Meng Zhou, assistant professor of chemical and materials engineering, is the New Mexico State University lead on a collaborative three-state project aimed to address the challenges associated with carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and ocean due to technological advances over the past century driven by the use of carbon-rich fossil fuels. The result of global emissions presents an historic threat to the ecosystem and life on our planet, as well as an historic economic opportunity to develop methods to capture and utilize carbon dioxide.
The Tri-state Research Institute of Manufacturing for Managing CO2, is a $6 million project shared by four universities from three states: University of Louisiana at Lafayette (project lead institution), New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico and West Virginia University. NMSU was awarded $1.3 million for its contribution to the four-year project funded by the National Science Foundation through Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
The proposed research goal is to create innovative manufacturing processes to advance carbon capture and utilization and entails the development of three cutting-edge technologies that will: capture carbon dioxide while producing electricity, utilize carbon dioxide for storing electric energy and convert carbon dioxide to high-value chemicals that can be used in the production of other materials.
NMSU’s research will focus on the capture of carbon dioxide during the production of energy. Zhou’s research focuses on electrochemical storage and conversion devices such as fuel cells, supercapacitors and batteries. His research results published in high impact journals, drew the attention of the lead institution for this project led to NMSU’s inclusion in this project.
“CO2 is an important topic, photosynthesis heavily relies on the concentration of CO2, but too much CO2 in air will cause troubles such as greenhouse effect and extreme climate. It is important to capture the excess CO2 in air and store it for applications,” explained Zhou. “The traditional way, like condensing at low temperature is costly and tedious. It is my interest to use the electrochemical device Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell to collect CO2 from tail gas of industry plants while producing electricity.”
His process results in high purity carbon dioxide (greater than 95%) that releases electrons which flows through an external circuit forming electricity. Zhou will design, build and test an improved Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC).
In 2019, ExxonMobil signed a $60 million agreement with FuelCell Energy to apply the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell to capture carbon dioxide and produce electricity. However, several issues presented a hurdle for the development of a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell. The NMSU team aims to tackle these issues and enhance the overall cell performance by optimizing structure, selecting advanced catalysts and synthesizing suitable electrode materials. Undergraduate and graduate students and postdoc researcher will be actively involved in this project.
Other NMSU participants in the project are Hongmei Luo, professor of chemical and materials engineering and associate dean of research, whose research interest is in the design, fabrication and use of nanomaterials and surface modification in energy systems. She is an experienced administrator and will participate in the management team.
Delia Valles-Rosales, NMSU professor of industrial engineering, has extensive experience in manufacturing research, teaching and outreach, especially in energy sector and will scale the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell up from lab level to industry level. She will lead the education and outreach activities.
The NMSU team is also actively involved parts of other research thrusts led by other universities: Zhou will contribute to the reactor design; Luo will work on electrode surface treatment; Valles-Rosales will participate in scale up and modelling.
Along with technological creation, the participating organizations are committed to train and develop internationally competitive scientists by offering cutting-edge science and a solid experience in education. Research and educational prowess are vital to provide the next-generation with the necessary tools and competencies to achieve long-term success in industry and academia.
The three states involved in the project, which all rank highly in per capita carbon dioxide emissions, also have recently invested in a number of statewide initiatives or received significant outside investments to address carbon dioxide challenges. The research program will benefit from close interaction with industry and collaboration with national research centers, including the National Energy Technology Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory.
The buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere presents a massive challenge, but these researchers contend, “if managed well, it also represents a historic opportunity: capture and utilization of CO2 is arguably the largest economic opportunity of the next hundred years, also known as “industry of the future.”