with bacterial sepsis.

“Previous efforts to quantify the burden of SARS-CoV-2-associated sepsis have been limited by inconsistent definitions and under-recognition of viral sepsis,” said senior author Chanu Rhee, Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.  “Our prior research has shown that electronic health record (EHR)-based surveillance using clinical markers of infection and organ dysfunction can provide more accurate estimates of sepsis incidence and outcomes compared to using hospital discharge diagnosis codes, but this method had not previously been applied specifically for sepsis associated with SARS-CoV-2 or other viruses.” 

The study researchers performed a retrospective cohort study using EHR data for all adults admitted to five Massachusetts hospitals between March 2020 and November 2022. The team quantified the incidence and in-hospital mortality for sepsis associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections using clinical criteria adapted from CDC’s sepsis surveillance definition that incorporated positive SARS-CoV-2 tests and clinical signs of organ dysfunction. They found that approximately 1 in 6 cases of sepsis were associated with SARS-CoV-2 during this period. The mortality rate for patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated sepsis was very high initially—33% over the first three months of the pandemic—but declined over time and eventually became similar to the mortality rate for presumed bacterial sepsis, a rate of about 14.5% that remained stable throughout the study period.  The researchers also confirmed their electronic surveillance definition accurately identified cases of viral sepsis caused by SARS-CoV-2 infections using detailed medical record reviews.

“Our study draws attention to the high burden and poor outcomes associated with viral sepsis, while also demonstrating the utility of using EHR-based algorithms to conduct surveillance for both viral and bacterial sepsis”, says Claire Shappell, a former research fellow at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and lead author of the study. Dr. Shappell, now a Harvard Medical School Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, adds, “Current sepsis treatment protocols often presume sepsis is caused by bacteria and suggest treating all patients with sepsis with broad-spectrum antibiotics and intravenous fluids.  We hope our findings will highlight that sepsis is not a “one-size-fits-all” entity, but one that requires clinicians to tailor their diagnosis and treatment strategy to each patient’s syndrome and probable pathogen.” 

 

About

The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine is a unique collaboration between Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School. Created in 1992, it is the first appointing medical school department in the United States based in a health plan. The Institute focuses on improving health care delivery and population health through innovative research and education, in partnership with health plans, delivery systems, and public health agencies. Point32Health is the parent company of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan.

More Information
Use of Electronic Clinical Data to Track Incidence and Mortality for SARS-CoV-2-Associated Sepsis. Claire N. Shappell1,2, Michael Klompas1,3, Christina Chan4, Tom Chen1, Sanjat Kanjilal1,3, Caroline McKenna4, Chanu Rhee1,3; for the CDC Prevention Epicenters Program. JAMA Network Open, online September 29, 2023.

 

1Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

2Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

3Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
4Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35728 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Use of Electronic Clinical Data to Track Incidence and Mortality for SARS-CoV-2–Associated Sepsis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Sep-2023