January 27, 2022 Professor Lindsay Anderson, Cornell University, BEE

February 3, 2022 Professor Maha Haji, Cornell University, Mechanical, Aerospace & Systems Engineering, MAE

February 10, 2022 Max Zhang, Cornell University, MAE

February 17, 2022 (Virtual, see link below) Michael Weill, Founder of Global Deepwaters (Retired)

February 24, 2022 - TBA

March 3, 2022 Professor Buz Barstow, Cornell University, BEE

March 10, 2022 Dr. Bruce Bailey, Underwriters Laboratories; Founder, AWS Truepower Distinguished Speaker

March 17, 2022 Professor Amy Marschilok, Stony Brook University

March 24, 2022 Mr. David Nanus, LS Power Equity Advisors, LLC

March 31, 2022 Sir Steven C. Cowley, Director of NREL and President of the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, Distinguished Speaker

April 14, 2022 Dr. Alexa Schmitz, Cornell University, BEE

April 21, 2022 Dr. Martin Keller, Director of NREL

April 28, 2022 Mr. Jatin Khanna, Department of Energy

May 5, 2022 Professor Jim Braun, Purdue University

Meeting ID: 965 6171 7639

Passcode: 822760

To receive our weekly seminar announcements please email Polly Marion.

The first Cornell Energy Day was held in person in April of 2019 and, after a hiatus in 2020, saw a return in the online format in April 2021. Having had experience with both in-person and online events, the CESC EBoard is approaching 2022 Energy Days accommodating a hybrid schedule of events to allow for engagement with students and alumni both on and off-campus. Inspired by the discussions we have been hosting that have people come together to discuss topics related to energy as well as sustainability in general, we have approached the choosing of topics for Energy Days this year with the idea of trying to incorporate interdisciplinary speakers. To this end the topics we have chosen are broadly Energy Justice and Smart Society. At present we are ecstatic to have confirmed NREL Director Martin Keller as the keynote speaker for Smart Society Day on the 21^st. We are still in the process of confirming speakers for the other events and welcome any suggestions or inquiries to the present Club President, Henry Harwood, hhh58@cornell.edu

“Listening to the Global fleet Solutions leader at GE Renewable Energy, and an alumnus of Cornell Engineering, Jo Kim, was exhilarating. A perfect example of women in renewable energy, paving the way in harnessing the power of wind, for a sustainable and greener tomorrow. Having progressed in her career from being one of the candidates in the renewable energy development program at GE to being a Global fleet solutions leader (onshore wind turbines), the professional journey of this energy maven is undoubtedly inspiring. “

Congratulations to David and Joesene!

The race to decarbonize the global energy system means a race to electrify everything that can be electrified. This means the demand for both common metals and precious metals is poised to skyrocket for decades to come if only the demand can be met. In an effort to save the Earth from climate change, we risk strip mining it. Surely, there’s got to be a way to be a better way? 

Rare earth elements are a group of metals that are essential for sustainable energy technologies. Magnets are key for turning electricity into motion, and motion to electricity. Small amounts of rare earths doped into a magnet can dramatically increase its strength. This means that the magnet can keep the same strength but be made much, much lighter (incredibly useful in electric vehicles), or keep the same size but be much stronger (incredibly useful in wind turbines). Likewise, rare earths are important ingredients in high energy density battery anodes, and some room temperature superconductor designs. The demand for rare earths is projected to increase by ≈ 50% to 300,000 tonnes of metal oxide per year by 2025. 

Mining and refining rare earths pose formidable challenges. The name rare earths is a bit of a misnomer: they aren’t all that rare. For every 100 billion atoms of aluminum in the Earth's crust, there are only 10 atoms of platinum and about one atom of iridium (the rarest metal). But, for every 100 billion aluminum atoms, there are about a million atoms of cerium (the most common rare earth, about the same as copper and zinc) and about 10 thousand atoms of lutetium (the rarest rare earth, about the same as antimony and bromine). But, unlike most other metals, there are no seams or veins of rare earths. Rare earths are rarely found at concentrations above a few hundred parts per million. Getting just a few hundred grams of rare earths means crushing more than a tonne of ore, and dissolving the remnants in sulfuric acid. Making a 1 megawatt wind turbine needs a few hundred kilograms of neodymium (one of the lighter, more abundant rare earths), and it will take a few million of these turbines to power the USA.

Biology could offer a better way to mine rare earths. Today, about 15% of the world's copper supply is provided by a process where a microbe called Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans extracts copper from low grade ore. But, A. ferrooxidans is one of the few microbes that exactly fit the bill for any application in sustainable energy (in fact, the only one we can think of): there isn't an analogous microbe that can do the same trick for rare earth bio-mining. The closest thing is an acid-producing microbe called Gluconobacter oxydans, but this doesn't dissolve ore aggressively enough to make a commercially viable process. This means that we’ll have to find a way to engineer G. oxydans. 

Building microbes for sustainable energy remains a challenge right at the interface of basic science and engineering. We’re fortunate that today there are lots of technologies for writing and editing genomes (think DNA, synthesis, Gibson assembly, CRISPR), and next generation sequencing (the PacBio sequencer was a Cornell spin-out company). These tools let us increase the expression of some enzymes, and decrease the expression of others, with the end result of increasing the amount of a chemical that the microbe makes. 

But, the technology for figuring out where to edit and what to write in a genome has barely improved at all over the last 20 years. When we started to work on synthetic biology and energy, we quickly realized just how big a problem this is, particularly for the most exotic organisms that offer the most capability for sustainable energy. Most of the work in molecular biology over the last few decades has gone into understanding a handful of bio-medically relevant model organisms like brewer’s yeast and E. coli, and very few non-model organisms. To solve this problem, we developed a method called Knockout Sudoku that lets us knock out all of the genes in a microbe's genome faster and cheaper than any other technology. This lets us figure out all of the genes involved in lots of behaviors (say making acids that can dissolve rocks). 

