EESI announces seed fund recipients

EESI announces seed fund recipients

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Rice’s Environmental and Energy Systems Institute (EESI) recently awarded seed funding to 11 research projects proposed by Rice faculty. The initial grants are small but allow researchers to conduct exploratory investigations.

“The Innovation Funds promote collaboration among the faculty: For the cost of a single graduate student you can establish new faculty connections,” said Walter Chapman, the William Akers Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and director of EESI. “The seed funds also provide the opportunity for faculty to take on high-risk, high-reward exploratory research. This results in stronger, more inventive proposals being funded by outside organizations. The rewards are many times the investment.”

Funding came from the Hans Jahns fund for Carbon Research, ExxonMobil and other sources. The grants include:

“Improved Use of Hemicellulose Derived Xylose for Ethanol Production by an Engineered Bifunctional Pathway” by George Bennett, the E. Dell Butcher Professor and Chair of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Ka-Yiu San, the E.D. Butcher Professor in Bioengineering and professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering. Bennett and San will attempt to create a genetically engineered form of E. coli that could help biofuels producers by breaking down compounds in the stalks of agricultural crops, making them accessible for ethanol production.

“Exploratory Study of Power Generation Options in Texas” by Daniel Cohan, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering. Cohan will conduct an exploratory study of where new coal and natural gas power plants could be sited in Texas and the economic and environmental performance that they could achieve with various technologies and control measures. This will complement other efforts to explore renewable generation options in Texas.

“Helmholtz Coil Apparatus to Advance Studies in Robotic Inspection of Energy Pipes” by Fathi Ghorbel, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and bioengineering. Ghorbel’s team is developing a framework for robotic pipe inspection that uses sensor data, information from mathematical models and other information to achieve the ultimate goal of inspecting and monitoring the health of pipelines to extend their life and avoid catastrophic failures. The seed grant will fund development of a Helmholtz coil that can create a programmed uniform constant magnetic field in pipes inspected by robots.
 
“Process-based Improvements for the Conversion of Glycerol to Ethanol and Hydrogen” by Ramon Gonzalez, the William Akers Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Gonzalez will work on process-based improvements for the development of a fermentation process for the efficient and profitable conversion of the crude glycerol created during biodiesel production into ethanol and hydrogen.

“Carbon Dioxide Capture from Flue Gas” by George Hirasaki, the J. Hartsook Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Michael Wong, associate professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering  and in chemistry; K. R. Cox, professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering; and Edward Billips, professor of chemistry. This team seeks an economical way to remove CO2 from flue gas by building a process using a ceramic membrane.

“Micro- and Nano- Patterned Surfaces for Control of Biofouling” by Qilin Li, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, and Brent Houchens and Jun Lou, assistant professors in mechanical engineering and materials science. Li, Houchens and Lou will conduct early stage experiments designed to reveal mechanisms of biofouling and to produce biofouling resistant surfaces and membranes. Biofouling is the process of undesired microbial cell attachment and the subsequent growth leading to the formation of a biofilm. This research could improve the longevity and efficiency of environmental sensors, water filtration membranes and biomedical membranes such as those used in kidney dialysis.

“Imaging Molecularly Engineered Nano-machines as Cargo Transporters for Electrolytes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells,” by Stephen Link, assistant professor of chemistry. Link’s group will test using molecularly engineered nano-machines as cargo transporters for electrolytes. This nanotechnology ultimately could be used to design and build low-cost solar cells.

“Mechanisms of Soil Carbon Sequestration: Optimizing Soil Carbon Interactions with Minerals and Fungi” by Carrie Masiello, assistant professor of Earth science, and Jennifer Rudgers, the James H. and Deborah T. Godwin Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Masiello’s and Rudgers’ experiments will test the carbon-storing potential of switchgrass grown in pair-wise comparisons of soil minerals and symbiotic fungi. They plan to produce and characterize one nanoscale iron mineral (ferrihydrite) and one nanoscale aluminum oxide (allophane) typical of carbon-storing soils and then conduct preliminary carbon storage experiments in the Rice greenhouse growing switchgrass with and without the iron, aluminum oxide and fungi.

“An Internet Connected Photovoltaic Array Testbed for Research and Education at Rice University” by Andrew Meade, professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering; John Muratore, adjunct professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and NASA Johnson Space Center; and Devika Subramanian, professor of computer science and in electrical and computer engineering. This team will purchase a small photovoltaic (PV) array system commonly used in homes and install it on the roof of a Rice building where it will be connected to a cluster of personal computers. The computers will analyze data from the PV system and communicate with similar PV nodes located at NASA Johnson Space Center and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Techniques for monitoring, control, fault detection and systems analysis of the PV arrays will be shared among these locations. Experiments will be performed with distributed control and analysis, with all of the nodes participating in real time over the Internet. The power generated at Rice will also make a small reduction to the university’s carbon footprint.

“Ultra Deep Water Drilling Riser-Vortex Induced Vibration and Fatigue Reduction based on Monitoring and Suppression Devices” by Satish Nagarajaiah, professor in civil and environmental engineering and in mechanical engineering and materials science. Drilling and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Brazil is moving into deep and ultra-deep waters. The increased water depth and severe currents experienced in these areas present challenges for the configuration and operation of drilling risers. Nagarajaiah will conduct preliminary work on new methods of prediction and monitoring, new suppression devices and new identification techniques for reducing vibration and fatigue in ultra-deep water risers.

“The Effects of Variations in Temperature and Precipitation on Woody Invasions into Endangered Coastal Prairies” by Evan Siemann, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Chris Gabler, graduate student. Siemann and Gabler will develop preliminary data for their study of the potential effects of climate change on the intensity of Chinese tallow tree invasions into coastal tall-grass prairies. The pair will examine how increased temperatures and changes in precipitation that are forecast by climate models may affect Chinese tallow tree invasions.