Protecting Our Energy Infrastructure from Cyberattack P. 3

Energy Futures MIT ENERGY INITIATIVE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SPRING 2019

Protecting our energy infrastructure from cyberattack p. 3

Removing CO2 emissions from power plant exhaust p. 9

Technology and policy pathways to Paris emissions targets p. 17

MITEI launches online energy classes to meet global needs p. 27 Energy Futures is published twice yearly by the MIT Energy Initiative. It reports on research results and energy-related activities across the Institute. To subscribe, please visit energy.mit.edu/subscribe.

Nancy W. Stauffer, editor [email protected]

Emily Dahl, MITEI communications director [email protected] Have you heard our new podcast? We’re sharing conversations at MIT about the future of energy. Topics have included: ISSN 1942-4671 (Online ISSN 1942-468X) Energy storage MIT Professors Donald Sadoway and Yang Shao-Horn discuss researching, developing, and scaling energy storage technologies with guest host Bruce Gellerman of NPR station WBUR. MIT Energy Initiative The MIT Energy Initiative is MIT’s hub for Materials for energy energy research, education, and outreach. MIT Professors Fikile Brushett, Elsa Olivetti, and Yogesh Surendranath Our mission is to develop low- and no-carbon discuss building the next generation of materials for future energy systems. solutions that will efficiently meet global energy needs while minimizing environmental The human environmental nexus impacts and mitigating climate change. Frances Beinecke, past president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, discusses the US climate trajectory, the need for national leadership, and how to make an impact on climate change. (See article MIT Energy Initiative on page 32.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solar energy 77 Massachusetts Avenue, E19-307 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 Professor Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano and co-director of the MITEI Solar Low-Carbon Energy Center, talks about what's 617-258-8891 coming in solar and what MIT.nano is doing to change how startups launch from MIT. (See article on page 36.) For more information and the latest news from MITEI, go to energy.mit.edu. …and more.

Listen, subscribe, and learn more at energy.mit.edu/podcast. You can also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts by searching “MIT Energy.” Design: Tim Blackburn Proofreading: Kathryn M. O’Neill

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On the cover Printed on paper containing Professor Stuart Madnick (left), graduate 30% post-consumer recycled content, student Shaharyar Khan (right), and with the balance coming from responsibly Professor James L. Kirtley Jr. (not pictured) managed sources. have developed a technique for identifying vulnerabilities to cyberattack in complex energy systems such as power plants. In case studies, they found numerous vulnerabilities stemming not only from equipment but also from operator behavior, management decisions, and more. See page 3. Photo: Stuart Darsch Spring 2019 Energy Futures

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 9

mitei updates research news 28 Hardworking undergraduates enrich MIT’s energy ecosystem 2 A letter from the director 17 Technology and policy pathways to Paris Agreement 30 Students help to make island research reports emissions targets communities carbon-neutral 3 Protecting our energy 19 Turning desalination waste into infrastructure: New analysis useful products events targets cybersafety 21 Observing hydrogen’s effects 32 Frances Beinecke discusses how collective action can 9 Removing CO2 from power in metal: Technique could lead plant exhaust: Combining to safer reactor vessels, hydrogen advance US climate policies storage tanks capture and disposal 33 C3E Symposium celebrates women working in clean energy

perspectives 36 3 questions: Vladimir Bulović on game-changing solar energy and nanotechnologies

39 3 questions: Robert Stoner discusses clean energy for India

focus on faculty 13 23 Catherine Drennan: Catalyzing new approaches in research and education to meet the climate challenge 39 13 Finding novel materials for practical devices: New machine learning technique can help education members 25 Energy Ventures class proves 40 Listing of MITEI members successful launchpad for and affiliates; news about students, startups MITEI members

27 MITEI launches online energy classes to meet global needs

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 1 mitei updates A letter from the director

Dear friends, To help train the global network of professionals needed to realize a With the launch of the Quest for low-carbon energy future, the MITEI Intelligence and the Schwarzman College education team has been busy launching of Computing, MIT is making an a new series of online energy courses Institute-wide response to the increasing based on interdisciplinary MIT graduate importance of artificial intelligence and classes currently taught on campus computing in the future of education, (page 27). The first four courses will research, and industry. At the MIT focus on electric power systems design Energy Initiative (MITEI), we are and management. already exploring how these technologies can be used to reshape the energy One highlight of on-campus student sector and accelerate the low-carbon activities was a design-thinking workshop energy transition. that MITEI co-hosted during MIT’s Independent Activities Period in The potential energy applications for January to creatively explore pathways artificial intelligence are wide-ranging— toward a net-zero carbon future for the from the ability to accelerate the discovery Massachusetts island community of of new materials to the development MITEI’s research, education, and Martha’s Vineyard (page 30). We hope of better battery management systems outreach programs are spearheaded by the work on Martha's Vineyard can to the implementation of new demand- Professor Robert C. Armstrong, director. inspire action and serve as a model for side opportunities to improve power Photo: Kelley Travers, MITEI other communities working toward system operations. In this issue of carbon neutrality. Energy Futures, you will read about how industry members have identified topics machine learning can dramatically of interest, including mobility evolution With the diverse nature of our global reduce the time required to evaluate new in high-growth countries, freight ground energy system landscape, there are transition metal compounds for their transportation, clean fuels and propulsion still many technology, business, and policy potential as novel sensors or switches or systems, and potential disruptors of innovations yet to explore—and I am as improved catalysts for industrially mobility systems. excited that we continue to expand important processes (page 13). research frontiers here at MIT. I invite In this issue, you will also read about a you to be in touch with any thoughts Artificial intelligence also figures into new methodology that can help protect or feedback and hope you enjoy this issue our Mobility of the Future study, which power plants and other critical energy of Energy Futures. examines autonomous vehicles and infrastructure from cyberattack (page 3). their potential future impacts on urban Other advances covered in this issue Warm regards, mobility and the global personal trans- focus on simultaneously capturing CO2 portation system. The study, anticipated in power plant exhaust and preparing it for publication in fall 2019, explores for safe disposal (page 9), turning waste many different areas of mobility—an brine from desalination plants into Professor Robert C. Armstrong important and dynamic component useful chemicals (page 19), and observing MITEI Director of the energy sector. To build on this hydrogen’s effects on metals to help April 2019 foundation, MITEI is developing a new in the design of safer hydrogen storage Low-Carbon Energy Center, the tanks (page 21). On the policy front, Mobility Systems Center, to help guide investigators have demonstrated new sustainable and efficient global mobility analytical tools that countries can use to growth by developing, maintaining, and develop practical emissions-reduction applying state-of-the-art tools for strategies to meet their Paris Agreement mobility research. Center researchers and commitments (page 17).

2 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

research reports

Protecting our energy infrastructure New analysis targets cybersafety

Nancy W. Stauffer, MITEI

in brief Almost every day, news headlines announce another security breach and the Using a new, holistic approach called cybersafety, an MIT team has shown that theft of credit card numbers and other today’s energy systems are rife with vulnerabilities to cyberattack—often the personal information. While having one’s result of increased complexity due to high interconnectivity between devices and credit card number stolen can be alarming, greater use of software to control system operation. The methodology examines a far more significant yet less recognized a spectrum of factors that influence system operation, from physical design to concern is the security of physical infrastructure, including energy systems. operator behavior to organizational and managerial actions, and then determines how interactions among those factors can affect system safety. The resulting “With a credit card theft, you might analysis can point to specific steps a company can take to strengthen the have to pay $50 and get a new cybersecurity of its facilities. In the past decade, cyberattacks on physical credit card,” says Stuart Madnick, the systems have demonstrated that traditional IT security measures are largely John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technologies at the impotent in protecting critical infrastructure from advanced cyber adversaries. MIT Sloan School of Management, a The researchers therefore stress the urgent need to identify and mitigate cyber professor of engineering systems at the vulnerabilities, as future cyberattacks could cause unimaginable disruptions MIT School of Engineering, and such as interrupting the flow of fuels or shutting down the US electric grid. founding director of the Cybersecurity

Above Using their “cybersafety” methodology, Professor Stuart Madnick power plant, including a system that poses a risk because it relies on (left), graduate student Shaharyar Khan (right), and Professor James L. software rather than mechanical safety devices to keep turbines from Kirtley Jr. (not pictured) identified several cyber vulnerabilities in a small spinning out of control. Photo: Stuart Darsch

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 3 at MIT Sloan consortium. “But with “And it’s not on most people’s radar. Looking for vulnerabilities infrastructure attacks, real physical But just hoping that it won’t happen is Companies actively work to tighten up damage can occur, and recovery can take not exactly a safe way to go about life.” their security—but typically only after weeks or months.” Madnick and his He firmly believes that “the worst is some incident has occurred. “So we tend to colleagues are now releasing methods yet to come.” be looking through the rear-view mirror,” and analytical tools they’ve developed says Madnick. He stresses the need to that organizations can use to examine The challenge for industry identify and mitigate the vulnerabilities their facilities for vulnerabilities to Ensuring the cybersecurity of energy of a system before a problem arises. cyberattack—including those that may systems is a growing challenge. Why? arise from organizational, managerial, Today’s industrial facilities rely extensively The traditional method of identifying or employee actions. on software for plant control rather than cyber vulnerabilities is to create an on traditional electro-mechanical devices. inventory of all of a system’s components, A few examples of attacks since the In some cases, even functions critical for examine each one to identify any vulner advent of cyber-physical infrastructures ensuring safety are almost entirely abilities, mitigate those vulnerabilities, demonstrate the seriousness of the threat. implemented in software. In a typical and then aggregate the results to secure In 2008, an alleged cyberattack blew up industrial facility, dozens of programmable the overall system. But that approach an oil pipeline in Turkey, shutting it down computing systems distributed through- relies on two key simplifying assumptions, for three weeks; in 2009, the malicious out the plant provide local control of says Shaharyar Khan, a fellow of the Stuxnet computer worm destroyed processes—for example, maintaining the MIT System Design and Management hundreds of Iranian centrifuges, disrupt- water level in a boiler at a certain setpoint. program. It assumes that events always ing that country’s nuclear fuel enrichment Those devices all interact with a higher- run in a single, linear direction, so one program; and in 2015, an attack brought level “supervisory” system that enables event causes another event, which down a section of the Ukrainian power operators to control the local systems and causes another event, and so on, without grid—for just six hours, but substations overall plant operation, either on site or feedback loops or interactions to compli- on the grid had to be operated manually remotely. In most facilities, such program- cate the sequence. And it assumes that for months. mable computing systems do not require understanding the behavior of each any authentication for settings to be component in isolation is sufficient to According to Madnick, for adversaries to altered. Given this setup, a cyberattacker predict the behavior of the overall system. mount a successful attack, they must have who gains access to the software in either the capability, the opportunity, and the the local or the supervisory system can Those assumptions don’t hold for complex motivation to do so. In the incidents just cause damage or disrupt service. systems—and modern control systems in cited, all three factors aligned, and energy facilities are extremely complex, attackers effectively crippled major The traditional approach used to protect software-intensive, and made up of highly physical systems. critical control systems is to “air gap” coupled components that interact in them, that is, separate them from the many ways. As a result, says Khan, “the “The good news is that, at least in the public internet so that intruders can’t overall system exhibits behaviors that United States, we haven’t really exper reach them. But in today’s world of high the individual components do not”— ienced that yet,” says Madnick. But he connectivity, an air gap no longer guaran- a property known in systems theory as believes that “it’s only motivation that’s tees security. For example, companies emergence. “We consider safety and lacking.” Given sufficient motivation, commonly hire independent contractors security to be emergent properties of attackers anywhere in the world could, for or vendors to maintain and monitor systems,” says Khan. The challenge is example, bring down some or all of the specialized equipment in their facilities. therefore to control the emergent nation’s interconnected power grid or To perform those tasks, the contractor or behavior of the system by defining new stop the flow of natural gas through the vendor needs access to real-time opera- constraints, a task that requires under- country’s 2.4 million miles of pipeline. tional data—information that’s generally standing how all the interacting factors at And while emergency facilities and fuel transmitted over the internet. In addition, work—from people to equipment to supplies may keep things running for legitimate business functions such as external regulations and more—ultimately a few days, it’s likely to take far longer transferring files and updating software impact system safety. than that to repair systems that attackers often require the use of USB flash drives, have damaged or blown up. which can inadvertently jeopardize the To develop an analytical tool up to integrity of the air gap, leaving a plant that challenge, Madnick, Khan, and “Those are massive impacts that would vulnerable to cyberattack. James L. Kirtley Jr., a professor of affect our day-to-day lives,” says Madnick.

4 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

STPA-Sec Methodology

who or what controls that controller? And then, who or what controls that Step 1 controller? Answering that question Deﬁne purpose recursively and mapping the feedback of analysis loops among the various controllers yields a hierarchical control structure Step 2 responsible for maintaining the state Model functional of the stairs in an acceptable condition. control structure Step 3 The diagram on page 6 shows a Identify unsafe hierarchical control structure for the control actions primary functions delivered by a small-scale industrial plant, illustrating the complexity of the factors and feedbacks involved. Step 4 Identify Given the full control structure, the next loss scenarios step is to ask: What control actions might be taken by a controller that would be Malicious actions unsafe given the state of the system? For example, if an attacker corrupts feedback Overview of cybersafety analysis from a key sensor, a controller will not This figure summarizes the steps an analyst operators, automated systems, management, takes in performing a cybersafety analysis. and even government and regulatory entities.) know the actual state of the system and Step 1: Define the purpose of the analysis by Step 3: Identify control actions that could therefore may take an incorrect action or identifying unacceptable losses for the system be unsafe and lead to system disruption may take the correct actions at the wrong as well as high-level system conditions that or damage. time or in the wrong order—any of which could be exploited to result in those worst Step 4: Hypothesize how the controllers possible outcomes. could interact to issue unsafe commands, would lead to damage. Step 2: Develop a model of the hierarchy of given the malicious actions of an attacker. The controllers and their interactions that together analyst can now identify new requirements Based on the now-deeper understanding enforce safety and security constraints on that would prevent the worst possible of the system, the analyst next hypothe- system operation. (Controllers include human outcomes named in Step 1. sizes a series of loss scenarios stemming from unsafe control actions and examines electrical engineering, turned first to a we ask companies what their ‘crown how the various controllers might interact methodology called System Theoretic jewels’ are, they often have trouble to issue an unsafe command. “At each Accident Model and Process (STAMP), identifying them.” level of the analysis, we try to identify which was developed more than 15 years constraints on the process being con- ago by MIT Professor Nancy Leveson • Given that main purpose, what’s the trolled that, if violated, would result in the of aeronautics and astronautics. With worst thing that could happen to the system moving into an unsafe state,” says that work as a foundation, they created system? Defining the main purpose Khan. For example, one constraint could “cybersafety,” an analytical method and the worst possible losses is key to dictate that the steam pressure inside a specifically tailored to analyze the understanding the goal of the analysis boiler must not exceed a certain upper cybersecurity of complex industrial control and the best allocation of resources bound—a limit needed to prevent the systems (see the diagram above). for mitigation. boiler from bursting due to over-pressure.

To apply the cybersafety procedure to a • What are key hazards that could lead “By continually refining those constraints facility, an analyst begins by answering to that loss? As a simple example, as we progress through the analysis, we are the following questions to define the task having wet stairs in a facility is a able to define new requirements that will at hand. hazard; having someone fall down the ensure the safety and security of the overall stairs and break an ankle is a loss. system,” he says. “Then we can identify • What is the main purpose of the practical steps for enforcing adherence to system being analyzed, that is, what do • Who or what controls that hazard? In those constraints through system design, you need to protect? Answering that the above example, the first step is to processes and procedures, or social controls question may sound straightforward, determine who or what controls the such as company culture, regulatory but Madnick notes, “Surprisingly, when state of the stairs. The next step is to ask, requirements, or insurance incentives.”

