Mechanical & Industrial Engineering - Infrastructure & Energy/Environmental Technology

Investigators: John Cuttica, Clifford Haefke (Energy Resources Center) Primary Grant Support: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), Midwest SEOs

Problem Statement and Motivation •

Anaerobic digesters provide the necessary conditions to foster the natural occurring decomposition of organic matter by bacteria in the absence of oxygen.

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Anaerobic digestion provides an effective method for treating the waste products from livestock farming and food processing industries into:

The ERC fosters anaerobic digester alternative energy project identification and implementation in the 12 state Midwest region through targeted education, unbiased information, and technical assistance.

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Biogas that can be used to provide heat and/or electricity, injected into the natural gas pipeline, or converted to a compressed or liquid transportation fuel

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Solids (fiber) that can be used as compost, animal bedding, granule fertilizer, and/or medium density fiberboard

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Liquid (filtrate) for liquid fertilizer land application

Key Achievements and Future Goals

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The ERC, working closely with several of the State Energy Offices and State Agriculture Departments, has formed partnerships with the anaerobic digester stakeholders in the Midwest.

Since 2004, the ERC has co-organized and/or co-sponsored 14 waste-to-energy workshops on anaerobic digester technologies and their market applications in the agriculture, food processing, and wastewater treatment industries reaching over 1,300 interested attendees: IA (2), IL (5), IN (3), OH (2), MI (1), and MN (1).

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The ERC has implemented a full gamut of outreach services, including web site, targeted market workshops, project profiles, site technical and financial analyses, and specialty reports.

The ERC has assisted the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) in awarding state grants to 5 Illinois anaerobic digester biogas projects.

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The ERC has completed 14 technical feasibility assessments and 12 project profiles on anaerobic digester alternative energy projects.

Investigator: Steffen Mueller, PhD (Energy Resources Center) Primary Grant Support: Argonne National Laboratory

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Key Achievements and Future Goals

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The ERC is co-developing an interface to the GREET model called the Carbon Calculator for Land Use Change from Biofuels Production CCLUB-GREET to assess the emissions from land use changes prompted by different biofuels policies The CCLUB-GREET interface is MS excel based but currently being integrated into the new GREET. Net graphic interface The model itself is populated with results from other modeling efforts including those conducted by Purdue University’s GTAP team and Winrock International. The ERC is working to integrate the various models into CCLUB-GREET Furthermore, the ERC is continuously collecting industry data to support the CCLUB-GREET modeling efforts All information is published in peer reviewed journals

Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels are a major contributor to climate change Biofuels blended into the petroleum based-fuel supply can provide a way to reduce GHG emissions but the overall emissions benefits vary by biofuels feedstock and production method Argonne National Laboratory is the developer of the key life cycle emissions modeling framework used in the United States for fuel cycle emissions modeling: the GREET model The ERC is working closely with Argonne National Laboratory to expand and refine GREET across the various biofuels pathways considered in the model

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Elliott, Sharma, Best, Glotter, Dunn, Foster, Miguez, Mueller, and Wang; ”A Spatial Modeling Framework to Evaluate Domestic Biofuel-Induced Potential Land Use Changes and Emissions”; Environmental Science & Technology, 2014 Dunn, Mueller, Kwon, and Wang; “Land Use Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Corn and Cellulosic Ethanol”; Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2013 Kwon, Mueller, Dunn, Wander; “Modeling state-level soil carbon emission factors under various scenarios for direct land use change associated with United States biofuel feedstock production”; Biofuels and Bioenergy, 2013 Dunn, Mueller, Wang; “Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from enzyme and yeast manufacture for corn and cellulosic ethanol production”; Biotechnol Lett; October 2012

Investigator: Stefano Galiasso (Energy Resources Center) Primary Grant Support: Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO)

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Technical Approach •

ERC supports the Illinois State Energy Office at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in multiple ways: • Program analysis and planning • Market Potential Studies • Outreach and Education (market transformation) • Program Implementation (Boiler Tune-Up, Green Nozzle direct install)

