- Offer Profile
- Welcome to the Center for
Sustainable Energy Systems!
Clarkson University has been engaged in energy research and education for
over 30 years and our faculty's wide range of interests and activitives span
disciplines from Engineering to Business. The Center provides a vehicle to
bring these efforts together, exchange ideas with each other and generate
new concepts for innovative, sustainable, collaborative projects at local,
national and international levels. The center also supports the current
efforts of the Institute for a Sustainable Environment (ISE) and the Center
for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP) and is closely linked to the
Shipley Center for Innovation.
Product Portfolio
Energy Research at Clarkson University
- The research interests of the faculty at Clarkson cover
a wide spectrum of energy related areas.
Bioenergy
- The conversion of biomass and organic waste into
biofuels, including fuel oil and gasoline, for heat and power and the
associated environmental impacts and social consequences is at the center of
this research area. The abundance of biomass feedstocks in Northern New York
and their potential to enhance regional economic development is substantial.
The scope of research ranges from the conversion of biomass to fuels using
thermo-chemical and biological means, such as biocatalytic microreactors, to
sociology research to investigate the cause of farmers’ reluctance to adopt
new energy technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, even when they provide
economic benefits. Funding is for this research area has been provided by
NYSERDA, NY Ag & Markets, USDA, and DOE. Collaborations with area farmers
and CoolBrands, Inc, a local dairy processing plant, have been established
to transfer research results to energy consumers/generators.
Wind Energy
-
Over 30 years ago Clarkson began conducting research
in the use of vertical axis wind turbines as a source of local, rural
energy. Today, researchers continue to investigate efficient strategies of
extracting energy from the wind. The current research focus is on small
turbines in the 1-100kW range, suitable for rural, residential and
commercial applications. Several of the concepts utilize novel blade
concepts to improve efficiency, reduce noise and enhance the low wind speed
performance. Clarkson also tests small turbine prototypes at the Wind
Turbine Test site in Potsdam. Future Energy Solutions of NY and Optiwind in
CT are presently funding new design concepts, including a large scale
turbine for commercial use.
Solar Energy
- While silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) devices have
been the most widely used to date, their cost has led to significant
interest in organic and organic-inorganic hybrid materials for use in PV
devices. Such materials include various conducting polymers, quantum dots
and semiconducting oxides, all of which have great potential for application
in photo- and electrochemical devices (e.g. solar cells, sensors). In
particular, PV systems based on materials that have well-ordered nanoscale
features are highly sought after because they may increase efficiency
through both improved charge separation and reduced excitation (positive and
negative charge pairs) recombination. Current work is centered on creating
potential low-cost, large-area PV devices through the use of well-ordered
polymer nanocomposites. This should improve efficiency and enable devices
that will be very think and can be printed onto flexible substrates. Work
through Clarkson's Center for Advanced Materials Processing, collaborations
with RPI and Corning Inc. and support from NYSERDA are helping to facilitate
the work.
Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Technologies
-
The adoption of hydrogen for fuel cells will
require a major infrastructure investment in a relatively short period of
time. Extreme reactivity of hydrogen is recognized as a serious risk factor.
Hydrogen safety is very different from gasoline safety due to its gaseous
state, which leads to different modes of propagation. For safe
transportation, distribution, and delivery, the hydrogen infrastructure must
be monitored in real time. A MEMS sensor platform is being developed at
Clarkson in collaboration with Cornell University to sense hydrogen
concentrations and pressures for safety and storage needs.
Other projects
include modeling and optimization of industrial solid oxide fuels cells, use
of supercapacitors for improving the transient response of fuel cells and
incorporation of new nano materials for both solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs)
and proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Geothermal Energy
- Geothermal energy has a great potential to provide a
constant source of clean and reliable energy to both residential and
commercial sectors of our society which consume a major portion of this
nations energy demand. The implementation of geothermal energy is fairly
simple since heat can be extracted from the earth’s surface at relatively
shallow distances. In combination with structural pile foundations,
geothermal energy can be used as an alternative energy solution for
buildings. This type of ground-source heat extraction has existed for many
years in Europe and Asia and has been a clean energy technology with a
reported 50% CO2 emissions reduction and a decreased need for primary energy
sources to operate [1]. It has been implemented not only in residential but
multi-story commercial buildings as well. They are also beneficial since
they can provide the structural and heating/cooling needs within one system
and requiring less land usage and upfront costs. Geothermal energy piles are
typically laid out in a pattern suitable to support the structure above and
a typical cross section consists of concrete, steel reinforcement and high
density polyethylene tubing. The tubing and steel reinforcement are arranged
together before being lowered into a drilled shaft or borehole and filled
with concrete. Once all piles are in place, the tubing is connected to a
ground source heat pump which circulates a heat transferring medium
throughout. As it is pumped the medium is heated by the ground through heat
transfer processes and it is then pumped back into the building and
distributed throughout. Energy pile foundations have the ability to use
ground source heat and raise the relatively low temperature to a usable
level.
The objective of this research project is to understand the
thermo-hydro-mechanical effects of ground source heat pump systems on
structural pile foundations. It is important to understand what effect
heating and cooling cycles have on the behavior of concrete foundations in
order to determine their long-term structural stability. Questions arise
about the structural integrity of the pile when subjected to heating and
cooling cycles since the pile will expand when heated and contract when
cooled. The thermo-hydro-mechanical response of the soil-pile interface must
be understood for better design practices and standards.
1. Banks, David. An Introduction to Thermogeology: Ground Source Heating and
Cooling. Oxford: Blackwell Ltd, 2008. Print.
2. Brandl, H. "Energy foundations and other themo-active ground structures."
Geotechnique 56 (2006): 81-122.
