Researchers at the University of North Dakota (UND) received a competitive award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that aims to advance carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies while providing graduate and undergraduate student training opportunities.

This SUNRISE project is titled "Efficient Regeneration of Physical and Chemical Solvents for CO2 Capture." It will evaluate the use of composite polymer membranes and porous membrane contactors for the recovery of CO2 (carbon dioxide) from CO2 -rich solvent streams from coal gasification syngas. This work will also be applicable to similar carbon capture technology for traditional coal combustion systems. SUNRISE, which stands for Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education, is an interdisciplinary program at UND and North Dakota State University.

"Current solvent extraction technologies require a lot of energy to separate the CO2 back out of the solvent using traditional distillation," said project principal investigator Brian Tande, UND assistant professor of chemical engineering. "The goal of this work will be the development of materials and processes that reduce the costs of the solvent regeneration process by using a less energy intensive technique—membrane separation—to accomplish the same goal."

"I'm most excited about the novel educational aspects of this grant," said SUNRISE director and co-PI Wayne Seames, UND professor of chemical engineering. "In addition to working directly on the research included in the project, graduate students will also spend six months working on CO2 sequestration technology research either at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) or in UND's geological engineering program. In addition, senior chemical engineering students will be using the results to evaluate the commercial feasibility of carbon capture systems utilizing membrane separation regeneration."

Co-PI Steve Benson, a UND chemical engineering professor, said that this technology could decrease the cost of carbon capture by improving the efficiency of separating carbon dioxide from flue gas.

"At the same time we will provide education opportunities for graduate students who will ultimately work in the emerging carbon capture industry," Benson said.

Spread over three years, this $300,000 project will be managed by NETL. Funded through the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the project is part of a DOE program aimed at advancing CCS scientific, technical, and institutional knowledge while simultaneously producing the expertise and workforce needed for the emerging carbon capture and storage industry.

SUNRISE is a student centered, faculty organized supercluster comprising of 30 faculty in 13 separate academic departments at UND, NDSU, Mayville State University, and the North Dakota State College of Science. SUNRISE research is focused in three areas: the technologies to enable the environmentally sustainable use of coal, the production of fuels, chemicals, polymers, and composites from renewable sources, and the harvesting of energy from diffuse sources (wind/solar/hydrogen). More than 170 undergraduate and graduate students have worked on SUNRISE research projects.




Five energy-related seed grants projects were recently completed by faculty at the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University as part of the Department of Energy’s North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) infrastructure improvement program.

The purpose of this seed grant program was to to assist in developing UND and NDSU research capabilities related to sustainable energy. Proposals received for this competitive seed grant program were reviewed by a panel sustainable energy experts from inside and outside the university system.

The grants, which ran from May of 2007 through December 2008 were awarded as follows:

• Soizik Laguette, assistant professor, UND John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, Department of Earth System Science and Policy, "Spectral Characterization of Switchgrass for Biomass Energy and Biofuel Quality," $32,295.
• Hossein Salehfar, professor, UND School of Engineering and Mines, Department of Electrical Engineering, "Modeling of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Technique," $18,000.
• Zhao, associate professor, UND College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry, "Development of TiO2 Nanocatalysts for Sustainable Energy," $50,000.
• Sivaguru Jayaraman, assistant professor, NDSU Department of Chemistry, "Imprinting Molecular Chirality During Light-Induced Transformations in Solution," $22,000.
• Chad Ulven, assistant professor, NDSU Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, "Ultra-lightweight Polymer Composites for Wind Energy System – Turbine Blade Structures," $49,770.

Based on the productivity documented by the participants, the seed grant program was an overwhelming success. The grants resulted in 15 refereed publications and 12 technical presentations. Seed grant awardees also submitted 16 proposals for further research valued at $3,352,000 and were awarded seven grants totaling $1,704,000 based on work performed under their seed grants. The ND DOE EPSCoR seed grant program was administered by the North Dakota Sustainable Energy Research Initiative (ND SUNRISE) in coordination with the North Dakota EPSCoR program.

