Texas A&M's engineering department is the recipient of two major funding opportunities to help the university advance its energy transition initiatives.
Berna Hascakir, a professor at Texas A&M University’s petroleum engineering department, was selected as part ofa $17-million US Department of Energy grant to support decarbonization and net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions projects.
This collaboration, involving Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Howard University, and the University at Buffalo, aims to explore clean energy alternatives, particularly hydrogen production. Texas A&M will host two graduate students from these universities for 3 years. “By fostering collaboration with minority-serving universities, the grant will provide invaluable research opportunities for underrepresented students and promote diversity and inclusion within the scientific community at Texas A&M,” Hascakir said.
Hascakir’s research focuses on producing hydrogen from petroleum while reducing carbon emissions, aligning with carbon capture strategies.
The university also announced it is part of a $26-million National Science Foundation-funded project to decarbonize US manufacturing. Led by Washington University, this initiative, known as the Carbon Utilization Redesign for Biomanufacturing-Empowered Decarbonization (CURB) Engineering Research Center (ERC), converts CO2 into useful products like biofertilizers, chemicals, and eco-friendly materials.
Texas A&M's contributions include developing cutting-edge carbon capture technologies and digital tools to optimize sustainability and economic feasibility.
“Without valorizing CO2 to something of much greater value, human society is not willing to simply pay for carbon capture and storage at a large scale,” Susie Dai, associate professor of plant pathology and microbiology at Texas A&M and associate director and coprincipal investigator of CURB, said. “We have designed a new system with great potential to add value to CO2. The new design can address sustainability challenges and transform the future design of carbon dioxide reduction. We have demonstrated the blueprint for ‘decarbonized biomanufacturing’ that could transform our manufacturing sector.”