Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame
Cleaner Fossil
Fossil fuels, such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas, dominate the current energy landscape and are likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The greatest challenge with fossil fuels is to find environmentally sustainable ways to use them, which in many cases comes down to effective separations. This challenge is a main thrust area for the SEI. Cleaner Fossil research will develop mass separating agents, which take advantage of materials selectivity rather than energy, to perform separations. These new materials will be engineered by using an integrated research and engineering strategy and by using theory and molecular simulations to provide design rules that guide the synthesis and characterization of novel materials (inorganic, organic, and hybrids). These materials will ultimately be incorporated into devices, engineered, and tested for specific energy applications.
The applications of new mass separating agents are not limited to conventional fossil fuels. Similar separation challenges arise in the conversion of renewable biomass into useful fuels, in the production of hydrogen, in water purification, in recovery of shale gas, and, dovetailing with the SEI effort described above, actinide separations for efficient use of nuclear fuels.