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 5 HIGH-LEVEL HIERARCHICAL CONTROL DIAGRAM GAS TURBINE FUNCTIONAL Government, The cybersafety analysis uncovered the CONTROL STRUCTURE Regulatory Agencies

, source of that vulnerability: An updated

version of the control system had elimi- Penalties Incident Reports , Reports Regulation , Change Accident/ Certiﬁcation

Registration, nated a backup mechanical bolt assembly LEGEND that ensured turbine “overspeed” protec- Corporate Leadership Control Human Operator ,

Feedback tion. Instead, overspeed protection was implemented entirely in software. Reports Resources Operation Standards, Safety Policy

Plant Operations Management That change made sense from a business

Run Permissive, perspective. A mechanical device requires Plant Information -Power Purchased from Grid Speed/Load Set-point Status, Alarms, Faults Operating Conditions, -Power Demand regular maintenance and testing, and -Line Frequency &Voltage Reports Policies, Supervisory Control Standards , Operating Procedures/ Resources External

Instructions those tests can subjectContractors the turbine to such Computer

, ts

Local Control

Plant Engineer extreme stresses that it sometimes fails. Policies, Reports Resources Standards, Feedback/Alarm However, given the importance of Protective System Escalation Alarms, Faults, Operating Status Change cybersecurity, the researchers say it might Documentation, Verification and Requirements Speciﬁcations, Validation Repo r

Isochronous) Other feedback: operating trends be wise to bring back the mechanical Run Permissive, -Lube Oil Temp./Pressure Firmware updates Speed/Load Set-point recorded by PI Server Alarm and fault history Speed Mode (Droop vs. -Gen. Breaker Position Status, Alarms, Faults Human Operator bolt as a standalone safety device—or at Operating Conditions, -Fuel Supply Pressure -Flame detection Contractors -Over-speed least to consider standalone electronic -Bearing Temperature

Engineering -Over-temperature Conﬁguration alve

-Nozzle Angle

overspeed protection schemes as a final -Loss of ﬂame

Feedback Data Gas Turbine Control System -Vibration monitor line of defense. Modulate Valve -Combustion Monitor , Position Turbine Speed -Surge Protection

Setpoints -Generator Fault Permissive Status Info,

Close Fuel V Acceleration Alarms, Faults

Maintenance Exhaust Temperature

Upgrade Conﬁg, Another case study focused on systems

Faults Compressor Diff. Pressure Firmware Updates,

Plant Monitoring Inlet Guide Vane Position Manual Control

Operating Status used to deliver chilled water and air Supervisory Control Computer

(Plant Information System) Gas Turbine Speed/Load conditioning to the buildings being Control Loop served. OnceFuel again, Control the Valve cybersafety Sensors Control Operating Conditions Supervisory analysis revealed multiple loss scenarios; The Utilities Plant and in this case, most had one cause in common: the use of variable frequency Electrical Turbine Heating Cooling Gas Turbine Distribution drives (VFDs) to adjustControl the fuelspeed amount of in Physical Status Control System System System motors that drive water combustionpumps chamberand compressors—a practice that significantly increases the flexibility of operation and High-level hierarchical control diagram This illustration is a high-level diagram of the interplay energy efficiency. among various actors in controlling a gas turbine in a typical power plant. Blue lines show information that each actor, or controller, receives in feedback. Red lines indicate actions that the controller can take in response to the received information. Like all motors, the motor driving this chiller’s compressor has certain critical speeds at which mechanical resonance Case studies catastrophic equipment failure, and occurs, causing excessive vibration. VFDs To demonstrate the capabilities of ultimately the inability to generate power. are typically programmed to skip over cybersafety analysis, Khan selected a those critical speeds during motor startup. 20-megawatt gas turbine power plant—a For example, in one scenario, the attacker But some VFDs are programmable over small facility that has all the elements of disables the turbine’s digital protection the network, which means that an a full-scale power plant on the grid. system and alters the logic in the software attacker can query a VFD for the critical In one analysis, he examined the control that controls the fuel-control valve to speed of the attached motor and then system for the gas turbine, focusing keep the valve open when it should command it to drive the motor at that in particular on how the software be closed, stopping fuel from flowing dangerous speed, permanently damaging controlling the fuel-control valve could into the turbine. If the turbine is then the motor and the equipment connected be altered to cause system-level losses. suddenly disconnected from the grid, to it. it will begin to spin faster than its design Performing the cybersafety analysis limit and will break apart, damaging “This is a simple kind of an attack; it revealed that attacks targeting software nearby equipment and harming workers doesn’t require a lot of sophistication,” says could produce several turbine-related loss in the area. Khan. “But it could be launched and could scenarios, including fires or explosions, cause catastrophic damage.” He cites

6 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures earlier work performed by Matthew procedures, which might incur extra costs. Angle ’07, MEng ’11, PhD ’16, in collabo- Given what’s at stake, the researchers ration with Madnick and Kirtley. As part argue that management must not only of a 2017 study of cyberattacks on approve such investments but also instill a industrial control systems, Angle built a sense of urgency in their organizations lab-scale motor test kit equipped with to identify vulnerabilities and eliminate or a complete VFD with computer code mitigate them. familiar to the researchers. By simply altering a few key lines of computer code, Based on their studies, the researchers they caused capacitors in the VFD to conclude that it’s impossible to guarantee explode, sending smoke billowing out that an industrial control system will into the courtyard behind their MIT lab never have its network defenses breached. (photo at right). In an industrial setting “Therefore, the system must be designed with full-sized VFDs, a similar cyber In 2017, MIT researchers demonstrated a so that it’s resilient against the effects of attack could cause significant structural cyber vulnerability in a variable frequency an attack,” says Khan. “Cybersafety damage and potentially harm personnel. drive (VFD) used to control the speed of analysis is a powerful method because it a motor. For the demonstration, they used a lab-scale motor-development kit that had all generates a whole set of requirements— Given such possibilities, the research the components found in a typical VFD. not just technical but also organizational, team recommends that companies By altering a few lines in the VFD-control logistical, and procedural—that can carefully consider the “functionality” of software, they caused a small-scale explosion improve the resilience of any complex the equipment in their systems. Many that sent smoke billowing out into a nearby energy system against a cyberattack.” MIT courtyard, as shown above. Addressing times, plant personnel are not even aware the identified vulnerability is critical, as VFDs of the capabilities that their equipment are ubiquitous in energy systems ranging from notes offers. For example, they may not realize gas pipelines and oil wells to refineries and power plants. Photo: Matthew Angle, MIT that a VFD driving a motor in their This research was supported by the US Depart- plant can be made to operate in reverse ment of Energy, the MIT Energy Initiative direction by a small change in the involved operators plugging USB drives Seed Fund Program, and members of the Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan consortium. computer code controlling it—a clear and personal laptops directly into the More information and the latest publications cyber vulnerability. Removing that plant network, thereby breaching the air can be found at cams.mit.edu. See also the vulnerability would require using a VFD gap and even introducing malware into following papers: with less functionality. “Good engineering the plant control system. In one case, an M.G. Angle, S. Madnick, and J.L. Kirtley Jr. to remove such vulnerabilities can overnight worker downloaded movies Identifying and Anticipating Cyber Attacks sometimes be mistakenly characterized onto a plant computer using a USB stick. that could cause Physical Damage to Industrial as a move backwards, but it may be Control Systems. Working Paper CISL#2017-14, necessary to improve a plant’s security But more often such infractions were part August 2017, revised May 1, 2019. Online: bit.ly/madnick-cyber-attacks. posture,” says Khan. A full cybersafety of desperate attempts to get a currently analysis of a system will not only shut-down plant back up and running. S. Khan, S. Madnick, and A. Moulton. highlight such issues but also guide the “In the grand scheme of priorities, I Cybersafety Analysis of Industrial Control System strategic placement of analog sensors and understand that focusing on getting the for Gas Turbines. Working Paper CISL#2018-12, other redundant feedback loops that will plant running again is part of the culture,” October 2018, revised April 28, 2019. Online: bit.ly/madnick-turbine-analysis. increase the resiliency of system operation. says Madnick. “Unfortunately, the things people do in order to keep their plant A. Nourian and S. Madnick. “A systems Addressing the challenge running sometimes put the plant at an theoretic approach to the security threats even greater risk.” in cyber physical systems applied to Stuxnet.” IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Throughout their cybersecurity research, Computing, vol. 15, issue 1, 2018. Online: Khan, Madnick, and their colleagues Fostering a new culture and mindset doi.org/10.1109/TDSC.2015.2509994. have found that vulnerabilities can often about cybersecurity requires a serious be traced to human behavior as well commitment from every level of the as management decisions. In one case, management chain, the researchers say. a company had included the default Mitigation strategies are likely to require passcode for its equipment in the some combination of reengineering the operator’s manual, which was publicly control system, buying new equipment, available on the internet. Other cases and making changes in processes and

research reports

Removing CO2 from power plant exhaust Combining capture and disposal

Nancy W. Stauffer, MITEI

in brief Reducing CO emissions 2 from power plants is widely considered an essential Some power plants use materials called sorbents to remove carbon dioxide (CO ) 2 component of any climate change mitiga- from their exhaust so it can be sequestered from the environment. But separating tion plan. Many research efforts focus the CO2 from the sorbent requires high temperatures and produces CO2 gas that on developing and deploying carbon must be put into long-term storage—a prospect that raises safety and security capture and sequestration (CCS) systems concerns. In a proof-of-concept study, MIT researchers have demonstrated to keep CO2 emissions from power plants out of the atmosphere. But separating a battery-like system that uses the same CO2-capturing sorbent in a specially the captured CO2 and converting it back designed electrolyte that drives electrochemical reactions with three benefits: into a gas that can be stored can consume

They separate the CO2 from the sorbent; they promote the discharge of electricity up to 25% of a plant’s power-generating capacity. In addition, the CO2 gas is from the battery; and they incorporate the CO2 into a solid that can serve as electrode material or be safely discarded. Their system—made of lithium and generally injected into underground geological formations for long-term carbon electrodes plus the special electrolyte—achieves discharge voltages similar storage—a disposal method whose safety to those of other lithium-gas batteries under development. The researchers are and reliability remain unproven. now working to understand and optimize their lithium-based system and to see whether less-expensive, earth-abundant metals might work as well. A better approach would be to convert the captured CO2 into useful products Facing page Graduate student Aliza Khurram prepares for experiments Above Assistant Professor Betar Gallant (left) and graduate student by pumping carbon dioxide through an electrochemical cell consisting Aliza Khurram are developing a novel battery that could both capture of lithium and carbon electrodes plus a specially designed electrolyte. carbon dioxide in power plant exhaust and convert it to a solid ready Photos: Stuart Darsch for safe disposal.

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 9 such as value-added fuels or chemicals. To that end, attention has focused on Lithium carbonate (deposited solid) electrochemical processes—in this case, a process in which chemical reactions Regenerated release electrical energy, as in the dis- amine charge of a battery. The ideal medium in which to conduct electrochemical conversion of CO2 would appear to be water. Water can provide the protons (positively charged particles) needed to make fuels such as methane. But running Electrolyte such “aqueous” (water-based) systems requires large energy inputs, and only a Electrolyte small fraction of the products formed are typically those of interest.

Betar Gallant, an assistant professor Amine-CO2 adduct Amine of mechanical engineering, and her Lithium group have therefore been focusing on Carbon anode non-aqueous (water-free) electrochemical cathode reactions—in particular, those that occur inside lithium-CO2 batteries. Process during discharge of the novel passes through the electrolyte, the amine

lithium-CO2 battery The researchers’ chemically bonds with CO2 molecules to form Research into lithium-CO2 batteries is in proposed battery consists of a lithium anode an adduct. Chemical reactions on the carbon its very early stages, according to Gallant, plus a carbon cathode that is surrounded cathode between the adduct, electrons, and by a special electrolyte that incorporates lithium ions split the adduct apart, releasing but interest in them is growing because + lithium ions (Li ) and amine. When the battery the CO2 in a new, highly reactive form and CO2 is used up in the chemical reactions is discharged, positively charged lithium the amine in its unreacted state, ready to that occur on one of the electrodes as the ions move from the lithium anode through collect more CO2. The CO2 then reacts with battery is being discharged. However, the electrolyte to the carbon cathode, while the electrons and lithium ions to form solid - CO2 isn’t very reactive. Researchers have negatively charged electrons (e ) travel spheres of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) on tried to speed things up by using different through an external circuit, powering a device the surface of the carbon cathode. along the way. When power plant exhaust electrolytes and electrode materials. Despite such efforts, the need to use

expensive metal catalysts to elicit electro- CO2—now in liquid form—is then was to put a battery-like device into the chemical activity has persisted. separated from the amine and converted power plant waste stream to sequester back to a gas for disposal. the captured CO2 in a stable solid, while Given the lack of progress, Gallant harvesting the energy released in the wanted to try something different. In CCS, those last steps require high process,” says Gallant. “We were interested in trying to bring a temperatures, which are attained using new chemistry to bear on the problem,” some of the electrical output of the power Research on CCS technology has she says. And enlisting the help of plant. Gallant wondered whether her generated a good understanding of the the sorbent molecules that so effectively team could instead use electrochemical carbon-capture process that takes place capture CO2 in CCS seemed like a reactions to separate the CO2 from the inside a CCS system. When CO2 is promising way to go. amine—and then continue the reaction added to an amine solution, molecules of to make a solid, CO2-containing product. the two species spontaneously combine Rethinking amine If so, the disposal process would be to form an “adduct,” a new chemical simpler than it is for gaseous CO2. The species in which the original molecules The sorbent molecule used in CCS CO2 would be more densely packed, so remain largely intact. In this case, the is an amine, a derivative of ammonia. it would take up less space; and it couldn’t adduct forms when a carbon atom in a In CCS, exhaust is bubbled through escape, so it would be safer. Better still, CO2 molecule chemically bonds with an amine-containing solution, and the additional electrical energy could be a nitrogen atom in an amine molecule. amine chemically binds the CO2, extracted from the device as it discharges As they combine, the CO2 molecule is removing it from the exhaust gases. The and forms the solid material. “The vision reconfigured: It changes from its original,