Illinois is one of the forefront States in Energy Efficiency The State has set aggressive Energy reduction targets to be achieved every year New technologies are constantly introduced in the market, changing the landscape and requiring constant adaptation The State Energy Office is managing the Public and Low Income sectors, and faces challenges in meeting the targets

Key Achievements and Future Goals Achievements: • Over 2.5 Million Therms/year saved and independently evaluated over 2 years of program administration • IL Public Sector and Low Income market potential study • Filed 3-year plan to ICC Future goals: Introduce new programs and help Illinois achieve higher savings

Investigators: Jennifer Klemundt, Dragan Nikolovski (Energy Resources Center ) Prime Grant Support: Illinois Department of Central Management Services

Problem Statement and Motivation •

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Key Achievements and Future Goals

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The ERC utilizes proven data management tools and technologies coupled with in-house expertise to provide quality data management service The ERC developed a series of billing, modeling, and analytical tools to store, audit, analyze and summarize supplier’s and utilities’ billing data The ERC has developed a variety of analytical and reporting tools that generate periodic as well as ad-hoc reports for CMS Energy Manager and CMS fiscal office The ERC has designed, developed and implemented a comprehensive billing data repository consisting of consumption and cost data for all state facilities, as well as billing data from participating public utilities.

Since the deregulation of natural gas and electricity markets in Illinois, the Department of Central Management Services implemented a single-buyer market-oriented bulk procurement program for energy commodities and services State of the art data analysis tools and expertise are needed to support decision management and long term strategy development CMS needs a strategic partner to provide data management and analysis for state’s large energy portfolio, as well as in-house data management and analysis tools easily accessible by CMS stakeholders The ERC was selected to manage, monitor and audit deregulated commodity billing data for participating state facilities The ERC was selected to design and develop centralized utility billing data repository for all state facilities.

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The ERC has been providing billing data management and reporting service to CMS for over 15 years The ERC has designed, developed and implemented the State of Illinois Utility Database Management System (SUDMS), a comprehensive utility billing data repository for all state facilities The ERC has been maintaining SUDMS for 4 years The ERC has assisted CMS in the expansion of Natural Gas Bulk Procurement program to incorporate facilities from Ameren territory The ERC has responded to CMS RFP regarding the continuation and expansion of billing auditing and reporting services.

Investigators: Graeme Miller, Henry Kurth (Energy Resources Center) Primary Grant Support: Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO)

Problem Statement and Motivation • Due to the recent events over the past decade with natural disasters severely disrupting energy infrastructure the state of Illinois thought it prudent to create and maintain and energy assurance plan.

• The ERC works with state officials to gather data on how to prevent future energy supply disruptions and to minimize future outages.

Technical Approach • The ERC is responsible for the implementation of the project. This includes development and maintenance of the geospatial database, monitoring energy supply and potential disruptions and working with state officials during energy emergencies.

• Through ArcGIS, Python and other programming skills the ERC is able to follow weather patterns, real time energy pricing, and grid constraint and their effect on current disruptions and potential interruptions to the state energy network.

Key Achievements and Future Goals • Prepare annual update to the State of Illinois Energy Assurance Plan • Update and maintain the geospatial database of state energy assets • Maintain Supply Disruption Tracking Process Plan • Monitor potential disruption in Illinois energy supply and pricing • Map potential sites of micro-grids that would strengthen the overall electric grid and create a more reliable network.

Kenneth Brezinsky Kenbrez@uic.edu

Problem Statement and Motivation In order to improve internal combustion engine fuel efficiency and mitigate the emission of harmful pollutants, there is a need for predictive chemical and physical models that can predict the behavior of real fuels from the fuel tank to the exhaust.

Chemical details of how fuels burn determine their • Burning efficiency: i.e. energy saving, • Cleanness : i.e. soot, NOx, particulates, priority pollutants • Applications: i.e. aviation, spark ignited, or diesel engines; stationary power plants

Single Pulse High Pressure Shock tube Lower Pressure Single Pulse Shock Tube

Technical Approach Develop a chemical experimental and kinetic modeling validation database at real combustor conditions.