The Department of Energy's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE EPSCoR) is a federal-state partnership program designed to help the Department lead the world in meeting today's and tomorrow's energy needs through increased competition in energy-related research and development across the entire nation. The program supports DOE's overarching mission of advancing the national, economic, and energy security of the United States, by supporting research activities in EPSCoR state spanning the broad range of science and technology programs within DOE.

SUNRISE is a student centered, faculty organized supercluster comprising of 31 faculty in 14 separate academic departments at UND, NDSU, Mayville State University, and the North Dakota State College of Science. SUNRISE research is focused in three areas: the technologies to enable the environmentally sustainable use of coal, the production of fuels, chemicals, polymers, and composites from renewable sources, and the harvesting of energy from diffuse sources (wind/solar/hydrogen). More than 170 undergraduate and graduate students have worked on SUNRISE research projects.




University of North Dakota science and engineering faculty of the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education (SUNRISE) Group have been selected to host a new National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program based on chemistry-focused undergraduate research that contributes to the advancement of sustainable energy technologies.

For the next three years, this $216,000 grant, under the direction of PI Evguenii Kozliak, UND Professor of Chemistry and co-PI Wayne Seames UND Professor of Chemical Engineering, will provide primary funding for a 10-week summer program where undergraduates students from around the United States conduct research and attend weekly program sessions, with an emphasis on publication-quality research projects and the improvement of oral and written communications skills. NSF will support eight undergraduate students for 10 weeks of summer research at UND. Supplemental funds from other sources will allow SUNRISE to host 16 students this summer. 2009 participants come from six nondoctoral institutions: Truman State University, Alma College, Manchester College, Cal Poly Pomona, San Jose State, and South Arkansas plus UND.

In selecting UND, the review panel stated that "the research described in the proposal was found to be well conceived, well funded, topical, and certain to be of interest to undergraduates. The collaboration between scientists and engineers was notable. The prior work of a related UND REU program was judged to be highly successful, especially in regard to publications with participants. The proposed program seems highly likely to equip scientists and engineers to deal with issues concerning global supply and demand of energy."





North Dakota university researchers with the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education group, or SUNRISE, have received more than $6 million in external competitive grant awards this quarter. This bring total awards since 2004 to over $26 million.

SUNRISE is a student centered, faculty organized supercluster comprising of 28 faculty in 13 separate academic departments at UND, NDSU, Mayville State, and the ND College of Science--Wahpeton. SUNRISE research is focused in three areas: the technologies to enable the environmentally sustainable use of coal, the production of fuels, chemicals, polymers, and composites from renewable sources, and the harvesting of energy from diffuse sources (wind/solar/hydrogen). More than 150 students have worked on SUNRISE Research projects.

SUNRISE BioProducts Center of Excellence. ND SUNRISE has been awarded $2.95 million from the North Dakota Department of Commerce for 2009-2011 to establish the SUNRISE BioProducts Center of Excellence for biobased chemicals, polymers, and composites. Leveraged by more than $8 million in matching funds, SUNRISE is engaging 12 companies in this Center including: Red River Valley companies, LM Glasfiber, Tecton Products, Northwood Mills, and Integrity Windows. Multi-national partners include Bayer CropScience, Bayer Material Science, Ashland Chemicals, Rohm and Haus, PPG Industries, Crown Iron Works, Global Ag Solutions, and Kadrmas, Lee, & Jackson.

The Center of Excellence was formulated by PI Wayne Seames, UND professor of chemical engineering and SUNRISE director along with co-PIs Brian Tande, UND assistant professor of chemical engineering and Jim Petell, UND associate vice president for Technology Transfer and Commercialization. Center activities performed at NDSU are administered by Chad Ulven, NDSU assistant professor of mechanical engineering and SUNRISE associate director. Khwaja Hossain, MaSU assistant professor will coordinate work activities at Mayville State. They will focus on developing processes for the economical production of chemicals and polymers that are identical to current products produced from crude oil and natural gas. Other work will blend some of the polymer products with natural fibers to produce novel composite materials.