10 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

A process of discovery enabling the reaction to proceed,” says Gallant. “There’s something about In 2016, Gallant and doctoral student the positively charged lithium ion that Li2CO3 Aliza Khurram of mechanical engineering chemically coordinates with the began to explore that idea. amine-CO2 adduct, and together those species make the electrochemically Pristine Their first challenge was to develop a reactive species.” novel electrolyte. A lithium-CO2 battery consists of two electrodes—an anode Exploring battery behavior made of lithium and a cathode made during discharge SEM image of carbon cathode after of carbon—and an electrolyte, a solution discharge This scanning electron microscope that helps carry charged particles To examine the discharge behavior of (SEM) image shows the cathode from the back and forth between the electrodes their system, the researchers set up an researchers’ lithium-CO system after 2 as the battery is charged and discharged. electrochemical cell consisting of a discharge. Analysis of the spherical structures lithium anode, a carbon cathode, and that coat the surface confirms that they are For their system, they needed an their special electrolyte—for simplicity, composed of Li2CO3. The inset shows an SEM electrolyte made of amine plus captured image of the carbon cathode before discharge. CO2 dissolved in a solvent—and it already loaded with CO2. They then The absence of the spheres confirms that they needed to promote chemical reactions tracked discharge behavior at the were formed by reactions during discharge. on the carbon cathode as the battery carbon cathode. discharged. highly stable, linear form to a “bent” As they had hoped, their special electro- shape with a negative charge—a highly They started by testing possible solvents. lyte actually promoted discharge reaction reactive form that’s ready for further They mixed their CO2-absorbing amine in the test cell. “With the amine incorpo- reaction. with a series of solvents frequently used rated into the DMSO-based electrolyte in batteries and then bubbled CO2 along with the lithium salt and the CO2, In her scheme, Gallant proposed using through the resulting solution to see if we see very high capacities and significant electrochemistry to break apart the CO2 could be dissolved at high concen- discharge voltages—almost 3 volts,” says CO2-amine adduct—right at the trations in this unconventional chemical Gallant. Based on those results, they carbon-nitrogen bond. Cleaving the environment. None of the amine-solvent concluded that their system functions as a adduct at that bond would separate the solutions exhibited observable changes lithium-CO2 battery with capacities and two pieces: the amine in its original, when the CO2 was introduced, suggesting discharge voltages competitive with those unreacted state, ready to capture more that they might all be viable solvent of state-of-the-art lithium-gas batteries. CO2, and the bent, chemically reactive candidates. form of CO2, which might then react The next step was to confirm that the with the electrons and positively charged However, for any electrochemical device reactions were indeed separating lithium ions that flow during battery to work, the electrolyte must be spiked the amine from the CO2 and further discharge (see the diagram on page 10). with a salt to provide positively charged continuing the reaction to make The outcome of that reaction could ions. Because it’s a lithium battery, CO2-derived products. To find out, the be the formation of lithium carbonate the researchers started by adding a researchers used a variety of tools to (Li2CO3), which would deposit on the lithium-based salt—and the experimental examine the products that formed on carbon electrode. results changed dramatically. With most the carbon cathode. of the solvent candidates, adding the At the same time, the reactions on the salt instantly caused the mixture either In one test, they produced images of carbon electrode should promote the flow to form solid precipitates or to become the post-reaction cathode surface using a of electrons during battery discharge— highly viscous—outcomes that ruled scanning electron microscope (SEM). even without a metal catalyst. “The them out as viable solvents. The sole Immediately evident were spherical discharge of the battery would occur exception was the solvent dimethyl formations with a characteristic size of spontaneously,” Gallant says. “And we’d sulfoxide, or DMSO. Even when the 500 nanometers, regularly distributed on break the adduct in a way that allows us lithium salt was present, the DMSO the surface of the cathode (see the image to renew our CO2 absorber while taking could dissolve the amine and CO2. on this page). According to Gallant, CO2 to a stable, solid form.” the observed spherical structure of the “We found that—fortuitously—the discharge product was similar to the lithium-based salt was important in shape of Li2CO3 observed in other

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 11 lithium-based batteries. Those spheres Gallant and her team are now working were not evident in SEM images of the on both configurations of their system. “pristine” carbon cathode taken before “We don’t know which is better for the reactions occurred (see the inset on applications yet,” she says. While she the page 11 image). believes that practical lithium-CO2 batteries are still years away, she’s excited Other analyses confirmed that the solid by the early results, which suggest deposited on the cathode was Li2CO3. that developing novel electrolytes to It included only CO2-derived materials; pre-activate CO2 could lead to alternative no amine molecules or products derived CO2 reaction pathways. And she and her from them were present. Taken together, group are already working on some. those data provide strong evidence that the electrochemical reduction of the One goal is to replace the lithium with CO2-loaded amine occurs through the a metal that’s less costly and more selective cleavage of the carbon-nitrogen The researchers use this setup to test the earth-abundant, such as sodium or bond. storage capacity and discharge voltage of calcium. With seed funding from the their batteries. Photo: Stuart Darsch MIT Energy Initiative, the team has “The amine can be thought of as effec- already begun looking at a system based tively switching on the reactivity of the investigating—a rechargeable battery on calcium, a material that’s not yet CO2,” says Gallant. “That’s exciting design—the cathode is uncovered during well-developed for battery applications. because the amine commonly used in each discharge-charge cycle. Reactions If the calcium-CO2 setup works as they CO2 capture can then perform two during discharge deposit the solid Li2CO3, predict, the solid that forms would be critical functions. It can serve as the and reactions during charging lift it off, calcium carbonate—a type of rock now absorber, spontaneously retrieving CO2 putting the lithium ions and CO2 back widely used in the construction industry. from combustion gases and incorporating into the electrolyte, ready to react and it into the electrolyte solution. And it generate more electricity. However, the In the meantime, Gallant and her can activate the CO2 for further reactions captured CO2 is then back in its original colleagues are pleased that they have that wouldn’t be possible if the amine gaseous form in the electrolyte. Sealing found what appears to be a new class of were not there.” the battery would lock that CO2 inside, reactions for capturing and sequestering away from the atmosphere—but only so CO2. “CO2 conversion has been widely Future directions much CO2 can be stored in a given studied over many decades,” she says, battery, so the overall impact of using “so we’re excited to think we may have Gallant stresses that the work to date batteries to capture CO2 emissions would found something that’s different and represents just a proof-of-concept study. be limited in this scenario. provides us with a new window for “There’s a lot of fundamental science still exploring this topic.” to understand,” she says, before the The second configuration the researchers researchers can optimize their system. are investigating—a discharge-only setup—addresses that problem by never notes She and her team are continuing to allowing the gaseous CO2 to re-form. investigate the chemical reactions that “We’re mechanical engineers, so what This research was supported by startup funding take place in the electrolyte as well as the we’re really keen on doing is developing from the MIT Department of Mechanical chemical makeup of the adduct that an industrial process where you can Engineering. Mingfu He, a postdoc in mechanical engineering, also contributed to the research. forms—the “reactant state” on which somehow mechanically or chemically Work on a calcium-based battery is being the subsequent electrochemistry is harvest the solid as it forms,” Gallant says. supported by the MIT Energy Initiative Seed Fund performed. They are also examining the “Imagine if by mechanical vibration you Program. Further information can be found in: detailed role of the salt composition. could gently remove the solid from the A. Khurram, M. He, and B.M. Gallant. “Tailoring cathode, keeping it clear for sustained the discharge reaction in Li-CO2 batteries

In addition, there are practical concerns reaction.” Placed within an exhaust through incorporation of CO2 capture chemistry.” to consider as they think about device stream, such a system could continuously Joule, vol. 2, pp. 1–18, December 19, 2018. Online: doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2018.09.002. design. One persistent problem is that the remove CO2 emissions, generating solid deposit quickly clogs up the carbon electricity and perhaps producing valuable cathode, so further chemical reactions solid materials at the same time. can’t occur. In one configuration they’re

12 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

research reports

Finding novel materials for practical devices New machine learning technique can help

Nancy W. Stauffer, MITEI

in brief In recent years, machine learning has been proving a valuable tool for MIT researchers have demonstrated a way to rapidly evaluate new transition identifying new materials with properties metal compounds to identify those that can perform specialized functions, optimized for specific applications. for example, as sensors or switches or catalysts for fuel conversion. Using data on Working with large, well-defined data known materials, they first trained an artificial neural network to identify good sets, computers learn to perform an candidates—an approach that’s been used with success in organic chemistry but analytical task to generate a correct answer and then use the same technique not previously in transition metal chemistry. They then coupled their trained on an unknown data set. network with a genetic algorithm that could score each compound, discarding those that are too different from the training data for the neural network to be While that approach has guided the accurate and too similar to be viewed as new options. Using this procedure, development of valuable new materials, they examined a database of 5,600 possible compounds and identified three they’ve primarily been organic compounds, notes Heather Kulik PhD ’09, an dozen promising candidates, some of which were totally unfamiliar to materials assistant professor of chemical engineer- scientists. Performing the analysis took just minutes on a desktop computer rather ing. Kulik focuses instead on inorganic than the years that would have been required using conventional techniques. compounds, in particular, those based on

Above Assistant Professor Heather Kulik (center) and graduate student for potential use in practical devices. Using the same technique, Jon Paul Janet (right) are using neural networks coupled with genetic graduate student Aditya Nandy (left) is designing better catalysts for algorithms to examine huge databases of transition metal compounds methane conversion reactions. Photo: Stuart Darsch

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 13 transition metals, a family of elements Translating molecules (including iron and copper) that have into numbers unique and useful properties. In those The standard way to analyze the electronic compounds—known as transition structure of molecules is using a compu- metal complexes—the metal atom tational modeling method called density occurs at the center with chemically functional theory, or DFT. The results bound arms, or ligands, made of carbon, of a DFT calculation are fairly accurate— hydrogen, nitrogen, or oxygen atoms especially for organic systems—but radiating outward (see the drawing performing a calculation for a single on this page). compound can take hours or even days. In contrast, a machine learning tool called Transition metal complexes already play an artificial neural network (ANN) can important roles in areas ranging from be trained to perform the same analysis energy storage to catalysis for manufac- and then do it in just seconds. As a result, turing fine chemicals—for example, for ANNs are much more practical for pharmaceuticals. But Kulik thinks that looking for possible SCOs in the huge machine learning could further expand space of feasible complexes. their use. Indeed, her group has been working not only to apply machine Because an ANN requires a numerical learning to inorganics—a novel and input to operate, the researchers’ first challenging undertaking—but also to use challenge was to find a way to represent a the technique to explore new territory. given transition metal complex as a series “We were interested in understanding how of numbers, each describing a selected far we could push our models to do property. There are rules for defining discovery—to make predictions on Sample transition metal complex representations for organic molecules, compounds that haven’t been seen A transition metal complex consists of a where the physical structure of a molecule before,” says Kulik. central transition metal atom (shown above tells a lot about its properties and behavior. in orange) surrounded by an array of But when the researchers followed those Sensors and computers chemically bound organic molecules in structures known as ligands. rules for transition metal complexes, it didn’t work. “The metal-organic bond is For the past four years, Kulik and Jon very tricky to get right,” says Kulik. “There Paul Janet, a graduate student in chemical near zero, the complex is a good are unique properties of the bonding that engineering, have been focusing on candidate for use as a sensor or perhaps are more variable. There are many more transition metal complexes with “spin”—a as a fundamental component in a ways the electrons can choose to form a quantum mechanical property of elec- quantum computer. bond.” So the researchers needed to make trons. Usually, electrons occur in pairs, up new rules for defining a representation one with spin up and the other with spin Chemists know of many metal-ligand that would be predictive in inorganic down, so they cancel each other out, and combinations with spin-splitting chemistry. there’s no net spin. But in a transition energies near zero, making them potential metal, electrons can be unpaired, and the “spin-crossover” (SCO) complexes Using machine learning, they explored resulting net spin is the property that for such practical applications. But the various ways of representing a transition makes inorganic complexes of interest, full set of possibilities is vast. The metal complex for analyzing spin-splitting says Kulik. “Tailoring how unpaired the spin-splitting energy of a transition metal energy. The results were best when the electrons are gives us a unique knob for complex is determined by what ligands representation gave the most emphasis tailoring properties.” are combined with a given metal, and to the properties of the metal center and there are almost endless ligands from the metal-ligand connection and less A given complex has a preferred spin state. which to choose. The challenge is to emphasis to the properties of ligands But add some energy—say, from light or find novel combinations with the desired farther out. Interestingly, their studies heat—and it can flip to the other state. property to become SCOs—without showed that representations that gave In the process, it can exhibit changes in resorting to millions of trial-and-error more equal emphasis overall worked best macroscale properties such as size or color. tests in a lab. when the goal was to predict other When the energy needed to cause the properties, such as the ligand-metal bond flip—called the spin-splitting energy—is length or the tendency to accept electrons.

14 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

Testing the ANN Results of ANN analysis of 5,600 transition metal complexes An analysis by the As a test of their approach, Kulik and trained ANN of the full data set to Janet—assisted by Lydia Chan, a summer identify potential spin-crossover intern from Troy High School in Fuller- complexes generated this plot ton, California—defined a set of in which complexes are colored transition metal complexes based on four based on their spin-splitting energy in kilocalories per mole transition metals—chromium, manganese, (kcal/mol). In promising candidates, iron, and cobalt—in two oxidation states that energy is within 5 kcal/mol with 16 ligands (each molecule can have of zero. As the key shows, white up to two). By combining those building areas are within that limit, while red and blue areas exceed it. blocks, they created a “search space” of The bright green diamonds in the 5,600 complexes—some of them familiar inset are related complexes. Their and well-studied, and some of them appearance in the same region totally unknown. of the plot supports the accuracy of the proposed numerical representation of transition metal In previous work, the researchers had complexes for this analysis. trained an ANN on thousands of compounds that were well-known in Eliminating unreliable results transition metal chemistry. To test the Results from an ANN analysis may not be reliable for molecules that trained ANN’s ability to explore a new are too different from those on chemical space to find compounds which the ANN was trained. The with the targeted properties, they black clouds shown here cover tried applying it to the pool of 5,600 transition metal complexes in the data set whose numeric represen- complexes, 113 of which it had seen tations are too distant from those in the previous study. of the training complexes to be considered reliable. The result was the top plot on this page, which sorts the complexes onto a surface as determined by the ANN. The white regions indicate complexes with spin-splitting energies within 5 kilo calories per mole of zero, meaning that they are potentially good SCO candidates (see the key). The red and blue regions represent complexes with spin-splitting energies too large to be useful. The green or chemistry, notes Kulik. Using an researchers therefore needed a method diamonds that appear in the inset show approach that looked successful in their of evaluating a big data set to identify complexes that have iron centers and previous work, the researchers compared any unacceptable candidates even similar ligands—in other words, related the numeric representations for the before the ANN analysis. To that end, compounds whose spin-crossover training and test complexes and ruled out they developed a genetic algorithm—an energies should be similar. Their appear- all the test complexes where the differ- approach inspired by natural selection— ance in the same region of the plot is ence was too great. Those complexes are to score individual complexes and discard evidence of the good correspondence covered by the black clouds in the bottom those deemed to be unfit. between the researchers’ representation figure on this page. and key properties of the complex. To prescreen a data set, the genetic Focusing on the best options algorithm first randomly selects 20 But there’s one catch: Not all of the samples from the full set of complexes. spin-splitting predictions are accurate. If Performing the ANN analysis of all 5,600 It then assigns a “fitness” score to each a complex is very different from those on complexes took just an hour. But in the sample based on three measures. First, is which the network was trained, the ANN real world, the number of complexes to its spin-crossover energy low enough analysis may not be reliable—a standard be explored could be thousands of times for it to be a good SCO? To find out, the problem when applying machine learning larger—and any promising candidates neural network evaluates each of the models to discovery in materials science would require a full DFT calculation. The 20 complexes. Second, is the complex too

