The Trienens Institute Generate Pillar
Nov 18, 2024 10:11 AM
One of the Trienens Institute Six Pillars of Decarbonization, the Generate pillar will develop a new class of solar energy to power the next generation
The Trienens Institute Transform Pillar
Transforming the processes used to create fuel and chemicals to reduce or remove carbon
Arleigh Truesdale | November 19, 2024
Everything in the marketplace has an invisible story. Behind each plastic water bottle, t-shirt, and cell phone case is a series of chemical reactions and processes that become imperceptible—out-of-sight, out-of-mind—once products hit store shelves.
Equally invisible is the enormous amount of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions required to manufacture the millions of goods available to modern society. A single plastic phone case is made using a mix of chemicals, all requiring energy to extract, produce, refine, and combine into the recognizable plastic rectangle nicely packaged for buyers.
But what materials are being used to make the chemicals to make the phone case? How much energy is used to make those chemicals? How can chemicals be made more sustainably, with fewer carbon emissions and waste? These questions guide the scientists and engineers at Northwestern who are working to transform the methods used to make the chemicals and fuels that create common household goods and power the global transportation system.
The new class of decarbonized chemicals and sustainable fuels will be the backbone of the decarbonized and circular economy—where waste materials are captured and reused to make something new.
“In some areas, decarbonizing means using no carbon whatsoever. When making products without carbon, we’re ensuring that the process and materials being used are carbon-neutral or carbon-negative and result in few-to-zero emissions,” explained Justin Notestein, chair and professor of chemical and biological engineering.
But finding less carbon-intensive ways to make and work with chemicals has its challenges. Because safety is a primary concern when working with chemicals at large scale, the industry is cautious and slow to embrace experimentation and discovery. There is less of an all-hands-on-deck startup culture, but a real need for innovation and change.
At Northwestern, researchers in the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy’s Transform pillar are derisking some of these big industry transformations. The goal of the pillar is to transform wastes and renewable feedstocks—raw plant-based materials such as wood, algae, or oil—into transportation fuels and decarbonized chemicals. Transform is one of the Trienens Institute’s Six Pillars of Decarbonization aimed at leading interdisciplinary research in decarbonization.
“Manipulating carbon has been the backbone of the chemical and fuels industry at a trillion dollar scale for a century,” said Linsey Seitz, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering. Seitz is co-chair of the Transform pillar in tandem with Notestein. “Our focus is to think about the inputs used to make the commodity products we’re so used to having—instead of digging up new oil to make them, we’re looking at how to efficiently use the resources we already have and minimize the amount of waste created in the process.”
A century of sustainable transformations
With nearly 100 years of experience and expertise in catalysis, Northwestern is a natural leader in ushering in the next generation of sustainable chemicals and fuels. “Research in catalysis—chemical, biological, or other methods of transformation—has always been about sustainability. The whole point is to do things with fewer energy inputs at lower temperatures while creating less waste,” Notestein shared. “By improving the efficiency of chemical processes, we’re reducing the amount of energy used and limiting carbon emissions.”
Notestein directs the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS) which supports research into alternative fuels, abatement of harmful emissions, resource recovery, and other methods of boosting chemical sustainability. Part of the Trienens Institute, CCSS houses the Reactor Engineering and Catalyst Testing (REACT) Core Facility, a unique collaborative laboratory space that can be used to demonstrate proof-of-concept for new chemical production processes.
“At REACT we help researchers experiment with new ideas and prepare to develop a scaled-up process to meet industry-level needs,” said Neil Schweitzer, REACT Operations Director. “Our lab gives users access to equipment and expertise that help accelerate discovery and remove barriers to getting innovation out into the real world.”
Developing sustainable routes to chemicals and fuels is a goal for faculty working in disciplines across the university. Within the Center for Hydrogen in Energy and Information Sciences (HEISs), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), faculty are focused on manipulating hydrogen—a clean energy carrier—for possible use in making clean chemicals. “One of the goals for sustainability in the chemical industry is to obtain hydrogen by splitting water using green electricity rather than from fossil fuels,” said Sossina Haile, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and co-lead of the Deploy pillar.
Faculty Jennifer Dunn, Keith Tyo, George Wells, and Justin Notestein are also working to recycle nitrogen atoms in wastewater using microbes from wastewater treatment. The captured nitrogen could then be transformed by pillar researchers and turned into a valuable material for industrial use. Beyond recovering precious resources, targeting wastewater may benefit the predominantly low-income communities often situated near polluted waterbodies.
Other faculty at the Center for Synthetic Biology, are finding ways to create large-scale industrial chemicals like acetone and butanol using organic inputs like sugar and corn that are renewable and involve fewer carbon emissions.
Partnering for scale
Putting low-to-no carbon innovation to practice in some of the largest industries will require proper incentives. “There are mandates to start switching to lower carbon alternatives for aviation fuel. To keep flying in a sustainable way, we need massive innovations in sustainable liquid fuels,” Notestein said.
Discovery happening within the Transform pillar will help smooth the transition. “Our goal is to make it cheaper, more efficient, and less environmentally harmful to make products using carbon dioxide pulled from the air or biomass so it becomes the default choice,” said Seitz.
Recently, Northwestern researchers have partnered with large companies and startups to swap fossil carbon or petroleum-based materials with renewable feedstocks like sugarcane to make products like acrylic, polyurethane, and carbon fiber. Notestein and Seitz are studying ways to produce nylon in ways that reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. With another partner company, Notestein is studying new ways to use catalysis to make molecules that capture carbon dioxide.
Building on the research of those working across the Six Pillars of Decarbonization, the Transform pillar will contribute to a more sustainable society by finding more sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels or fossil carbon. “Our work will pick up where the other pillars leave off: we can take excess carbon obtained by the Capture pillar and plug it back into the production cycle instead of extracting new crude oil from the ground,” Seitz remarked.