"The SUNRISE BioProducts COE is a natural next step following SUNRISE's current commercialization activities which include the scale-up of a 100% renewable jet fuel meeting U.S. Air Force JP-8 fuel specifications.", stated Petell.

Pilot scale activities for both fuel technologies and the future BioProducts technologies will occur in the fuel and chemical pilot facility located in the recently completed REAC 1 building at UND.

In addition to research, development, and commercialization activities, SUNRISE BioProducts will contribute to three SUNRISE outreach programs: Power ON! - a program to encourage 5th-8th graders in math, science, and engineering; the NATURE Freshman Experience to expose Native American high school and tribal college students to chemistry and chemical engineering; and the SUNRISE Research Experiences for Undergraduates-a summer program to introduce college undergraduate students to research.

ND NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program. SUNRISE was recently awarded $3 million from the North Dakota EPSCoR program for 2009-2013. The funded research will elucidate fundamental aspects of heterogeneous catalysis, especially at the nanoscale, that are relevant to developing alternative transportation fuels and chemical feedstocks. These studies are organized into five broad projects, each of which involves multidisciplinary teams of researchers. The research program is managed by PI Mark Hoffmann, UND Chester Fritz Professor and chair of chemistry and co-PI Michael Mann, UND professor and chair of chemical engineering. Infrastructure elements of the program will be administered by SUNRISE Director Wayne Seames. In addition to the PIs, SUNRISE UND researchers receiving funding from this grant include Irina Smoliakova, professor of chemistry, Darrin Muggli, associate professor of chemical engineering, plus Alena Kubatova and Julia Zhao, assistant professors of chemistry. New faculty positions in for both UND chemistry and chemical engineering will be supported during the grant.

Department of Energy Grant. John Hershberger, NDSU professor and chair of chemistry was awarded a $270,000 three-year DOE grant starting in July, 2008, entitled "Kinetics and Product Channel Studies in Combustion Chemistry". This grant is for the study of the kinetics of various combustion-related reactions using transient laser spectroscopy.

Department of Energy EPSCoR Infrastructure Improvement Program Supplement. SUNRISE received an additional $100,000 from the DOE EPSCoR program to support two SUNRISE outreach activities in 2009. $50,000 will be used for the NATURE Freshman Experience, a ND EPSCoR program administered by SUNRISE. Tribal college freshman come of UND or NDSU for one to four weeks and work with a faculty mentor in their laboratory. This program is coordinated by Julia Zhao, UND assistant professor of chemistry. The other $50,000 will be used for a 10 week summer undergraduate research program coordinated by Evguenii Kozliak, UND professor of chemistry.

North Dakota Corn Council. Chad Ulven, NDSU assistant professor of mechanical engineering and SUNRISE associate director, was awarded a one-year, $20,960 grant by the North Dakota Corn Council to continue research on the development of waste corn fibers from ethanol production as reinforcement for commodity thermoplastics. This is the third straight year that the corn council has provided funding for biocomposite research.



Chad Ulven, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at NDSU was recently named Associate Director of the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education (SUNRISE) Research Group. SUNRISE is an interdisciplinary cluster of North Dakota researchers committed to providing sustainable and renewable solutions to complex energy related problems. Dr. Ulven was selected by the NDSU participants in SUNRISE to administer and coordinate SUNRISE research and outreach activities at NDSU. Director Wayne Seames from UND stated, "We are excited that Dr. Ulven has agreed to spearhead SUNRISE research efforts at NDSU. I look forward to working closely with him to facilitate North Dakota faculty and student research efforts in sustainable energy". SUNRISE is a student-centered, faculty-led research program at NDSU, UND, and other North Dakota universities to research and develop sustainable energy related technologies in three primary focus areas: 1) fuels, chemicals and polymers from renewable sources, 2) the environmentally acceptable use of coal, and 3) technologies to harvest energy from diffuse sources (hydrogen, wind, solar). Dr. Ulven will administer the NDSU portions of major SUNRISE center grants such as SUNRISE NDSU portion of the NSF EPSCoR RII grant announced recently and the SUNRISE BioProducts Center of Excellence grant approved last week. He will also coordinate SUNRISE publicity, major proposal development, outreach, and other activities at NDSU for the entire SUNRISE group in order to continue developing SUNRISE into a truly collaborative, multi-university, sustainable research group.