We've used Knockout Sudoku to figure out the genes that G. oxydans uses to produce acids. Alexa Schmitz built a collection that contains a gene knockout mutant for almost all of G. oxydans’ 3,000 genes (at least the ones that aren’t essential for it to live). By screening the collection with pH indicating dyes, Alexa was able to figure out 300 or so genes that control acid-production. 

Alexa found two major systems that control acid-production. The first one, PQQ synthesis, makes an essential compound (PQQ) used by the enzyme (mGDH) that drives the final step of acid production. Increasing production of PQQ synthesis genes, along with the mGDH accelerates acid production. The second system, pst, senses when G. oxydans has sufficient phosphate, an essential nutrient. When phosphate is low, the bacteria access more by secreting acid into the environment. When phosphate is sufficient, the pst system puts the brakes on acid production. Knocking out pst removes the brakes, exactly what we want. Alexa's best mutant increases acid production by 18%. 

Since November, Alexa has been working on even more elaborate mutations to G. oxydans that have increased bioleaching by almost 40%. We think we can double it within the next few months. 

What else can you expect from this project? We’ve also been looking into rare earth separations as well. Some microbes can adsorb rare earths onto their surfaces. A few years ago, a group at Harvard found that not all rare earths are adsorbed equally, and this selective adsorption can vary between species. This tells us that if we could figure out the genetics of biosorption we could make biosorption even more selective, and use it to separate neighboring rare earths. As a turn of good luck we’d already built a knockout collection for one of the organisms known to biosorb rare earths (the electraoctive bug Shewanella oneidensis). 

When we made the collection we had no idea about rare earth biosorption - we were looking for genes that allow the bug to eat electricity. (Likely you will hear more about this project soon, as it was recently supported by a CESI postdoctoral fellowship.) Graduate student Sean Medin is characterizing the genome of S. oneidensis to figure out which genes control biosorption. 

Finally, Alexa and Sean have already started a company called REEgen to commercialize extraction and separations technologies. We hope to tell you more next year! 

CHEME 6660, Analysis of Sustainable Energy Systems

Instructor: Jeff Tester (jwt54@cornell.edu)

Assessment of current and potential future energy systems, covering resources, extraction, conversion, and end-use, with emphasis on meeting regional and global energy needs in the 21st century in a sustainable manner. Quantitative engineering methods for performance analysis of renewable and conventional technologies are utilized. Methods will include thermodynamics, financial analysis of performance, life cycle cost calculation, transport and reaction engineering considerations for energy capture, extraction and conversion described within a system framework that aids in evaluation and analysis of sustainable energy technology options in the context of political, social, economic, and environmental goals. Open to graduate students and upper-class undergraduates. Quantitative engineering analysis methods applied assuming previous exposure to thermodynamics, physics, and calculus. (2 credits for CHEME 6660; 1 credit for project in CHEME 6681)

Lead instructor: Michael Weill with Jeff Tester (jwt54@cornell.edu)

This module will present an overview of fossil fuels in the overall energy supply. Particular emphasis will be on the exploration and production sector of oil and gas. Oil and gas after transportation and refining is a major contributor to the transportation, industrial, and residential sectors of the economy. The module will highlight where oil and gas fit in the energy picture and then take the student through the overall life cycle of E&P with particular emphasis on the risk and economic components involved, in addition to some technical components. Although coal is a fossil fuel and significant contributor to US electrical supply, it will not be covered in detail. (1 credit)

Lead instructors: Adam Hawkins (ajh338@cornell.edu)

and Jeff Tester (jwt54@cornell.edu)

The vision behind geothermal energy’s potential role in meeting national and regional decarbonization and renewable energy deployment goals is described. Topics include: (1) regional and local geothermal resource assessment using temperature gradients and heat flow to estimate the stored thermal energy in the crust, (2) subsurface science and engineering including reservoir structure and design and thermal-hydraulic performance modeling, drilling, and stimulation methods, (3) engineering design and infrastructure technology involved with using geothermal energy for generating electricity, direct use in district heating systems and heating and cooling using geothermal heat pumps, (4) economic requirements, and (5) environmental issues. The final topic is a case study addressing how district heating at Cornell will be achieved utilizing an integrated energy system approach using Earth Source Heat (ESH) technology, bioenergy from waste biomass, thermal energy storage, and centralized heat pumps (1 credit)

Lead instructor: Tobias Hanrath (th358@cornell.edu) with Jeff Tester (jwt54@cornell.edu)

This module provides a comprehensive overview of solar energy conversion technologies. Major themes range from fundamental (nuts and bolts) solid-state concepts and operating principles of photovoltaics to manufacturing of cells and modules, balance of system aspects, life-cycle assessment and perspectives on second- and third-generation photovoltaic technologies. Beyond technoeconomic aspects, we also discuss societal and legal aspects of solar energy deployment. The module also summarizes solar thermal power technologies including passive and active solar heating, concentrated solar power plants. (1 credit)

Before coming to Cornell University, Silveira was a Full Professor in energy systems planning at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, where she established and led the Energy and Climate Unit of the Energy Technology Department for twelve years. She has developed and managed projects in collaboration with academics, multi-lateral organizations, government, and the private sector in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. She did research at MIT, IIASA, University of Tübingen and University of Stockholm. Professor Silveira has a PhD in regional planning from KTH and an engineer-architect degree from UFMG Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.