The Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy supports collaborative research in four R&D Pillars focused on the energy transition. Two cross-pillar initiatives accelerate discovery and impact across the Institute’s priority research areas. Pillar and initiative leaders include national academy members and Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers.
Decarbonization is an imperative for the climate and civilization; and to be the first to come up with compelling solutions also represents huge economic opportunity.”
The R&D Pillars organize the Institute’s research priorities around four key themes: Generate, Store, Transform, and Capture. Teams of distinguished faculty anchor the pillars.
The Store Pillar aims to deliver cost-effective, reliable electricity storage at scale while supporting US leadership in domestic manufacturing of grid storage solutions.
Research in the Transform Pillar concentrates on converting wastes and renewable feedstocks into essential fuels and chemicals.
The Capture Pillar focuses on capturing water, carbon-containing molecules, and critical minerals from dilute sources to meet essential resource needs.
Two cross-pillar initiatives serve to accelerate research across the Trienens Institute research priorities and translate discoveries into scalable, economically viable energy and sustainability solutions.
The AI4Energy initiative leverages Northwestern's leadership in agentic AI, machine learning, computation, and big data to accelerate scientific discovery. AI4Energy is a joint initiative of the Trienens Institute and IIN, partnered with NNCI.
