REU Site: CO2 Chemical Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges

Global energy consumption is projected to double by 2050 and triple by the turn of the century. Current emissions of carbon dioxide, driven mostly by our use of fossil fuels as a primary energy source, are rapidly increasing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In order to slow and ultimately reverse the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere, carbon-neutral and renewable energy sources are needed.

The theme of this summer REU site revolves around the reduction and utilization of CO2 via capture, catalytic conversion, and mitigation through chemical and electrochemical methods, as well as through the conversion of biomass feedstock to fuels and chemicals. The site will provide the REU participants with a wide variety of research projects in these areas, exposing them to an array of technical challenges that engineers face when tackling the challenge of increasing CO2 emissions.

In addition to research, participants will also engage in professional development workshops throughout the summer. The research and cultural environment will be enhanced by the inclusion of up to six undergraduate researchers from Thailand each summer, who will interact, live, and work with the REU students. At the end of the ten-week summer program, REU students will present their research in both a university-wide poster session and an oral research symposium.

The theme of this REU site in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina is “CO2 Chemical Engineering – Opportunities and Challenges”, with a technical emphasis on CO2 separation and capture, chemical conversion to fuels and chemicals, and mitigation through biomass conversion. The research projects will be tailored towards chemical engineering undergraduate students, involving ten students for a ten-week summer program.

In terms of intellectual merit, the REU site will leverage the expertise of our strong team in nanoscience, materials science, heterogeneous catalysis, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and mathematical modeling to advance the understanding of the role that novel materials and processes will play in reducing the environmental impact of CO2 emissions on our planet. The REU students will participate in cutting-edge research, including advanced separation technologies, CO2 capture, and chemical conversion of CO2 and biomass to hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals.

Participants will also engage in professional development workshops, and present their research in both a poster session and oral research symposium at the end of the summer. In terms of broader impacts, our nation’s ability to meet our future energy needs in a sustainable manner will be critical to our ability to continue to prosper. Advancing scientific knowledge and developing the future workforce to invent sustainable technologies will be at the center of this endeavor.

This REU site will train and expose our future scientific leaders to advances in sustainable energy in general, and nanoscience, catalysis and CO2 capture and conversion in particular. Professional development efforts will provide the REU students with the non-technical knowledge and experience required to take discoveries out of the lab and place them into society.

The research and cultural environment will be enhanced by the inclusion of undergraduate researchers from Thailand each summer, who will interact, live, and work with the REU students. The educational impact will be assessed by an external evaluator, who will perform a formative evaluation to assess the effectiveness of program implementation, and a summative evaluation to assess achievement of program goals and expected outcomes for students.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.