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 15 far away from the training data? If so, matter how many we evaluated with the that takes place in a whole series of steps,” the spin-crossover energy from the ANN neural network because it’s so cheap. says Nandy. “Machine learning will be may be inaccurate. And finally, is the It’s the DFT calculations that take time.” super-useful in figuring out the important complex too close to the training data? design parameters for a transition metal If so, the researchers have already run a Best of all, using their approach enabled complex that will make each step in that DFT calculation on a similar molecule, the researchers to find some unconven- process energetically favorable.” so the candidate is not of interest in the tional SCO candidates that wouldn’t have quest for new options. been thought of based on what’s been studied in the past. “There are rules that notes Based on its three-part evaluation of the people have—heuristics in their heads— first 20 candidates, the genetic algorithm for how they would build a spin-crossover This research was supported by the US Depart- throws out unfit options and saves the complex,” says Kulik. “We showed that ment of the Navy’s Office of Naval Research, the fittest for the next round. To ensure you can find unexpected combinations US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the MIT Energy Initiative Seed the diversity of the saved compounds, of metals and ligands that aren’t normally Fund Program. Jon Paul Janet was supported the algorithm calls for some of them to studied but can be promising as in part by an MIT-Singapore University of mutate a bit. One complex may be spin-crossover candidates.” Technology and Design Graduate Fellowship. assigned a new, randomly selected ligand, Heather Kulik has received a National Science CAREER Award (2019) and an Office of Naval or two promising complexes may swap Sharing the new tools Research Young Investigator Award (2018), ligands. After all, if a complex looks good, among others. Further information can be then something very similar could be To support the worldwide search for new found in: even better—and the goal here is to find materials, the researchers have incorpo- J.P. Janet, L. Chan, and H.J. Kulik. “Accelerating novel candidates. The genetic algorithm rated the genetic algorithm and ANN chemical discovery with machine learning: then adds some new, randomly chosen into “molSimplify,” the group’s online, Simulated evolution of spin-crossover complexes to fill out the second group of open-source software toolkit that anyone complexes with an artificial neural network.” 20 and performs its next analysis. By can download and use to build and The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, repeating this process a total of 21 times, simulate transition metal complexes. vol. 9, pp. 1064–1071, 2018. Online: doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b00170. it produces 21 generations of options. It To help potential users, the site provides thus proceeds through the search space, tutorials that demonstrate how to use J.P. Janet and H.J. Kulik. “Predicting electronic allowing the fittest candidates to survive key features of the open-source software structure properties of transition metal and reproduce, and the unfit to die out. codes. Development of molSimplify complexes with neural networks.” Chemical Science, vol. 8, pp. 5137–5157, 2017. began with funding from the MIT Online: doi.org/10.1039/C7SC01247K. Performing the 21-generation analysis on Energy Initiative in 2014, and all the the full 5,600-complex data set required students in Kulik’s group have contrib- J.P. Janet and H.J. Kulik. “Resolving transition just over 5 minutes on a standard desktop uted to it since then. metal chemical space: Feature selection for machine learning and structure-property computer, and it yielded 372 leads with relationships.” The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, a good combination of high diversity and The researchers continue to improve their vol. 121, pp. 8939–8954, 2017. Online: acceptable confidence. The researchers neural network for investigating potential doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.7b08750. then used DFT to examine 56 complexes SCOs and to post updated versions A. Nandy, C. Duan, J.P. Janet, S. Gugler, and randomly chosen from among those leads, of molSimplify. Meanwhile, others in H.J. Kulik. “Strategies and software for machine and the results confirmed that two-thirds Kulik’s lab are developing tools that can learning accelerated discovery in transition metal of them could be good SCOs. identify promising compounds for chemistry.” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry other applications. For example, one Research, vol. 57, pp. 13973–13986, 2018. Online: doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.8b04015. While a success rate of two-thirds may important area of focus is catalyst design. not sound great, the researchers make Graduate student Aditya Nandy of two points. First, their definition of what chemistry is focusing on finding a better might make a good SCO was very catalyst for converting methane gas restrictive: For a complex to survive, its to an easier-to-handle liquid fuel such as spin-splitting energy had to be extremely methanol—a particularly challenging small. And second, given a space of 5,600 problem. “Now we have an outside complexes and nothing to go on, how molecule coming in, and our complex— many DFT analyses would be required to the catalyst—has to act on that molecule find 37 leads? As Janet notes, “It doesn’t to perform a chemical transformation

16 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

research news Technology and policy pathways to Paris Agreement emissions targets

In early December 2018, amid dire warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C and the National Climate Assessment about the pace of climate change and severity of its impacts, the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change convened in Katowice, Poland, with the goal of getting the Sergey Paltsev (center) speaks on a panel at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland. Joining the conversation were (left to right): Matar Al Neyadi, United Arab world on track to keep global warming Emirates undersecretary of energy; Claude Nahon, senior vice president of sustainable well below 2°C. development at Électricité de France; George Heyman, British Columbia’s climate minister; and Todd Muller, conservative opposition leader in New Zealand’s parliament. Photo: Emily Dahl, MITEI To that end, negotiators from the nearly 200 signatory nations in the 2015 Paris The researchers say they chose to study reports. “They also show pathways to Agreement reported on their progress in those two regions because they represent achieve greater emissions reductions and/ meeting initial greenhouse gas emissions vastly different starting points on the or reduce emissions at lower economic reduction targets, or Nationally Deter- road to emissions reduction and thus cost, both of which can help them mined Contributions (NDCs), for cover a wide range of technology and understand the opportunities and 2025 to 2030, and they discussed path- policy options for meeting or exceeding implications of more ambitious NDCs.” ways to achieving more ambitious NDCs. current NDCs. While all economic sectors in both In support of this global effort, a team of “Whereas Southeast Asia relies heavily on regions need to reduce emissions, the two researchers at the MIT Joint Program on fossil fuels, particularly coal, to produce reports focus on the power generation the Science and Policy of Global Change, energy, Latin America, which has sector as it offers the least-cost opportu- the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), embraced hydropower, is already on a far nity to achieve the greatest emissions and the MIT Center for Energy and less carbon-intensive emissions path,” reductions through available technology Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) says Sergey Paltsev, a deputy director at and policy solutions. developed modeling tools to evaluate the the Joint Program, senior research climate progress and potential of two scientist at MITEI, and lead author of Progress and next steps for major world regions: Southeast Asia and both reports. “These regions have not ASEAN countries Latin America. received as much attention as the largest emitting countries by most gap analysis The ASEAN report shows that, collec- The team analyzed gaps between current studies, which tend to focus on the globe tively, the 10 member countries have emission levels and NDC targets within as a whole.” made good progress in reducing their each region, highlighted key challenges greenhouse gas emissions but will to compliance with those targets, and Paltsev presented key findings from the need to implement additional steps to recommended cost-effective policy and two reports to COP24 participants achieve the targets specified in their technology solutions aimed at overcom- at the International Congress Centre in individual NDCs. ing those challenges in consultation with Katowice on December 10. General Electric and regional partners. Under its Paris Agreement pledges in The results appear in two “Pathways “Our reports help refine the overall picture which no conditions (e.g., climate to Paris” reports released during the of how countries in ASEAN and Latin financing or technology transfers) apply, climate talks—one for the 10-member America are doing in terms of progress the ASEAN region is about 400 MtCO2e Association of Southeast Asian Nations toward NDC achievement, and how they (megatons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (ASEAN), the other for selected get there,” says CEEPR Deputy Director emissions) short of its 2030 emissions countries in Latin America (LAM). Michael Mehling, a co-author of both target, and must therefore reduce

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 17 emissions by 11% relative to its current Under its unconditional pledges, the recommends adding an all-sectors trajectory. Under its conditional pledges, region is only about 60 MtCO2e short of emissions trading system once non-fossil the emissions gap is about 900 MtCO2e, its collective 2030 emissions reduction electricity targets are met. Capping indicating a need to reduce emissions by target, and must cut emissions by 2% emissions at the level consistent with 24% by 2030. relative to its current trajectory to meet each nation’s conditional pledge would that target. Under its conditional pledges, result in carbon prices in Argentina

The main challenge ASEAN countries the emissions gap is about 350 MtCO2e, and Colombia of, respectively, $2.70 and face in achieving those goals is to lower indicating a needed reduction of 10% $2.90 per tCO2e. emissions while expanding power by 2030. generation to meet the growing energy The authors of both reports have shared demand—nearly a doubling of total Just as in the ASEAN region, energy all input data and tools used to produce primary energy consumption from 2015 demand in the LAM countries is pro- the results with the countries in both to 2030—in their rapidly developing jected to grow significantly; the LAM regions and plan to place these resources economies. To overcome this challenge report projects an approximately in the public domain in an open-source and the emissions gaps described above, 25% increase in total primary energy format. This approach makes it possible the ASEAN report recommends a shift consumption from 2015 to 2030. A key for additional countries to analyze to lower-carbon electricity generation challenge for some LAM countries in their pathways to meeting or exceeding and adoption of carbon-pricing policies. addressing that heightened demand is to their energy, electrification, and develop stable regulatory and legal emissions-reduction goals. Lower-carbon energy options include frameworks to further encourage private wind and solar generation along with a investment in clean energy projects. “We need more and more studies at the switch from coal to natural gas. Producing country level,” says Paltsev. “We hope our far less carbon emissions than coal, The LAM report recommends similar analysis will help countries in other natural gas could also serve as a backup technology and policy options for this regions to improve their capability to for intermittent renewables, thereby region to those described above in the assess their progress in meeting NDC boosting their penetration in the market. ASEAN report. For countries with more targets and develop more effective advanced administrative and technical technology and policy strategies to reduce ASEAN countries could implement capacities, the report calls for carbon their emissions.” carbon pricing through carbon taxes or pricing because it offers the greatest emissions trading systems, but such economic efficiency benefits. This research was funded by GE and policies often face substantial political enhanced through collaboration with resistance. To build coalitions of support Country-specific analyses representatives of the ASEAN Centre for for ambitious climate policies and to Energy and selected Latin American create the domestic supply chains and The two reports also show how the MIT countries. know-how needed for robust markets in team’s tools and analysis can be applied clean technology, the report calls for at the country level. Mark Dwortzan, MIT Joint Program on the an initial focus on technology-specific Science and Policy of Global Change policies such as renewable energy The ASEAN report concludes that auctions and renewable portfolio Indonesia and Vietnam may achieve their For more information, please see the standards. respective emissions-reduction goals at a following reports: manageable cost. If carbon pricing is applied on an economy-wide basis, the S. Paltsev, M. Mehling, N. Winchester, Progress and next steps for J. Morris, and K. Ledvina. Pathways Latin American countries GDP cost in Indonesia and Vietnam is to Paris: ASEAN. MIT Joint Program Special 0.03% and 0.008%, respectively, relative Report, 2018. To download, go to Due to government-driven initiatives to GDP in a business-as-usual scenario globalchange.mit.edu/publication/p2p-asean. to boost renewable electricity and natural in 2030. S. Paltsev, M. Mehling, N. Winchester, gas, the countries covered by the J. Morris, and K. Ledvina. Pathways to Paris: LAM report—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, The LAM report shows that Argentina Latin America. MIT Joint Program Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Colombia are on track to fulfill their Special Report, 2018. To download, go to Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela—have also unconditional emissions reduction globalchange.mit.edu/publication/p2p-lam. made good progress toward their Paris pledges with existing plans to expand Agreement goals. non-fossil electricity generation. To meet conditional pledges, the research team

18 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

research news Turning desalination waste into useful products

The rapidly growing desalination industry The approach can be used to produce John H. Lienhard V, and several others. produces water for drinking and for sodium hydroxide, among other products. Lienhard is the Abdul Latif Jameel agriculture in the world’s arid coastal Otherwise known as caustic soda, Professor of Water and Food and the regions. But it leaves behind as a waste sodium hydroxide can be used to pretreat director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Water product a lot of highly concentrated brine, seawater going into the desalination and Food Systems Lab. which is usually disposed of by dumping plant. This changes the acidity of the it back into the sea, a process that requires water, which helps to prevent fouling of “The desalination industry itself uses costly pumping systems and that must be the membranes used to filter out the salty quite a lot of it,” Kumar says of sodium managed carefully to prevent damage to water—a major cause of interruptions hydroxide. “They’re buying it, spending marine ecosystems. Now, engineers at and failures in typical reverse osmosis money on it. So if you can make it MIT say they have found a better way. desalination plants. in situ at the plant, that could be a big advantage.” The amount needed in the In a new study, they show that through a The concept was described on plants themselves is far less than the total fairly simple process, the waste material February 13, 2019, in the journal Nature that could be produced from the brine, can be converted into useful chemicals— Catalysis and in two earlier papers so there is also potential for it to be a including ones that can make the by MIT research scientist Amit Kumar, salable product. desalination process itself more efficient. professor of mechanical engineering Sodium hydroxide is not the only product that can be made from the waste brine: Another important chemical used by desalination plants and many other industrial processes is hydrochloric acid, which can also easily be made on site from waste brine using established chemical processing methods. The chemical can be used for cleaning parts of the desalination plant but is also widely used in chemical production and as a source of hydrogen.

Currently, the world produces more than 100 billion liters (about 27 billion gallons) a day of water from desalination, which leaves a similar volume of concentrated brine. Much of that is pumped back out to sea, and current regulations require costly outfall systems to ensure adequate dilution of the salts. Converting the brine can thus be both economically and ecologically beneficial, especially as desalination continues to grow rapidly around the world. “Environmentally safe discharge of brine is manageable with This illustration depicts the potential of the suggested process. Brine, which could be current technology, but it’s much better obtained from the waste stream of reverse osmosis desalination plants, or from industrial plants or salt mining operations, can be processed by direct electrodialysis (ED) or bipolar to recover resources from the brine and membrane ED to yield useful chemicals such as sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid. reduce the amount of brine released,” Lienhard says.

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 19 The method of converting the brine Queensland in Australia, who was not into useful products uses well-known involved in this work. “This could have and standard chemical processes, some major energy and cost benefits, including initial nanofiltration to remove since the up-concentration and transport undesirable compounds, followed by of these chemicals often adds more cost one or more electrodialysis stages to and even higher energy demand than the produce the desired end product. actual production of these at the concen- While the processes being suggested are trations that are typically used.” not new, the researchers have analyzed the potential for production of useful The research team also included MIT chemicals from brine and proposed postdoc Katherine Phillips and under- a specific combination of products and graduate Janny Cai, and Uwe Schröder at chemical processes that could be turned the University of Braunschweig, in into commercial operations to enhance Germany. The work was supported the economic viability of the desalination by Cadagua, a subsidiary of Ferrovial, process, while diminishing its environ- through the MIT Energy Initiative. mental impact. David L. Chandler, MIT News “This very concentrated brine has to be handled carefully to protect life in the Reprinted with permission of MIT News ocean, and it’s a resource waste, and it (news.mit.edu). Illustration courtesy of the costs energy to pump it back out to sea,” researchers. Further information can so turning it into a useful commodity is a be found in: win-win, Kumar says. And sodium F. Du, D.M. Warsinger, T.I. Urmi, G.P. Thiel, hydroxide is such a ubiquitous chemical A. Kumar, and J.H. Lienhard V. “Sodium that “every lab at MIT has some,” he says, hydroxide production from seawater so finding markets for it should not be desalination brine: Process design and energy efficiency.” Environmental Science & Technology, difficult. vol. 52, no. 10, pp. 5949–5958, 18 April 2018. Online: doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b01195. The researchers have discussed the concept with companies that may be A. Kumar, K.R. Phillips, J. Cai, U. Schröder, and J.H. Lienhard V. “Integrated valorization interested in the next step of building a of desalination brine through NaOH prototype plant to help work out the recovery: Opportunities and challenges.” real-world economics of the process. Angewandte Chemie, February 2019. “One big challenge is cost—both electric- Online: doi.org/10.1002/anie.201810469. ity cost and equipment cost,” at this A. Kumar, K.R. Phillips, G.P. Thiel, stage, Kumar says. U. Schröder, and J.H. Lienhard V. “Direct electrosynthesis of sodium The team also continues to look at hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from the possibility of extracting other, brine streams.” Nature Catalysis, vol. 2, pp. 106–113, 25 February 2019. Online: lower-concentration materials from the doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0218-y. brine stream, he says, including various metals and other chemicals, which G.P. Thiel, A. Kumar, A. Gómez-González, could make the brine processing an even and J.H. Lienhard V. “Utilization of seawater desalination brine for sodium more economically viable undertaking. hydroxide production: Technologies, engineering principles, recovery limits, “One aspect that was mentioned…and and future directions.” ACS Sustainable strongly resonated with me was the Chemistry & Engineering, vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 11147–11162, 7 November 2017. Online: proposal for such technologies to doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b02276. support more ‘localized’ or ‘decentralized’ production of these chemicals at the point-of-use,” says Jurg Keller, a professor of water management at the University of

20 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

research news Observing hydrogen’s effects in metal: Technique could lead to safer reactor vessels, hydrogen storage tanks

Hydrogen, the second-tiniest of all atoms, can penetrate right into the crystal structure of a solid metal.