The Sustainable Energy Research Initiative would like to congratulate the following faculty for receiving external competitive grant awards this Spring:

Alena Kubatova, UND Assistant Professor of Chemistry was awarded a five year, $640,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award titled, "Formation pathway of polar derivatives of nitro-PAHs." The research aim of this proposal is to elucidate the gas-particle (heterogeneous) reaction mechanisms of PAH nitration and oxidation with a focus on the identification of reaction products.

Sivaguru Jayaraman, NDSU Assistant Professor of Chemistry was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award titled "Imprinting Molecular Chirality In Solution During Photo-Transformations." This four year, $575,000 award will build upon preliminary data from a SUNRISE Department of Energy EPSCoR Infrastructure Improvement Program seed grant Siva used to develop methods and data that he utilized in his winning proposal.

Uwe Burghaus, NDSU Assistant Professor of Chemistry was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award titled, "Chemical Activity of Copper Oxide and Gold Nano Model Array Catalysts Towards CO Oxidation". In this five year, $426,000 project Dr. Burghaus and his students will study the catalytic activity of model-nano-array catalysts by surface chemistry techniques. Those catalysts belong to the class of so-called model catalysts which consists of nano-sized metal particles on a metal oxide support and can resemble realistic model systems for industrial catalysts.

Principal Investigator Brian Tande, UND Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, along with co-PIs Wayne Seames, Ed Kolodka, and Darrin Muggli (all from UND Chemical Engineering) were awarded a three year, $367,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop polymers and composites from crop oils. The program, titled "Bio-based Polymeric Materials from Cracked Canola Oil" will focus on converting canola oil into several polymers commonly used in building materials, coatings, adhesives, and many other products traditionally derived from petroleum or natural gas.

The Department of Energy has awarded a three year, $352,000 grant to Uwe Burghaus, NDSU Professor of Chemistry, titled, "Characterization of fundamental catalytic properties of MoS2/WS2 nanotubes and nanoclusters for desulfurization catalysis – a surface chemistry study." In this project nano-desulfurization catalysts will be characterized in collaboration with R. Tenne's group at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Michael Mann, UND Professor of Chemical Engineering and Hossein Salehfar, Professor of Electrical Engineering were awarded a three year grant for $301,268 from the Department of Energy titled, "Development of a Renewable Hydrogen Production and Fuel Cell Education Program". Their research team will take advantage of the infrastructure and programs established through SUNRISE to provide a comprehensive renewable hydrogen production and fuel cell education program.

Principal Investigator Wayne Seames, UND Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering along with co-PIs Darrin Muggli, Brian Tande (both UND Chemical Engineering) and Alena Kubatova (UND Chemistry) were awarded a one year, $110,000 grant by the North Dakota Soybean Council to continue their research into processes to produce fuels, chemicals, and polymers from Soybean Oil. This is the fifth straight year that the North Dakota Soybean Council has provided funding to the SUNRISE crop oil conversion technologies program. The North Dakota Soybean Council also awarded a $15,000 one year grant to PI Michael Mann, UND Professor of Chemical Engineering and co-PI Wayne Seames to study the benefits of co-locating soybean processing facilities with sugar beet factories.

The Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education (SUNRISE is a student centered, faculty led research program at the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, and other North Dakota Universities. The mission of SUNRISE is to 1) conduct research that contributes to solving complex energy-related problems, 2) investigate the development of sustainable energy options, leading towards economic development and job creation for North Dakota, 3) increase UND and NDSU research competitiveness in sustainable energy, 4) and produce graduates to develop and promote sustainable energy in North Dakota, the region, and the nation, all within a unified, interdisciplinary program that translates fundamental research into commercial solutions.



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