Energy Efficiency
- The efficient use of energy, whether in copy machines or transportation
vehicles, is critical to reducing costs and emissions. Energy efficiency is an
economic resource and can be thought of as an alternate "fuel." For every watt
of power saved in an end use appliance, approximately 6 watts of power is saved
at a coal-fired station, along with the reductions in emissions associated with
that power generation. Current projects include NYSERDA projects on the
reduction of drag in trucks to improve fuel economy and the recovery of exhaust
heat from trucks to generate power for vehicle use and a NYSTAR-Xerox project on
thermal diffusion roller efficiency in copy machines.
Energy Harvesting & Storage
- As device sizes keep shrinking, the power requirement
of the devices has been decreasing. In recent years, a trend to harvest
energy from the environment rather than to use energy from a generator,
power line or batter has been developing. Almost all the systems are
subjected to various types of transient and vibrational excitations from the
environment. In many cases, the level of vibrations would be sufficient to
generate sufficient amounts of energy to drive piezoelectric motors and
wireless communication devices. Faculty in this research group are
collaborating with Cornell University faculty in the development of an array
of self-tuning mechanical oscillators to be fabricated using MEMS technology
and a project funded by the Transportation Research Board on the design and
development of a generator using bridge vibrations to suppy power to sensors
for bridge monitoring is underway.
Power Systems
-
The integration of intermittent
renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, into the existing power grid
present is particularly challenging. While a portion of this electricity is used
in the stand-alone applications, much of this electricity is fed into the
electric power grid. Efforts are underway to identify the benefits that
distributed energy resources provide to grid operation, such as loss reduction
and capacity deferment. Clarkson's High Voltage Laboratory's accelerated life
testing capability is used to improve grid reliability. Recent support comes
from NYSERDA and GE Energy Systems to develop accelerated life assessment tools
for testing reliability and life assessment of complex industrial settings. It
is hoped that tools for utility designers to maximize the reliability benefits
of their upgrades, help identify critical or significant design or process
characteristics that require special controls to prevent or detect failure
modes, will be determined.
Energy Education
- Energy Literacy: Empowers students to make
thoughtful energy-related decisions, choices, and actions in their approach
to everyday life
Increasing the literacy of the general public on energy-related matters is
critically important to promote conservation and efficiency and to ease the
adoption of new energy technologies. Energy education activities range from
middle school through PhD levels. K-12 outreach has included the development
and implementation of units on energy systems (8th grade) and the hydrogen/biofuel
economy (high school). These units have been taught by our own graduate
students in partnership with local teachers. STEM workshops for teachers
have also been established to provide energy-related education and ideas for
the classroom.
At the University level, a new undergraduate minor in Sustainable Energy
Systems Engineering has been established. This minor emphasizes that all
engineering disciplines are necessary to develop and assess technologies to
both increase the efficiency of our energy use and advance renewable and
alternative energy sources.
Scholarly research activities such as the Energy Literacy Assessment Project
include an ongoing effort to measure energy literacy among our students and
assess the effectiveness of various K-12 curricular programs. A written
survey has been developed that measures energy-related knowledge, attitudes,
and behaviors according to defined content objectives for energy literacy.
Current research uses the Energy Literacy Survey as a reliable, valid
measure to examine energy literacy levels among a large sample of middle and
high school students throughout New York State, and to investigate
relationships between student gains in energy literacy and the energy
education they experience at school. These initiatives have been funded by
the NSF and NYSED.
Environmental Impacts of Energy Systems
-
Researchers have estimated that over 80% of our global air pollution arises from
our energy systems. Researchers at Clarkson have been measuring and modeling
emissions, downwind concentrations, and human exposure to transportation and
power production energy systems for many years. Other researchers are working to
estimate the overall lifecycle environmental impacts of a variety of energy
systems..
Current Collaborators and Funding Partners
DoE
EPA
NYSERDA
USDA
Energy Policy
- Energy policy is the manner in which government (or
sometimes another entity) decides to direct energy development: production,
distribution and consumption. This can include legislation, international
treaties, incentives to investment, market design, pure regulation,
forecasting, and integration of renewable energy, guidelines for energy
conservation and efficiency, taxation, planning, energy security, and other
public policy concerns.
In the context of global climate change, the issues surrounding energy
policy interact more than ever with the world’s environmental and economic
decisions. Energy policy is key to the integration of sustainable
technologies, especially with our current electric grid system. It directly
drives our decisions concerning energy storage for renewables, and a
plethora of other public policy choices that drive the sustainability
incentives, fiscal policy, supply and demand, and reliability of our energy
supply.
At Clarkson University, we integrate energy policy research with several of
our courses, including Energy & Society, Creating Environmental Policy,
Biofuel and Farm Policy, Intro to Environmental Science & Policy, Risk
Analysis, Environmental Leadership, Environmental Law, and Environmental
Policy. For instance, students are studying the impact of energy policy in
concert with the emissions of pollutants from transportation, power
production of energy systems, and alternative fuels that may be linked to
health effects or climate change. The focus is a holistic approach to
integrating science and policy.
Transportation Systems
-
A properly designed transportation system improves transportation mobility and
accessibility while minimizing harm to our physical, natural, and social
environments. The overall goal is to bring together engineers and scientists,
social scientists, biologists, ecologists and economists to create the knowledge
and technology that will lead to better investments and to smarter policies in
transportation energy systems.
Some areas of expertise and research are:
Bridge Load rating and structural health monitoring
Vibration monitoring and modal analysis for condition assessment of structures
and machines
Roadway and bridge design
Sensor development and deployment
Winter maintenance practices