That’s good news for efforts to store hydrogen fuel safely within the metal itself, but it’s bad news for structures such as the pressure vessels in nuclear plants, where hydrogen uptake eventually makes the vessel’s metal walls more brittle, which can lead to failure. But this embrittlement process is difficult to observe because hydrogen atoms diffuse very fast, even inside the solid metal.

Now, researchers at MIT have figured out a way around that problem, creating a new technique that allows the observation This illustration depicts the main elements of the system the team used. The multicolored slab of a metal surface during hydrogen at center is the metal layer being studied, the pale blue region at left is the electrolyte solution penetration. Their findings are described used as a source of hydrogen, the small blue dots are the hydrogen atoms, and the green beams in a paper in the International Journal of at right are lasers probing the process. The large cylinder at right is a probe used to indent the Hydrogen Energy by MIT postdoc Jinwoo metal to test its mechanical properties. Kim and Thomas B. King Assistant Professor of Metallurgy C. Cem Tasan. “Hydrogen can diffuse at relatively high comprehensive understanding of the rates in the metal, because it’s so small,” mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement, “It’s definitely a cool tool,” says Chris San Tasan says. “If you take a metal and put materials and microstructures can be Marchi, a distinguished member of it in a hydrogen-rich environment, it will designed to improve their performance the technical staff at Sandia National uptake the hydrogen, and this causes under extreme hydrogen environments.” Laboratories, who was not involved in hydrogen embrittlement,” he says. this work. “This new imaging platform That’s because the hydrogen atoms The key to the new monitoring process has the potential to address some inter- tend to segregate in certain parts of the was devising a way of exposing metal esting questions about hydrogen transport metal crystal lattice, weakening its surfaces to a hydrogen environment while and trapping in materials, and potentially chemical bonds. inside the vacuum chamber of a scanning about the role of crystallography and electron microscope (SEM). Because the microstructural constituents on the The new way of observing the embrittle- SEM requires a vacuum for its operation, embrittlement process.” ment process as it happens may help to hydrogen gas cannot be charged into the reveal how the embrittlement gets metal inside the instrument, and if Hydrogen fuel is considered a potentially triggered, and it may suggest ways of precharged, the gas diffuses out quickly. major tool for limiting global climate slowing the process—or of avoiding it by Instead, the researchers used a liquid change because it is a high-energy fuel designing alloys that are less vulnerable electrolyte that could be contained in a that could eventually be used in cars and to embrittlement. well-sealed chamber, where it is exposed planes. However, expensive and heavy to the underside of a thin sheet of metal. high-pressure tanks are needed to contain Sandia’s San Marchi says that “this The top of the metal is exposed to the it. Storing the fuel in the crystal lattice of method may play an important role— SEM electron beam, which can then the metal itself could be cheaper, lighter, in coordination with other techniques probe the structure of the metal and and safer—but first the process of how and simulation—to illuminate the observe the effects of the hydrogen atoms hydrogen enters and leaves the metal hydrogen-defect interactions that lead migrating into it. must be better understood. to hydrogen embrittlement. With more

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 21 The hydrogen from the electrolyte “diffuses all the way through to the top” of the metal, where its effects can be seen, Tasan says. The basic design of this contained system could also be used in other kinds of vacuum-based instruments to detect other properties. “It’s a unique setup—as far as we know, the only one in the world that can realize something like this,” he says.

In their initial tests of three metals—two different kinds of stainless steel and a titanium alloy—the researchers have already made some new findings. For example, they observed the formation and growth process of a nanoscale hydride phase in the most commonly used titanium alloy, at room temperature and in real time.

Devising a leakproof system was crucial This is the experimental scanning electron microscope setup used by the researchers to study the to making the process work. The electro- hydrogen-loading process. lyte needed to charge the metal with Reprinted with permission of MIT News hydrogen “is a bit dangerous for the Tsuzaki adds that “once it is accomplished, (news.mit.edu). Illustrations courtesy microscope,” Tasan says. “If the sample outputs by this method would be super. of the researchers. Further information can fails and the electrolyte is released into It has very high spatial resolution due to be found in: the microscope chamber,” it could SEM; it gives in situ observations under a J. Kim and C.C. Tasan. “Microstructural and penetrate far into every nook and cranny well-controlled hydrogen atmosphere.” micro-mechanical characterization during of the device and be difficult to clean out. As a result, he says, he believes that Tasan hydrogen charging: An in situ scanning When the time came to carry out their and Kim “will obtain new findings of electron microscopy study.” International first experiment in the specialized and hydrogen-assisted dislocation motion by Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 44, issue 12, expensive equipment, he says, “we were this new method, solve the mechanism of pp. 6333–6343, 1 March 2019. Online: doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.10.128. excited, but also really nervous. It was hydrogen-induced mechanical degrada- unlikely that failure was going to take tion, and develop new hydrogen-resistant place, but there’s always that fear.” materials.”

Kaneaki Tsuzaki, a distinguished profes- The work was supported by Exelon sor of chemical engineering at Kyushu through the MIT Energy Initiative’s University in Japan, who was not involved Low-Carbon Energy Center for in this research, says this “could be a key Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems. technique to solve how hydrogen affects dislocation motion. It is very challenging David L. Chandler, MIT News because an acid solution for hydrogen cathodic charging is circulating into an SEM chamber. It is one of the most dangerous measurements for the machine. If the circulation joints leak, a very expensive scanning electron microscope would be broken due to the acid solution. A very careful design and a very high-skill setup are necessary for making this measurement equipment.”

22 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

focus on faculty Catherine Drennan: Catalyzing new approaches in research and education to meet the climate challenge

Catherine Drennan says nothing in her metal-containing enzymes in their job thrills her more than the process of metabolic pathways, and it seemed like a discovery. But Drennan, a professor of natural extension to investigate them.” biology and chemistry, is not referring to her landmark research on protein Some of Drennan’s earliest work in this structures that could play a major role in area, dating from the early 2000s, revealed reducing the world’s waste carbons. a cluster of iron, nickel, and sulfur atoms at the center of the enzyme carbon “Really the most exciting thing for me is monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH). watching my students ask good questions, This so-called C-cluster serves hungry problem-solve, and then do something microbes, allowing them to “eat” carbon spectacular with what they’ve learned,” monoxide and carbon dioxide (CO2). she says. Recent experiments by Drennan For Drennan, research and teaching are analyzing the structure of the C-cluster- complementary passions, both flowing containing enzyme CODH showed from a deep sense of “moral responsibility.” that in response to oxygen, it can change Everyone, she says, “should do something, Catherine Drennan, a professor of biology configurations, with sulfur, iron, and based on their skill set, to make some and chemistry, is shown here teaching nickel atoms cartwheeling into different kind of contribution.” 5.111 Chemical Principles. Photo: James Kegley positions. Scientists looking for new avenues to reduce greenhouse gases took Drennan’s own research portfolio attests Drennan seized on X-ray crystallography note of this discovery. CODH, suggested to this sense of mission. Since her as a way to visualize molecular structures. Drennan, might prove an effective tool arrival at MIT 20 years ago, she has Using this technique, which involves for converting waste CO2 into a less focused on characterizing and harnessing bouncing X-ray beams off a crystallized environmentally destructive compound, metal-containing enzymes that catalyze sample of a protein of interest, she figured such as acetate, which might also be used complex chemical reactions, including out how vitamin B12 is bound to a protein for industrial purposes. those that break down carbon compounds. molecule. Drennan has also been investigating the She got her start in the field as a graduate “No one had previously been successful biochemical pathways by which microbes student at the University of Michigan, using this method to obtain a B12-bound break down hydrocarbon byproducts where she became captivated by vitamin protein structure, which turned out to be of crude oil production, such as toluene, B12. This very large vitamin contains gorgeous, with a protein fold surrounding an environmental pollutant. cobalt and is vital for amino acid metabo- a novel configuration of the cofactor,” lism, the proper formation of the spinal says Drennan. “It’s really hard chemistry, but we’d like cord, and prevention of certain kinds to put together a family of enzymes to of anemia. Bound to proteins in food, Carbon-loving microbes work on all kinds of hydrocarbons, which B12 is released during digestion. show the way would give us a lot of potential for cleaning up a range of oil spills,” she says. “Back then, people were suggesting how These studies of 12B led directly to B12-dependent enzymatic reactions Drennan’s one-carbon work. “Metallo The threat of climate change has increas- worked, and I wondered how they could cofactors such as B12 are important ingly galvanized Drennan’s research, be right if they didn’t know what not just medically, but in environmental propelling her toward new targets. B12-dependent enzymes looked like,” processes,” she says. “Many microbes A 2017 study she co-authored in Science she recalls. “I realized I needed to figure that live on carbon monoxide, carbon detailed a previously unknown enzyme out how B12 is bound to protein to dioxide, or methane—eating carbon pathway in ocean microbes that leads to really understand what was going on.” waste or transforming carbon—use the production of methane, a formidable

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 23 greenhouse gas: “I’m worried the ocean In Drennan’s lab, a postdoc, Mary among biological systems, and telling will make a lot more methane as the Andorfer, and a sophomore, Phoebe Li, stories—come into play in her teaching. world warms,” she says. are currently working to inhibit an In 2006, she received a $1 million grant enzyme present in an oil-consuming from the Howard Hughes Medical Drennan hopes her work may soon help microbe whose unfortunate residence in Institute (HHMI) for her educational to reduce the planet’s greenhouse gas refinery pipes leads to erosion and spills. initiatives that use inventive visual tools burden. Commercial firms have begun “They are really excited about this research to engage undergraduates in chemistry using the enzyme pathways that she from the environmental perspective and biology. She is both an HHMI studies, in one instance employing and even made a video about their investigator and an HHMI professor, a proprietary microbe to capture CO2 microorganism,” says Drennan. recognition of her parallel accomplish- produced during steel production—before ments in research and teaching, as it is released into the atmosphere—and Drennan delights in this kind of enthusi- well as a 2015 MacVicar Faculty Fellow convert it into ethanol. asm for science. In high school, she for her sustained contribution to the thought chemistry was dry and dull, with education of undergraduates at MIT. “Reengineering microbes so that enzymes no relevance to real-world problems. take not just a little but a lot of CO2 It wasn’t until college that she “saw Drennan attempts to reach MIT students out of the environment—this is an area chemistry as cool.” early. She taught introductory chemistry I’m very excited about,” says Drennan. classes from 1999 to 2014, and in The deeper she delved into the properties fall 2018 taught her first introductory Creating a meaningful life in and processes of biological organisms, the biology class. the sciences more possibilities she found. X-ray crystallography offered a perfect platform “I see a lot of undergraduates majoring in At MIT, she has found an increasingly for exploration. “Oh, what fun to tell the computer science, and I want to convince warm welcome for her efforts to address story about a three-dimensional struc- them of the value of these disciplines,” the climate challenge. ture—why it is interesting, what it does she says. “I tell them they will need based on its form,” says Drennan. chemistry and biology fundamentals to “There’s been a shift in the past decade or solve important problems someday.” so, with more students focused on The elements that excite Drennan about research that allows us to fuel the planet research in structural biology—capturing Drennan happily migrates among many without destroying it,” she says. stunning images, discerning connections disciplines, learning as she goes. It’s a lesson she hopes her students will absorb. “I want them to visualize the world of science and show what they can do,” she says. “Research takes you in different directions, and we need to bring the way we teach more in line with our research.”

She has high expectations for her students. “They’ll go out in the world as great teachers and researchers,” Drennan says. “But it’s most important that they be good human beings, taking care of other people, asking what they can do to make the world a better place.”

Leda Zimmerman, MITEI correspondent

Professor Catherine Drennan (right) and former Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) student Ben Bell ’14 adjust a crystal for an X-ray diffraction experiment aimed at determining a structure of a metalloprotein at atomic resolution. Photo: James Kegley

24 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

education Energy Ventures class proves successful launchpad for students, startups

They say the odds of starting a successful first business are about one in five, but the track record of 15.366 Energy Ventures suggests that taking this MIT Sloan School of Management class can significantly improve those odds.

Nearly a dozen companies have spun directly out of Energy Ventures, and alumni of the class have founded at least 25 more since the class began in 2007. Since about six teams of students work on ventures in the class each year, that’s about a 40% rate of successful launch.

Why does it work? According to both instructors and students, it’s because Senior Lecturer Francis O'Sullivan (left) leads a discussion with an Energy Ventures team working on contactless steam generation technology for heating water in remote locations. The graduate students learn by doing—with step-by- students with him are, clockwise from left: Brian Gaudio, Robert Addy, Matt Severson (of Harvard step guidance and a lot of advice and Business School), Bidusha Poudyal, and Yoichiro Tsurimaki. Photo: Kelley Travers, MITEI support from a broad range of experts, including top venture capitalists. Framework for success all the multifaceted challenges of energy “They give you a structure for something Francis O’Sullivan, former director of entrepreneurship. “It’s partly about that can seem very mysterious: how research at the MIT Energy Initiative, technology, but it’s also about the to start a company,” says Teasha a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan business models and the regulation.” Feldman-Fitzthum ’14, who used the School of Management, and one of the class as a launchpad for EverVest, instructors for the class, says 15.366 walks “This class is really special because it a business she co-founded to provide students through the startup process gives students a blank canvas to explore financial risk analyses for renewable using the framework from Disciplined new technologies and learn how to energy projects. (Thanks to this work, Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful make those technologies a reality in Feldman-Fitzthum was named to Forbes’ Startup, a book by Bill Aulet, the today’s energy system,” says Michael list of “30 under 30” for energy in 2016.) managing director of the Martin Trust Kearney SM ’11, a PhD student at Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Sloan who served as the teaching “It was a safe place to develop ideas, test assistant for the one-term class this fall. them, fail, and iterate. Energy Ventures “The things you really need to do to “The secret sauce is to unite students was the ideal atmosphere to build a start a company are covered in the across campus—and even outside, from sustainable business model and find assignments,” says Feldman-Fitzthum. places like Harvard—all of whom bring the right team,” says Mike Reynolds Tasks range from producing an elevator different perspectives to bear on the MBA ’14, Feldman-Fitzthum’s pitch to developing a go-to-market challenges facing energy systems today. co-founder. Today both Reynolds and strategy, drafting a business plan, That mix of people and ideas is conducive Feldman-Fitzthum are directors at Ultra and putting together a slide deck for to creating really interesting business plans Capital, which acquired EverVest in potential investors. and scaling them to make a difference.” 2016 and utilizes the EverVest technology to make investments in sustainable “Through the semester, we step through Novel technologies infrastructure projects. the high-level elements [of starting a business] and contextualize them from an Energy Ventures intentionally teams up energy point of view,” O’Sullivan says. students with expertise in such diverse The goal is to prepare students to take on areas as engineering, policy, and business

