News
WVU leading the fight against climate change through $6 million NSF carbon capture and utilization project
David Mebane, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and his research team lead WVU’s participation in the Tri-state Research Institute of Manufacturing for Managing CO2 (TRIMMing CO2), a recently funded National Science Foundation project that focuses on developing innovative manufacturing processes to advance carbon capture and utilization.
Largest demo yet of our data-driven reduced modeling methodology
Researchers Yinkai Lei, Tian-Le Cheng and Youhai Wen at NETL used our dynamic discrepancy reduced modeling (DDRM) method to drastically reduce the size and simulation time for models of degradation in solid oxide fuel cells, as described in an article just published in the Journal of Power Sources.
Phase-field models are accurate but expensive models for predicting microstructural coarsening in ceramics. Because solid oxide fuel cell degradation is related to (among other things) coarsening in the electrodes, it would be nice to use phase-field in models that predict cell degradation. The problem is that phase-field models take a long time to run -- days on a supercomputer, and even then they can only manage a small portion of the overall microstructure; nowhere near enough for an operating device.
DDRM uses Gaussian process (GP) stochastic functions to augment models that are scientifically derived but missing important physical phenomena. DDRM models are thus built using a combination of hard-won scientific understanding and data-driven methods. In this case NETL developed a low-order coarsening model based on the Ostwald ripening principle, added GPs into the mix and used data derived from phase-field simulations to build a version of the coarsening model that is almost as accurate as phase-field while requiring less than 1/1000th of the simulation time.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.01.046
Mebane to study carbon dioxide reduction under NSF Collaborative Award
One of the biggest factors hampering the growth of renewable energy is storage. Sun and wind are intermittent and dependent on geography, requiring energy storage and transportation. Batteries are a means of addressing the storage problem, but they have a low-energy density, and are relatively expensive and difficult to transport. A researcher at West Virginia University will be investigating one possible alternative that could potentially create a route to “green” hydrocarbons.
WVU engineering researchers win 'Oscars of Innovation' award for carbon-capture technology
Creating a toolset that will aid in the development of carbon capture has won researchers from West Virginia University an R&D 100 Award, known as the "Oscars of Innovation."
Mebane and Lima win new investigator award from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund
Two engineering professors from West Virginia University have been awarded more than $100,000 from American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund to demonstrate a new method for building fast models of complex chemical reactions and processes.
Mebane and De Souza's new theory for space charge in ionic conductors published in "Energy & Environmental Science"
The Poisson-Cahn theory for the formation of space charge zones in concentrated solid electrolytes has the potential to resolve inconsistencies between century-old theories and recent experimental results revealing that space charge zones — regions of charge separation that form in the vicinity of surfaces and interfaces in ionic materials — are much thicker than previously assumed.