|
|
MIT Energy Conference goes virtual
MIT News / MITEI
Annual student-run energy conference pivots to successful online event with short notice in response to the coronavirus.
|
|
|
|
What is ammonium nitrate, the chemical in the deadly Beirut explosion?
NBC News
Karthish Manthiram (Chemical Engineering) discusses what makes ammonium nitrate—a chemical commonly used in fertilizer—explosions so dangerous, as well as storage regulations for the chemical.
Related: Read about Manthiram’s work to help decarbonize the chemical industry by finding ways to drive critical chemical reactions using electricity from renewable sources.
|
|
|
3 Questions: Asegun Henry on five “grand thermal challenges” to stem the tide of global warming
MIT News
More than 90% of today’s energy use relies on heat for processes including electricity production, steel and cement manufacturing, and heating and cooling buildings. These processes combined make thermal energy a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers including Asegun Henry (Mechanical Engineering) propose five areas of thermal energy where changes need to be made in order to “save humanity from extinction due to climate change.”
|
|
|
Assessing the value of battery energy storage in future power grids
MIT News / MITEI
Dharik Mallapragada (MITEI), Nestor Sepulveda (MIT), and Jesse Jenkins (Princeton University, formerly of MITEI) find that the economic value of storage increases as variable renewable energy generation (from sources such as wind and solar) provides an increasing share of electricity supply, but storage cost declines are needed to realize its full potential.
|
|
|
Stay cool without racking up a bill
The New York Times
Dharik Mallapragada (MITEI) discusses smart thermostats in an article on how to air-condition your home more efficiently in the summer heat.
|
|
|
Shrinking deep learning’s carbon footprint
MIT News / MIT Quest for Intelligence
Researchers at MIT and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab are looking into making software and hardware more energy efficient, and in some cases, more like the human brain.
|
|
|
|
Podcast: 2020 MIT Clean Energy prize winners
MITEI
Frank O’Sullivan, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School, speaks with the teams behind Nitricity and Harmony Desal—the 2020 MIT Clean Energy (MIT CEP) grand prize and runner-up winners. The MIT CEP is the world's largest and longest-running competition for student cleantech startups.
Listen.
|
|
|
Podcast: TIL about fusion energy
TILclimate
Dennis Whyte (Plasma Science and Fusion Center) sits down with host Laur Hesse Fisher to talk about fusion energy—a technology that could change our whole energy system, but so far hasn’t generated a single watt.
Listen.
Related: Learn more about this game changing technology as Whyte joins host Frank O’Sullivan on the MITEI podcast.
|
|
|
Decarbonizing fuels and chemicals with Ted Sargent, Beatriz Roldan Cuenya, and Brian Seger
Friday, August 14, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Electrochemical Energy Lab at MIT
Fuels based on hydrocarbons, taken together with the processing of raw hydrocarbons into chemicals, account for about half of the United States’ CO2 emissions. Efforts to lessen the CO2 footprint of these activities have the potential to make a significant impact on total greenhouse gas emissions. The speakers will focus on taking CO2 and—with energy supplied by low-carbon/renewable electricity —turning it into fuels and fuel additives such as methane, ethanol, and propanol. They will also seek to advance the electrosynthesis of renewable chemicals such as ethylene and—more recently on the anodic side—ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide.
Dial-in details:
via Zoom
Password: 953680
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,93619904886# US (New York)
+16699006833,,93619904886# US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 936 1990 4886
US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833
International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/akarGcOPj
Join by SIP
93619904886@zoomcrc.com
https://mit.zoom.us/skype/9361990488
|
|
|
Sustainable Energy
Tuesday, September 22, MIT edX course
Learn to critically analyze modern energy technologies from engineering and socio-political perspectives, and gain the skills necessary to help the world meet rising energy demand while reducing carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
Start date: September 22, 2020
Duration: 12 weeks
Enrollment: Free to audit, verified certificate of completion available for $149 USD
Register.
|
|
|
The 2020 U.S. C3E poster competition
Students and early-career researchers are invited to participate in a poster competition at the annual U.S. C3E Symposium and Awards, which will be held online in December. The poster competition exposes symposium attendees to cutting-edge research in a variety of clean energy fields. A poster committee with wide-ranging expertise will select the most compelling poster submissions for presentation at the symposium with an eye toward diversity of institution, topic, and discipline. The poster presenter must be a female-identifying undergraduate student, graduate student, or postdoctoral researcher currently undertaking the research project presented.
Enter by Wednesday, October 7 at 11:59 pm ET.
Check out details and apply.
Related: Are you joining the C3E competition? Do you need help on your poster? MITEI will match you with a mentor to help coach you through the process. For more information, please contact Diane Rigos.
|
|
CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program
CSIS is launching the “U.S. Clean Resilient States Initiative,” a new project that will examine state-level energy and climate policy. They are seeking a fellow to lead most of the research on this project. Individuals with a PhD (or master’s degree) with strong experience in research and public policy analysis—and with experience in state-level energy policy—are encouraged to apply.
Apply by August 15.
|
|
MITEI postdoctoral associate
Come work at MITEI! We’re looking for a postdoc to join an ARPA-E-funded project investigating the design and operation of flexible carbon capture and storage at fossil-fuel power plants.
Apply.
|
|
 |
In some ways, it’s a program that has a carrot but has no stick."
— Dhark Mallapragada (MITEI) speaks with The New York Times about smart thermostats and utilities discount programs. |
|
|
|
|
|