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 25 pitch, I could imagine a lot of markets Fortunately, the professor thought her for the technology. [The researchers] have work on a machine learning algorithm to been working on clean water initiatives, predict wind patterns would make an so in Energy Ventures we set out to see interesting venture, so Feldman-Fitzthum what other industries could benefit from was accepted. this technology,” he says. During class, Feldman-Fitzthum teamed Baskerville-Bridges’ team identified a up with Reynolds, who had a finance promising potential market in the background and found Feldman-Fitzthum’s oil industry, which currently adds a project inspiring. “I thought that if diluent to bitumen to enable the fuel you can use her algorithm to predict the Andrew Wong ’19 discusses the flow battery technology his team was considering for to flow through pipes. The silicon financial performance of a renewable commercialization during 15.366 Energy membrane could be used like a nanoscale energy project, you can make smarter Ventures last fall. Photo: Kelley Travers, MITEI coffee filter to separate the diluent investments,” he says. “If you can make out passively at its final destination— better investments, you can raise more to determine the best path for commer- supplanting today’s more energy-intensive capital, and in turn invest in more cialization of technologies drawn from process. “If it works, that’s a home run,” renewables. Teasha’s technology was the labs at MIT and the surrounding area. Baskerville-Bridges says. spark that led us down that path.” “You have incredible students, you put them on teams and let them run,” Access to experts Interestingly, while Feldman-Fitzthum Kearney says. and Reynolds initially thought they Students in 15.366 spend much of their could build a business predicting wind This year, teams formed ventures based on class time moving the ventures forward, patterns, they discovered—thanks in part a flow battery for energy storage, a system but they also get to hear from guest to research done in class—that that would for low-cost electrolysis, a device that speakers and consult outside experts. not be enough. “We learned quickly uses temperature swings to produce “On three separate occasions, we were that we needed to build a more holistic energy in a micro-generator, and more. pitching to people from private equity or financial modeling software product that venture capital, and we got their honest would work across all infrastructure Elise Strobach, for example, took the class feedback. I think that’s a pretty cool projects,” she says. to commercialize a transparent silica opportunity in a low-risk environment aerogel she developed in the lab of to test your ideas with people who really Such missteps are easy to make, yet can Professor Evelyn Wang of mechanical know what it takes to be successful,” prove fatal to a nascent enterprise. engineering. Strobach hopes to turn the Baskerville-Bridges says. Energy Ventures provides the support aerogel into an insulating material for necessary to help students navigate such affordable, energy-efficient windows. This year, speakers included Badar Khan, common pitfalls. It’s like entrepreneurship the president of National Grid Ventures; with training wheels. Still, the hard “A lot of [the benefit of the class] is taking Carmichael Roberts, managing director work and dedication are real—and so are a very fledgling idea and turning it into of Breakthrough Energy Ventures; and the impressive results. something with real possibilities,” says Daniel Hullah, managing director of GE Strobach, who is pursuing a PhD in Ventures. “The network, the knowledge “My advice to people is to come in thinking mechanical engineering. And, while it’s base, the expertise that you get and have you’re not taking a class, you’re working not clear how her venture will fare, access to is amazing,” Strobach says. for a startup part-time,” Baskerville-Bridges Strobach believes the class has put it on says. “That’s the way to get the most the right path. “In the end, we had Not surprisingly, given its high success out of it.” confidence in what we needed to achieve rate, Energy Ventures is a very popular Kathryn M. O’Neill, MITEI correspondent and what kind of value we could bring.” class. Students must apply with a resume, a statement of interest, and more—and Aaron Baskerville-Bridges, a graduate not everyone is admitted. In fact, student in MIT Leaders in Global Feldman-Fitzthum almost didn’t make Operations, also sees a lot of promise for it in. Most of the roughly 35 students the project he worked on this year: a accepted each year (out of about 100 nanoporous silicon membrane that can be applicants) are graduate students, and she used for filtration. “When I heard the applied as an undergraduate in 2013.

26 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

education MITEI launches online energy classes to meet global needs

The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) is Technologies in Buildings and Professor approach is appropriate. Self-directed developing a new series of online energy Christopher Knittel’s 15.038 Energy students who want to study either more classes designed to support MITEI’s Economics and Policy, are projected to or less intensively, have less predictable educational mission of finding and launch in late summer 2019 and spring schedules, or don’t have the need for a training people to solve the triple 2020, respectively. credential benefit from the OCW model. challenge of energy: producing more energy for more people, with fewer The new offerings join more than 35 In the future, MITEI plans to develop greenhouse gas emissions, within the energy-related courses currently covered additional MITx courses in clusters short time frame available to avoid by OCW. Fifteen of those courses related to carbon capture, utilization, disastrous consequences for the planet. were developed for the MIT Energy and storage, and other areas related to Studies Minor thanks to a course MITEI’s Low-Carbon Energy Centers. Based on interdisciplinary MIT graduate development grant received in 2009 classes in energy currently taught on from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. To get updates about upcoming online campus, the first four classes—all MITx The materials for these classes have been courses and other energy news, please massive open online courses (MOOCs) used by millions of people. subscribe to MITEI’s newsletter at slated to run on the edX platform—will energy.mit.edu/subscribe. hone in on the skills needed to be Recently, MITEI received permission professionally successful in the area of from the foundation to allocate MITEI Education Office electric power systems design and the remainder of the initial course management. development grant to creating classes for MITx, MIT’s vehicle for providing This new pathway to energy education courses to edX, a platform that features for a global audience will supplement MOOCs from many leading universities. MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW), a free This new content will enable thousands and open online collection of MIT class of students around the world to practice materials that does not include active and apply their skills and actively instruction or individual feedback. pursue careers in the energy transition.

“Transitioning global energy systems to MITEI’s dual-track approach to online low-carbon energy solutions requires education is intentional. “The learner a global network of professionals trained experience is different in each one,” to model, plan, and deploy relevant says Curt Newton, director of OCW. technologies within various geopolitical contexts,” says Antje Danielson, MITEI’s OCW is particularly suited to self-directed director of education. “To develop this learning and to use by instructors in future energy workforce, MITEI is their classrooms. But OCW doesn’t building online courses that offer learners offer graded assignments, feedback from both an understanding of the future instructors or peers, or a credential. energy landscape and the skills necessary In contrast, learners get this feedback to actualize it.” and interaction on edX, along with the option to earn a credential. The MITx courses will engage four critical aspects of future electricity systems: “If you’re ready to devote a lot of time to load and demand-side management; the course, there’s a lot to be gained by economics and regulation; production; the support of instructors, colleagues, and distribution and transmission. and other students,” Newton says. But for The first two classes, Professor Christoph a lot of other students, he says, a more Reinhart’s 4.464 Environmental “here’s the stuff, do with it what you will”

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 27 education Hardworking undergraduates enrich MIT’s energy ecosystem

a lot of great opportunities for us to go to places and see renewable energy implementation in real life.”

This winter, she got the chance to work in the lab of Karthish Manthiram, the Warren K. Lewis Career Development Professor in Chemical Engineering, through MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). She’s using electrochemical methods to perform olefin carbonylation, an example of which is converting CO2 to acrylic acid. “It’s taking a greenhouse gas, something harmful, and creating a valuable chemical for industry,” she says.

Jessica Cohen ’22 Cohen isn’t yet sure what her major will Ryan Sander ’20 be, but she is hoping to complete an Jessica Cohen ’22 is on a mission to help Energy Studies Minor. To that end, There is a strong current of energy the planet and has been all her life. she is taking 8.21 Physics of Energy this running through the MIT career of In elementary school, her goal was to help spring—but Cohen’s interest in energy Ryan Sander ’20. He has done two animals by becoming a marine biologist. extends beyond schoolwork. She also energy-related UROP research projects; In middle school, she investigated serves on the MIT Energy Club’s he is planning to complete the Energy biodegradable plastics to combat pollution. Climate Action Team subcommittee and Studies Minor; and he is co-president of she’s signed up for GRID Alternatives’ the Undergraduate Energy Club. By the time she got to high school, she Solar Spring Break, a MITEI-supported was developing new catalysts for carbon program that gives MIT students the Sander has long been interested in dioxide (CO2) reduction with a professor chance to spend a week installing solar renewable energy—especially solar at Yale—research that earned her panels in underserved communities. power—but he actually credits the fourth place in the chemistry category “That should be exciting,” Cohen says. Discover Energy FPOP run by MITEI at the Intel International Science and with launching his energy-intensive Engineering Fair. While Cohen is still deciding where she MIT trajectory. wants her education to take her, she’s Now, Cohen is pursuing her passion enjoying exploring all MIT has to “That’s honestly what got me the most at MIT. “MIT has a pretty hard focus offer. “I’m interested in learning more interested in energy at MIT,” says Sander, on the environment, energy, and about solar or wind or more about who is double majoring in electrical sustainability, so that helped my decision biodegradable polymers or wastewater engineering and computer science and in to come here,” she says. treatment. I think it’s all interesting,” mathematical economics. “Discover she says. “All I know is, I want what I’m Energy enabled me to meet some of my Cohen hit the ground running by signing doing to be helping the environment.” closest friends to this day and provided up for the Discover Energy First-year me with access to a myriad of resources Pre-Orientation Program (FPOP), a Photo: Elaina Gemmati that have critically shaped my academic five-day introduction to the field of and extracurricular experiences for the energy run by the MIT Energy Initiative better at MIT.” (MITEI). “The Discover Energy FPOP was really amazing,” she says. “They set up

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In fact, an FPOP connection led Sander In particular, the native of Saudi to his first UROP; he did titration Arabia hopes to put her people skills to testing of organic redox cells to support work for the Arab world’s budding research into electrochemical CO2 capture innovation ecosystem. systems in the lab of T. Alan Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical This task will require putting key stake- Engineering. Later, Sander conducted a holders together, a job Dabbousi has MITEI-sponsored UROP centered on already begun as president of MIT’s mitigating the degradation of certain Arab Student Association. Last year in solar cells, working in the lab of Associate that role, Dabbousi organized the MIT Professor Tonio Buonassisi of mechanical Arab Science and Technology (SciTech) engineering. Conference, which brought 200 leading scientists, engineers, business leaders, Sander enjoyed FPOP so much that he and entrepreneurs to MIT for a day of returned as a program counselor in 2018. talks as well as an exhibition of startups “My FPOPs in energy and the MITEI from the Arab world. UROP have definitely piqued my interest in using engineering and science to Dana Dabbousi ’19 That work, in turn, led to her organizing solve big energy problems,” he says. an Arab Energy Innovation Initiative at Like many MIT undergraduates, Dana CERAWeek 2019, a major international FPOP also introduced Sander to Dabbousi ’19 has a lot of impressive energy conference—a task she undertook the MIT Energy Club and the Under- accomplishments under her belt. But, at while planning this year’s 2.5-day graduate Energy Club, a subgroup some level, her work can be symbolized SciTech Conference. of the larger club. While leading the by a simple bottle cap. latter club this year, Sander also served “What I was hoping to do at all these as director of the Tech Showcase, a While participating this winter in the events is spark conversations and create key event within the MIT Energy Young Future Energy Leaders program synergy that would benefit the ecosystem Conference, the largest student-led at Khalifia University in Abu Dhabi, as a whole,” she says. energy conference in the country. Each United Arab Emirates, Dabbousi helped spring the two-day conference draws catalyze a project to get elementary Over the last four years, Dabbousi about 600 people to MIT. school students to collect bottle caps for has participated in the Gordon-MIT a hospital, which will use the plastic to Engineering Leadership Program, A recipient of scholarships from both 3D print artificial limbs. developed membranes for gas separation, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics optimized micro-bead assays for Engineers and the US Department The project is part entrepreneurship, the detection of cancer in the lab of of Defense (DoD), Sander plans to part student organizing, and part environ- Associate Professor Hadley Sikes of begin his career at the DoD. In the mental sustainability—all key elements chemical engineering, and worked for a meantime, however, he is working on of Dabbousi’s MIT career. startup that’s producing lab-on-a-chip energy efficiency in building design as a technology to detect food and water part-time co-op at Spacemaker AI. Arriving with a scholarship from Saudi contamination. Aramco and majoring in chemical- Photo: Daniel Gonzales biological engineering, Dabbousi hopes But ultimately, Dabbousi says she sees to help foster innovative solutions herself bringing people together to solve to the world’s energy needs. “I’m really problems—as in her bottle cap project. interested in sustainability,” she says, In particular, she hopes to support noting that she plans to start her career entrepreneurship as a route to prosperity working in the energy industry. “There for an educated Arab population with too are a lot of different ways to look at few career opportunities. “That’s what energy and how to fuel the world. really drives me, helping people,” she says. I believe that everyone has the right to Photo: Ebrahim Al Johani clean, affordable, and accessible energy.” Kathryn M. O’Neill, MITEI correspondent

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 29 education Students help to make island communities carbon-neutral

Small island communities across the globe are facing some of the earliest and most severe impacts of climate change. Many have started to turn away from traditional energy sources to reduce their own carbon footprints and inspire broader conversations on the urgent need for all communities to help mitigate climate change by dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Recently, the Massachusetts island community of Martha’s Vineyard engaged with MIT students to discuss pathways toward a net-zero carbon future. Getting to net-zero carbon emissions entails transitioning to low- or no-carbon energy generation, employing energy Participants in a Martha’s Vineyard net-zero carbon design thinking workshop included MIT efficiency measures, offsetting emissions Energy Initiative staff; representatives from Martha’s Vineyard, Shell, and Viessmann; and by purchasing carbon credits, and students from MIT, Harvard University, and Tufts University. Photos: Maud Bocquillod other measures. brainstorming and rapid prototyping students say they experienced a continu- Prompted by the Vineyard Sustainable sessions. While still relatively new, the ous state of creative flow that produced Energy Committee, Martha’s Vineyard concept has proven itself time and time innovative results. is looking to achieve net-zero carbon by again as an effective problem-solving tool. 2030. Even with its relatively small At the beginning of the week, students carbon footprint, the Vineyard could For senior and chemical engineering were introduced to the conditions on serve as a model for other island major Allison Shepard, the design Martha’s Vineyard and to the basics of communities. thinking process has changed how she design thinking. As the workshop thinks about everything. “Design thinking progressed, the group explored more To meet this challenge, Martha’s Vine- really brings creativity and hands-on, complex topics that presented new yard is collaborating with the MIT quick thinking to the forefront and opportunities and challenges. Energy Initiative (MITEI) to develop a makes things happen,” she says. multifaceted action plan. As a first step, Through brainstorming sessions involving MITEI hosted a net-zero carbon design During the workshop, graduate and hundreds of sticky notes, Lego prototypes, thinking workshop during Independent undergraduate students from MIT, and numerous cups of coffee, each team Activities Period in January. The week- Harvard University, and Tufts University devised a unique remedy for carbon long program offered participants a worked in three cross-institutional reduction on the island. At the end chance to creatively explore clean energy groups that each tackled a separate of the week, each group presented its options through a process known as energy-related issue on Martha’s Vine- solutions to Martha’s Vineyard residents the design thinking model. The workshop yard. One group addressed transportation, and stakeholders. was co-sponsored with Shell, a Founding another focused on agriculture, and the Member of MITEI. third looked at the issue of the economic Antje Danielson, MITEI’s director of stability of year-round Martha’s education, led the effort, assisted Design thinking is a uniquely collabora- Vineyard residents. With the help of by Aisling O’Grady, a MITEI project tive process where groups are constantly design thinking experts from Viessmann, coordinator. They engaged a series engaged in out-of-the-box thought a German manufacturer of heating, of experts, Martha’s Vineyard stake exercises and activities such as fast-paced industrial, and refrigeration systems, the holders, and industry leaders to help

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In the workshop, Danielson introduced students to the process of design thinking to see how group dynamics were affected in collaborative environments.

“Every grad student starts off wanting to change the world,” she says. “But how do they get from, ‘I want to change the world’ to ‘This is a project that I can do in a year for my master’s degree’?”

Danielson believes that the distinctly cooperative nature of the design thinking model and other methods can play key roles in helping students gain a more comprehensive understanding of their respective fields and develop actionable plans. She says she is excited to see MIT senior Allison Shepard and representatives from the German manufacturing company where the ideas generated in the work- Viessmann brainstorm energy solutions for Martha’s Vineyard using the design thinking model. shop may go.

“Many communities in the US have now set timelines for going to net-zero carbon—not an easy task. The collaboration with Martha’s Vineyard allows us to train our students in this area,” she says. “By working on a real example, they can practice using new tools and apply their skills in a safe but meaningful way.”

This workshop was supported by the National Science Foundation and Shell.

Turner Jackson, MITEI Aaron Weber contributed to this article.

Technology and Policy Program master’s students Annette Brocks (left) and Nelson Lee (right) engage in a rapid prototyping exercise with Tufts master’s student Alexis Washburn (center) and other participants in the design thinking workshop. teach and work with the students. between MITEI and Martha’s Vineyard. The workshop was also connected to “My goal in working with the Institute National Science Foundation-funded was to tap MITEI’s expertise,” he says. research that Danielson performs on He believes that this collaboration is model-based reasoning, which is closely mutually beneficial as it not only helps related to design thinking. Martha’s Vineyard work toward its goal of net-zero carbon, but also provides Rob Hannemann ScD ’75 was the main MIT with “a conceptual test bed” where point of contact on the island and initially researchers can study the effects of clean proposed the idea of a collaboration energy technologies on a micro scale.

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 31 events Frances Beinecke discusses how collective action can advance US climate policies

Frances Beinecke, former president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, spoke at the MIT Energy Initiative’s annual fall colloquium, addressing topics ranging from the recent climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to how to create better climate policy, to visions for the future energy transformation.

As she began her talk following an introduction by MITEI Director Robert C. Armstrong, a rainbow across Boston’s skyline was visible out the window. She quipped that the beauty of nature was exactly why she was here—and then she got down to business. Former Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke (left) and MITEI Director Robert C. Armstrong discuss the transition to a low-carbon energy future and the gains already “An unprecedented acceleration of actions achieved by the power and transportation sectors. Photo: Kelley Travers, MITEI is necessary between now and 2030. That is 12 years from now. That is very, temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius, Beinecke said that the power of local very soon,” Beinecke said. rather than 2 degrees, would protect communities and companies to determine millions of people from some of the most the climate’s future has never been Much of her lecture centered on climate ravaging effects of climate change. At a stronger. policy, including steps taken by former 1.5 degree increase, 14% of the population President Barack Obama. Beinecke said would experience extreme heat—but at “All of those elements are creating she vividly remembers Obama’s speech 2 degrees, that number more than doubles something that we’re starting to call the at Georgetown University in June 2013, to 37%. new climate federalism,” Beinecke said. a day so hot that the president’s tele- “Originally, we thought we were going prompter broke. He was announcing While acknowledging that this statistic to have a national policy. It’s going the numerous new energy policies that day, can cause feelings of despair, Beinecke other way now. It’s happening in cities, in including the Clean Power Plan. urged audience members to find hope. states, in corporations. That will weave The state of California, she said, is one together and hopefully, in the early 2020s, At the time, Beinecke said, she and other example of a possible path forward. will translate into a national policy.” leaders of major environmental organiza- It’s the fifth largest economy in the world, tions believed the federal government was and because of its waiver to enact stricter Beyond the power of cities, elected the answer to the climate problem. Now, environmental regulations than other officials, and corporations to advance she feels differently. states and the federal government, it’s climate priorities, Beinecke also talked been able to make large strides forward about the impact of public opinion. “It is about ‘we,’” Beinecke said. “The ‘we’ in emissions reductions, clean power represents multiple actors. It represents sources, and more. She cited a survey (bit.ly/climate-change- we as individuals, elected officials, mayors, usa-yale) by the Yale University Program governors, federal leaders, heads of “California’s role here is as a global model,” on Climate Change Communication in corporations. In every walk of life, we have Beinecke said. “California is big, powerful, March 2018 in which 70% of respondents a role and can take responsibility for this.” and has the resources to experiment with were supportive of measures such as these things—see how they work, get regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant She discussed the IPCC climate report at them right, and create models for the rest and funding more renewable energy length, including its finding that a global of us.” research. The same study found that

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events certainty in the existence of climate C3E Symposium celebrates change has increased 12 percentage points in the past three years, with almost women working in clean energy 50% of the public “extremely” or “very” sure that climate change is occurring. Through the Clean Energy Education international, entrepreneurship, and During the event, Beinecke and and Empowerment (C3E) Initiative government. Past awardees and speakers Armstrong discussed the transition to a (www.c3eawards.org), 52 mid-career were invited to share their professional low-carbon energy future, highlighting women with a range of career back- journeys and insights to inspire others power and transportation as two grounds—from research to education who are navigating the various stages sectors that have made significant to public service—have been recognized of their energy careers and the common progress. Given that federal research and for their work advancing and implement- goal of building a renewables-based, development funding for energy is at ing solutions that can transform our low-carbon energy future. an all-time high, Armstrong zeroed in global energy system. To celebrate these on where researchers should be investing past and present awardees for the This annual symposium, which began in that money: “What do you see as the important work they have done in the 2012, brings together women at all career big challenges to attack in power and clean and sustainable energy sector, levels to discuss solutions to pressing transportation?” several hundred energy professionals energy issues while building a strong and gathered at Stanford University for interconnected network of energy Beinecke answered simply: Technology the 7th Annual C3E Women in professionals. The goals of the US C3E moves rapidly, and the challenge is Clean Energy Awards and Symposium program, led by the US Department of keeping up. held on December 3 and 4, 2018. Energy (DOE) in collaboration with the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), the “[We need to be] looking at both what’s The symposium explored developing trends Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy, going to be an aid to the transformation and innovations in clean energy, such as and the Texas A&M Energy Institute, and also what could be a block,” she said. energy storage scale-up, clean energy are to close the gender gap and increase “What could create a barrier that—if we finance, and sustainable business operation. women’s participation and leadership could identify it early—wouldn’t have to However, first and foremost, it emphasized in the sustainable energy field—subjects be overcome later?” what cohost Dian Grueneich, Precourt that were addressed throughout this Energy Scholar and C3E Ambassador year’s symposium. As part of the solution, Beinecke also emeritus, referred to as the “hallmark of talked about innovation, and specifically, this whole effort”—recognizing women Building a community innovation at MIT. for their achievements across eight professional categories: advocacy, law and “We have a lot of work to do together,” “I always find coming to MIT incredibly finance, business, research, education, said Jane Woodward, founder and CEO inspiring, because there’s the best and the brightest trying to address some of the most serious issues facing all of us,” Beinecke said. “I appreciate all that you do and all that you will do because we need it.”

Hannah Bernstein, MITEI

Go to energy.mit.edu/podcast and click on “The human environmental nexus” to hear a MITEI podcast featuring Frances Bienecke talking with Martha Broad, executive director of MITEI.

At the 7th Annual C3E Symposium, (from left) Dawn Lippert, CEO of Elemental Excelerator; Carla Peterman, commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission; Connie Lau, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.; and Erica Mackie, co-founder and CEO of GRID Alternatives, discuss the importance of community engagement in the transition to a low-carbon future. Photo: Maxine Lym

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 33 of MAP, a natural gas and renewable “We know that if we want to achieve that energy investment management firm, more equitable clean energy future, we in her opening keynote. “We know what have to engage with communities on the we need to do; how are we going to front lines,” said Melanie Santiago-Moser, do it?” Throughout the symposium, as who won the Advocacy Award for her speakers and panelists addressed this very work with Vote Solar, a group that strives question, a common thread emerged: to make solar a mainstream energy the importance of building and engaging resource across the US. “Engagement the community in order to transition doesn’t mean coming to those communi- to a global clean energy system. ties and proclaiming that solar is the solution. It means approaching people on According to Dan Brouillette, deputy the ground who understand these secretary of the DOE, there are unmis- challenges in ways that we can’t fathom takable signs of progress in terms of with humility and building processes Valerie Montgomery Rice, president and closing the gender gap and empowering dean of Morehouse School of Medicine, that ensure that our work is truly in women to take on more leadership roles delivers a keynote speech addressing the partnership with theirs.” within the field of energy, as exhibited need to develop a more diverse workforce. by the presence of the many attendees at Photo: Maxine Lym During the “Powering up the C3E the C3E symposium. But he noted that network” panel, Connie Lau, president there are still challenges to progressing local focus…If kids can’t see it, they can’t and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries, further, as evidenced by the many not at actually believe it. If they can’t see what Inc., and C3E Ambassador, talked the conference—those women who were a clean energy geologist looks like, they about the importance of stakeholder held back due to gender discrimination clearly aren’t going to be able to even outreach as her company undergoes or because of a challenge he referred think about going into that field.” Hawaii’s largest renewable energy to as “a little more subtle”: a lack of procurement process to date. She cited encouragement from others to pursue During the “Scaling energy storage” panel, the necessity of working with developers STEM (science, technology, engineering, Betar Gallant, Esther and Harold E. to ensure that they in turn work in the and mathematics) education during Edgerton Career Development Professor communities to increase public under- their formative years. “Across the United and assistant professor of mechanical standing and acceptance of renewable States, the need for STEM professionals engineering at MIT, added that for energy projects. far outstrips the supply,” said Brouillette. university students, embarking on a “We simply need more STEM profession- clean energy career path may not be so Carla Peterman, commissioner of the als, so we need more STEM outreach.” straightforward. “Clean energy, energy California Public Utilities Commission storage, these are not the titles of and 2015 C3E Award winner, added Valerie Montgomery Rice, the president engineering majors. They are not stand- that her team supports a participatory and dean of Morehouse School of alone disciplinary subjects where a model of decision-making: “We need to Medicine, stressed the importance of student can simply declare, ‘I want to be communicating with customers, and diversifying the workforce. Coming work on that.’ It needs to be more finely we need them to be part of the solutions, from a perspective driven by improving honed,” Gallant said. “Students really because if they are not, they are going health equity, Rice demonstrated in her want to engage, and it’s a matter of, are to be challenging those solutions and keynote address that “who sits around we really giving them the buffet of slowing them down.” the table really does matter, particularly options to understand how to do that as we are trying to change the world.” early on?” For students, receiving guid- “Opportunities are tied to people” At Morehouse, promoting health equity ance on which disciplines they can enter starts with admitting and creating to work on different energy solutions In keeping with the goals of the US opportunities for academically diverse can be valuable, she explained. C3E Program, the final panel of the day students and students from underserved brought together speakers to discuss communities; Rice noted that those Engaging the community the idea of “women helping women”— students are more likely to then practice utilizing professional networks not in underserved communities. “You have Speakers and panelists throughout the only for personal success but also for to be strategic in your focus if you want conference discussed the need to engage supporting the careers of others. “Dare to to actually change the outcome of the local communities to promote acceptance guide a female [who] doesn’t look like opportunity,” she said. “And it has to be a of renewable energy initiatives. you…try to learn from her, because that’s

34 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures the only way we get more diversity,” of the DOE and former chairman of the This year’s C3E Symposium also said Lene Hviid, global manager of Shell Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, celebrated the achievements and work Research Connect and GameChanger was recognized for her long history of Melanie Santiago-Mosier, program at Shell Global Solutions. “Dare to of clean energy leadership and role as a director for access and equity for Vote support somebody who is outside of your vocal advocate for encouraging women Solar (Advocacy Award); Elizabeth comfort zone.” to take leadership positions in the Wayman, an investor at Breakthrough energy industry. Energy Ventures (Business Award); The speakers made a clear distinction Lilo Pozzo, Weyerhaeuser Associate between mentorship and sponsorship. Moler shared the accomplishment she Professor of Chemical Engineering “A mentor is somebody you talk to; is most proud of, saying it was her work at the University of Washington a sponsor is someone who talks about deregulating wholesale markets—a (Education Award); Molly Morse, chief you,” explained Liji Thomas, head of necessity, in her opinion, when addressing executive officer and co-founder of diversity and inclusion at Southern future challenges with respect to climate Mango Materials (Entrepreneurship California Edison. “A sponsor is someone and the electric sector. “Subsequent Award); Aimee Barnes, senior advisor that extends their own social capital commissions have refined our efforts as to California Governor Edmund G. in an organization because they have wholesale markets have matured and Brown, Jr. (Government Award); gotten to know you, they’ve seen mutated, but they are an enduring legacy Tania Laden, executive director and what you do.” Thomas emphasized the I am proud to say.” co-founder of Livelyhoods (International importance of your social capital as Award); Lauren Cochran, managing well, highlighting that “opportunities “It is important to recognize the achieve- director of Blue Haven Ventures are tied to people.” ments of women in the clean energy (Law and Finance Award); and Alissa sector, especially those who are starting Park, director of the Lenfest Center Celebrating achievements down the leadership path, but also for Sustainable Energy at Columbia those who have paved the way,” reflected University (Research Award). “I feel a sense of kinship—or identity— Martha Broad, executive director of with all of the women in this room,” MITEI and a C3E Ambassador. “We “We have the knowledge, we have the said Elizabeth A. (Betsy) Moler, retired need to encourage and empower each power, the skills, to help the new genera- executive vice president of government other in our efforts if we are to achieve tions,” said Valentini Pappa, academic affairs and policy at Exelon as she a diverse workforce—which will bring program coordinator at Texas A&M accepted the C3E Lifetime Achievement a variety of ideas to bear on the clean Energy Institute, as she closed the Award. Moler, a former deputy secretary energy transformation challenge.” symposium. “Education, mentoring, and empowering are the keys for the future.”

Kelley Travers, MITEI

A panel titled “Women helping women” considers strategies to keep women in the workforce and moving in an upward trajectory in their careers. From left: Dian Grueneich, Precourt Energy Scholar at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy; Lene Hviid, global manager of Shell Research Connect and GameChanger at Shell Global Solutions; Jennifer Rockwood, global power and utilities practice leader at Russell Reynolds Associates; Liji Thomas, head of diversity and inclusion at Southern California Edison; and Sarah Torkamani, co-president of R&D Women Interest Network, Corporate Strategic Research at ExxonMobil. Photo: Bill Rivard

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 35 perspectives 3 questions: Vladimir Bulovic´ on game-changing solar energy and nanotechnologies

Vladimir Bulović, the Fariborz Maseeh you would not need to reinforce your (1990) Chair in Emerging Technology, roof, and delivery of such modules to and the members of his ONE Lab have remote parts of the world that are longing been creating next-generation, lightweight, for electrical power will be much easier flexible photovoltaics that could change to do than with the present silicon. the way the world deploys solar energy The developing world market might be systems. He’s also the founding faculty the perfect stepping stone for the broader director of MIT.nano, shepherding introduction of this new type of solar the evolution of MIT’s new nanoscale into the developed world. The weight of research facility that will support a solar module would become a very thousands of researchers from academia, significant metric for the deployment of startups, and industry. He recently spoke such technology. with the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) for a podcast episode on game-changing I would also say that there are novel technologies (see “Game-changing solar” modalities that will start coming through at energy.mit.edu/podcast). Below is in the use of solar. Solar as a power source an edited version of his conversation is brilliant. Sunlight gives us 10,000 times with Francis O’Sullivan, former director Vladimir Bulovic´, the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) more energy than we consume in the Chair in Emerging Technology, director of research at MITEI and a senior of the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics course of a year, but the challenge is lecturer at the MIT Sloan School (ONE) Laboratory, and founding faculty collecting it all. If you can collect all the of Management. director of MIT.nano. Photo: Gary Fong/ sunlight for one hour, we can power Genesis Photos, IHS Markit the planet for one year. The catch is that for that one hour, half of the entire Q We’ve seen dramatic reductions in the facturing. Today, two-thirds of the cost planet Earth (the half facing the Sun) cost of panels, and we’re seeing real of installed solar is spent on installation needs to be covered with solar cells. The deployment today. There’s a tremendous and only one-third on the module challenge of such large-area deployment amount of excitement about solar energy itself. This implies that if we can make the is quite significant. offering a pathway to very significant installation simpler, we might be able to decarbonization of electricity systems. reduce the cost of solar technology by a If we can generate solar activity from With that said, some people, including factor of as much as three. What does the surfaces of objects we already build yourself, have begun to reflect on some that imply for the cost of solar electricity, and touch, that might be another way of of the inherent limitations of today’s which today can be bought for as low as deploying solar energy. But since by crystalline silicon technologies. Tell us 5 cents a kilowatt-hour? Reduce it by a design solar is meant to absorb most of about the journey that solar has made factor of three, and you are at less than the incident light, a typical solar cell is over the past few decades—and how 2 cents a kilowatt-hour. That’s remarkable. very dark-looking, or it reflects blue due we can build on the momentum of the No other electricity-generating technology to the anti-reflective coating that’s on top low-carbon energy transition. can reach such a low cost. of it. So another technology that you could consider is the so-called invisible A I would start by emphasizing that the As the cost of the solar cells comes solar cells—solar cells that do not absorb solar technology of yesterday is nothing down—and as we make them easier to any visible light, and hence appear like the solar technology of today. And install—it will become obvious that a transparent (invisible), but do absorb the solar technology of tomorrow will be thirty-year lifetime is not a necessary infrared and ultraviolet light. These even more different. requirement for installed solar modules. transparent solar cells are never going A ten-year lifetime will be sufficient. to work as efficiently as silicon or some Today’s solar panels are dramatically Costs will be low, and installation could of the other dark-looking cells, because improved, both in lifetime and efficiency, be as simple as stapling rolls of future we’re purposefully throwing out a and can be made more economically thin-sheet, lightweight solar modules to third of the available spectrum (the due to standardized and scaled manu the roof. With lightweight solar modules visible spectrum). Nevertheless, the

36 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

MIT researchers have produced solar Presently, much of the MIT.nano space cells so thin, flexible, is awaiting the installation of new and lightweight equipment, inspired by new ideas from that they could be faculty and students. As a researcher at placed on almost MIT, if you have a fantastic idea, you can any material or surface, from a hat develop it in your private lab, then figure to a smartphone out how to scale it. You can try building a to a window pane. new system inside your lab, but typically Left: To demonstrate, there’s no space for something like that. they draped a working cell on top MIT.nano, though, does have space, and of a soap bubble, a set of complementary tools. As long as without popping you’re willing to engage others, generate the bubble. Photo: a community of people around you, you’ll Joel Jean and Anna Osherov, MIT be able to locate the toolsets in MIT.nano and build a grand idea together.

Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit on deployable because they’ll be just a Then there are startups that nurture a these cells is on the order of 21 percent value-added, thin-film coating on existing unique set of ideas. The big challenge for a single junction versus 31 percent surfaces that we’ve already built. with startups is that ten years ago, for silicon. Yet, when you make them, 30 percent of the venture capital went they look like absolutely nothing. Q With your work here at MIT.nano, into hardware development, as would be They look like a piece of glass. you are putting together a center for needed for solar development, for the Institute that’s about helping broadly example. Today, less than 5 percent of With such transparent cells, any surface expand and enable the deployment of the venture capital is invested in the could become solar active and in a these new technologies across this wide development of hardware ideas, whereas format that is unobservable, hence spectrum of opportunities and helping 95 percent is invested in digital ideas. enabling incidental collection of power by the innovators to access the technologies So money is sparse. If you actually want solar windows or even your eyeglasses. that they need to move through the to launch a new technology from scratch With a micron-thick transparent solar development process in a way that hasn’t using new materials and processes that coating on your eyeglasses you can, with been available to date. How is this effort have never been scaled before, a typical today's version of transparent solar cells, with MIT.nano becoming more and number when it comes to how much generate 5 to 10 milliwatts of power in a more relevant and important as we face money you will need is about $50 million bright environment. Direct that power these big challenges for technology to $100 million over the course of five along the arms of your glasses toward development? to ten years of scaling up the idea. your ears to power a set of hearing aids or a wireless earpiece, and you'll never have A MIT.nano has been in the making The question in my mind was, Is there a to replace their batteries. If you place for over a couple of decades. We built way to utilize facilities like MIT.nano to such a transparent cell on top of your it right in the middle of our campus, dramatically reduce the amount of money Kindle’s screen, you would never need to right next to the MIT dome, footsteps you’ll need to prototype your ideas—or charge your Kindle again. Because even away from everyone. It is 100,000 square at least to validate them beyond just the with a 1 percent power-efficient version feet of shared laboratory space in a initial stages that universities typically of such a transparent cell, you’ll collect 200,000-square-foot building, with tools work at? I believe the answer is yes. enough incidental solar power in the for researchers from every department course of a few days to fully recharge the of MIT. It does not belong to a single Looking at startups I was privileged Kindle battery for a couple of weeks. school; it does not belong to a single to be a part of, we would generate a great department. Two thousand researchers new idea at a university, and the next I think that we can redefine the built per year will utilize it. As time goes on, thing we would do is step out of the environment by the introduction of the it will likely grow to 3,000 to 4,000 users university—because universities are next generation of these nanostructured per year, meaning that roughly half of not-for-profit, and if you start a for-profit solar technologies, which are just coming MIT will be stepping into MIT.nano at entity, you need to do it off the campus. around the corner. Although they some point. Right now, about a quarter To launch the startup, the very first thing might not be the most power-efficient of MIT researchers will use MIT.nano. we needed to do was to reproduce solar cells, they will be more easily the labs we just left at MIT; refit them

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 37 with equipment; figure out how to deliver done before on this campus without the than the energy utilized elsewhere for liquid nitrogen or figure out how to set central facility that we are now outfitting. the production of food and for the up glove boxes. It’s a huge expense— support of everyday needs. As a result, perhaps a few million dollars and a year Q You recently participated in an event we would be disadvantaged, just because and a half of work just to get you to the in Washington, DC, reflecting on some we haven’t opened our eyes to the place where you were when you left MIT. potential game-changing technologies opportunity today: that we should seize in the energy space, along with some the moment and be the lead—as we Why not shorten that journey and of our colleagues from Stanford, to are presently—in developing the next and make it less expensive by simply saying, help policymakers appreciate the need the next set of ideas needed to give us “The day after you graduate, come back to to support the underlying research. this very inexpensive form of electricity. MIT.nano as a visiting researcher or Where are we today—nationally and research scientist from outside and use internationally—in this arc of innovation MIT Energy Initiative our toolsets for a fraction of what it and seizing the opportunities that we would cost you to reproduce your own”? see from the work in the lab? You can start the journey of validating your startup idea, so that two years later, A The new type of solar is coming. In when you are standing in front of venture the next five years, we’ll have access capitalists to raise your Round A of to more readily deployable, lighter, very funding, you will have a much more inexpensive solar energy, generating baked idea in hand. That also means that electricity at less than 2 cents per the journey from the Round A raise to kilowatt-hour. If we are not the ones, as the deployment of your technology to a the United States, to lead the solar cell million people is not going to take five to technology discovery and scale-up, some ten years. Now it will take three to eight, of our economic competitors might making it much more amenable to being embrace that challenge. If and when they funded. I think MIT.nano can help us mature the new solar technology, we risk accelerate hardware-technology develop- being in a dramatically reduced position. ment in ways that we could not have Our energy would be more expensive

The MIT.nano building, at the center of campus adjacent to the Great Dome, has expansive glass facades that allow natural light into the labs while giving visitors a clear view of the research in action. Image: Wilson Architects

38 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

perspectives 3 questions: Robert Stoner discusses clean energy for India

India has made great strides in electrifica- Q What challenges does India face with tion in recent years, but further investment energy and the environment? is still needed, especially in rural areas. Here, Robert Stoner, deputy director of A One of the difficulties is that the rural the MIT Energy Initiative and director population is widely dispersed. It costs of the Tata Center for Technology and a lot of money to provide electricity to Design, comments on energy and devel- them, because the electrical wires have to opment opportunities and challenges in go a long way from where the generating India and how MIT is supporting the plants are. Many use only minute country’s transition to a low-carbon future. quantities of electricity, and it costs a lot to collect from them, so rural electricity users are mostly a losing proposition for Q What is the biggest energy opportunity the electric utilities, which is why they’ve in India right now? been slow to invest in connecting them. Robert Stoner, deputy director of the MIT Energy Initiative and director of the But now the government has pushed A Tata Center for Technology and Design, What’s really exciting and almost them to make this huge investment in addresses the fourth annual Tata Center hard to believe about India is that this wires, and it has to pay it off, so the status Symposium. Photo: Kelley Travers, MITEI giant country just recently electrified quo isn’t an option—it would bankrupt its last unconnected village. In other the utilities. It’s in everybody’s interest to moves us closer to a new low-cost regime, words, 100% of Indian villages have been have more electricity flow through those but also because the product is flexible connected to the electricity grid. It doesn’t wires, and it will be interesting to see how and much, much lighter. That makes it mean that every household has necessarily the utilities handle their new customers. easy to transport to rural areas and also been connected, nor that every household to form freely into interesting shapes like that is connected receives electricity India is currently implementing an awnings and car tops. 24 hours a day, but they’ve laid out expanded and improved subsidy regime the wires. It’s a very strong declaration that will allow transfers of government Vladimir has been quite focused on on the part of the government of its funds to rural consumers and, hopefully, India thanks to the GridEdge program. intention to achieve universal grid access. encourage consumption. They have to The Tata Trusts have committed do this. $15 million over five years to fund the India has a power system with roughly program, making it by far the largest 350 gigawatts (GW) of generation, or Q What are MIT’s most promising solar project at MIT and a large fraction about a third as much as the United contributions to India’s energy situation of all solar activity at MIT. In a very States. India has four times as many right now? direct way, much of MIT’s current solar people, so the per capita supply is about technology development is aimed at one-twelfth of what we experience. A Vladimir Bulović’s work on thin films the developing world. They continue to add capacity in India, deposited on flexible plastic substrates Turner Jackson, MITEI including the world’s largest solar plant, is a very prominent example. He’s faculty which is capable of producing nearly director of the Tata-MIT GridEdge Solar a gigawatt. In spite of this, there is program (gridedgesolar.org), which is considerable slack generating capacity, funded by the Tata Trusts (tatatrusts.org). with overall utilization at 60% or less. The GridEdge team is now celebrating So there’s spare capacity, and at the same a milestone: For the first time, they’ve time low consumption of electricity— been able to make thin-film perovskite although not necessary in the same place. solar cells on thin plastic in a roll-to-roll The Indian government would like to process. That’s very different and less change that in part by expanding rural costly than the conventional and far more access, and of course, the people who complex silicon wafer process. It’s an live in the countryside want electricity. exciting development not only because it

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 39 members MIT Energy Initiative Members

MITEI Founding MITEI Startup Members and Sustaining Members

MITEI’s Founding and Sustaining Members support “flagship” MITEI has created a new class of membership for energy energy research programs and projects at MIT to advance energy startups, designed to help them clear technology hurdles and technologies to benefit their businesses and society. They also advance toward commercialization by accessing the talent provide seed funding for early-stage innovative research projects and facilities at MIT. and support named Energy Fellows at MIT. To date, members have made possible 170 seed grant projects across the campus as well as fellowships for about 400 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in 20 MIT departments and divisions.

MITEI Founding Members MITEI Associate Members

MITEI’s Associate Members support a range of MIT research consortia, education programs, and outreach activities together with multiple stakeholders from industry, government, and academia. In general, these efforts focus on near-term policy issues, market design questions, and the impact of emerging technologies on the broader energy system.

Associate Members Low-Carbon Energy Centers American Tower Aramco BP Cenovus Energy Ferrovial Chevron MITEI Sustaining Members Sertecpet Citizens Utility Board Duke Energy Symposium Program Engie and Seminar Series Eni S.p.A. Cummins ENN Group EDF (Électricité de France) Environmental Defense Fund IHS Markit Equinor Exelon Mobility of the Future study ExxonMobil Alfa GE Aramco Iberdrola BP IHI Corporation Chevron INALUM Equinor Magnolia Quality Development ExxonMobil Corporation Limited Ferrovial National Grid General Motors Shell Shell Tata Trusts Toyota Mobility Foundation Xignux

40 | MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | energy.mit.edu/energyfutures

MITEI Affiliates MITEI member news

MITEI Affiliates are individual donors and foundations that support MITEI’s energy- and climate-related activities across the Institute. Specific programs include the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, supplemental seed funding for early-stage innovative research projects, the MIT Energy Conference, the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, and the MIT Climate CoLab. Asociación Nacional de Empresas Generadoras (ANDEG) Aspen Technology, Inc. John M. Bradley ’47, SM ’49 Bill Brown, Jr. ’77 David L. desJardins ’83 Cyril W. Draffin ’72, SM ’73 Patrik Edsparr PhD ’94 Sertecpet becomes a MITEI member Jerome I. Elkind ’51, ScD ’56 Sertecpet, an energy solutions provider based in Ecuador, has S. Jones Fitzgibbons SM ’73 and joined the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) as an Associate Member. Michael Fitzgibbons SM ’73 The company is interested in increasing its portfolio of sustainable energy generation and developing materials that could be used in Stephen J. Fredette ‘06 and sustainable energy applications. MITEI Director Robert C. Armstrong Heather Fredette spoke at an event hosted by Sertecpet in February. He discussed A. Thomas Guertin PhD ’60 the importance of the transition to a low-carbon future with an John Hardwick ’86, SM ’88, PhD ’92 audience of government officials, industry members, and other stakeholders. Above: Eduardo López Robayo (left), chairman and Lisa Doh Himawan ’88 CEO of Sertecpet, shakes hands with Armstrong during a visit to Andrew A. Kimura ’84 MIT in December 2018. Photo: Kelley Travers, MITEI Jane S. Lah ’98 and Raghav Maliah Paul and Matthew Mashikian Michael J. Paskowitz ’00, MNG ’00 and Maria T. Paskowitz ’96, MBA ’02 Philip Rettger ’80 Heather L. Ross PhD ‘70 and Edward L. Strohbehn Jr. Xignux becomes a MITEI member Xignux, a corporation based in Mexico, joined MITEI as an Associate Jacqueline Pappert Scarborough, Member, along with its affiliates: Viakable, which manufactures and in memory of Jack C. Scarborough SM ’55 distributes electrical conductors, and Prolec, which specializes in Adam L. Shrier SM ’60 power and distribution transformers. The company has joined MITEI’s Doug Spreng ’65 Low-Carbon Energy Centers for Energy Storage and Electric Power Systems, with plans to broaden its scope and participation in current David L. Tohir ’79, SM ’82 and future energy sectors by engaging more with MITEI faculty William W. Vanderson ’99, MNG ’00 and members and their research. Christina L. Gehrke ’99 David Wang ‘00, MNG ‘00 William Wojeski ’71 and Karen Leider ’72 William A. Wynot ’44

Members as of April 1, 2019

MITEI Energy Futures | Spring 2019 | 41 MIT Energy Initiative Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, E19-307 Cambridge, MA 02139 -4307

Students help to make island communities carbon-neutral

During Independent Activities Period in January emissions by 2030. To generate ideas, the coffee, MIT students Annette Brocks (left), 2019, the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and students engaged in a process called design Nelson Lee (right), and Dai Lin (lower right) MITEI Founding Member Shell co-hosted a thinking, which combines out-of-the-box engage in a rapid prototyping exercise with weeklong program that gathered MIT, Harvard, thought exercises with fast-paced brain Tufts student Alexis Washburn (second from and Tufts students to collaboratively come storming and rapid prototyping. The photo left). For more details, please turn to page 30. up with strategies to help Martha’s Vineyard above shows one team in action: Aided Photo: Maud Bocquillod toward its goal of achieving net-zero carbon by sticky notes, Lego models, and cups of