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Experiments conducted in two different shock tubes 1) Very high pressure tube: 15-1000 bar 2) Lower pressure tube: 1 -10 bar Chemical species obtained as a function of temperature (6002500K) for a given pressure and time (1- 3 msec) • Species concentrations simulated with detailed chemical models developed in our laboratory

Future, alternative, fuels will have different chemical burning characteristics; • Combustion chemistry information is necessary of future application

Funding sources: NSF, AFOSR, DOE, NASA, DOD

Key Achievements and Future Goals

Representative Publications: • “Experimental and modeling study on the pyrolysis and oxidation of n-decane and n-dodecane”, Proc. Combust. Inst., 34, 361-368, 2013. (T. Malewicki, K. Brezinsky) • “Experimental and modeling study on the oxidation of Jet A and the n-dodecane/iso-octane/n-propylbenzene/1,3,5trimethylbenzene surrogate fuel “, Comb. Flame, 160(1), 1730, 2013 (T. Malewicki, S. Gudiyella and K. Brezinsky).

• “Pyrolysis of n-Heptane and Oxidation in Mixtures of Ethylene/Methane and iso-Octane” , J. Prop. Power 29, 732743, 2013 (A. Fridlyand, A. Mandelbaum and K. Brezinsky).

Carmen M. Lilley, Mechanical Engineering Primary Grant Support: NSF

Problem Statement and Motivation

FIG. 1: (a) Micrograph of a Ag nanowire under 4-probe I-V measurement, (b) STM scan of the cross-section from left-to-right, (c) line scan profile of cross-section from left-to-right (solid curve) and right-to-left (dashed curve).

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Successful integration of nanosystems into microelectronics depends on stable material properties that are reliable for at least a 10 year lifecycle with over a trillion cycles of operation.

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Fundamental understanding of the physics of deformation and failure in nanometer scale capped or layered structures, where surfaces play a dominant role, does not exist. Prior work has mostly focused on monolithic nanometer scale materials.

FIG. 2: Electromigration of a Cu nanowire with the current stress of 4.2 mA (length = 2.04 µm, width = 90 nm, and thickness = 50nm): (a) 0 min, (b) 40 min, (c) 80 min, (d) 120 min, and (e) 137.5 min.

Key Achievements and Future Goals

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Identify surface contaminants present in as-synthesized nanowires according to metallic, organic, and mixed-materials classifications.

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Measure the electrical properties of as-synthesized nanowires and identify contamination effects on electrical properties with an accuracy of 5%.

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Measure the stability of electrical properties of nanowires under accelerated electrical testing and classified according to structure.

[1] [2] [3] [4]

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Preliminary results on measuring the presence of surface contaminants and their influence on electrical properties completed [1].

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In depth study on size and surface effects on electromigration for Cu and Au nanowires have been performed [2-4]

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Additionally, this work has been extended to studying electron surface scattering for single crystalline Ag nanowires.

C. M. Lilley, Q. J. Huang, Applied Physics Letters 2006, 89, 203114.

Q. J. Huang, C. M. Lilley, M. Bode, R. Divan, Journal of Applied Physics 2008, 104, 23709.

Q. Huang, C. M. Lilley, R. Divan, Nanotechnology 2009, 20, 075706.

Q. Huang, C. M. Lilley, R. S. Divan, M. Bode, IEEE Transactions in Nanotechnology 2008, 7, 688.]

Investigators: John Cuttica, Clifford Haefke (Energy Resources Center) Primary Grant Support: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Problem Statement and Motivation

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Combined Heat & Power (CHP), Waste Heat-to-Power (WHP), and District Energy (DE) with CHP systems can provide substantial energy savings, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reliable electric power, and electric utility grid relief. The ability to generate electricity on-site combined with the ability to recycle the waste heat from the prime mover results in fuel use efficiencies as high as 75% - 85% in Conventional (topping cycle) CHP systems.

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For more information: www.midwestchptap.org

The major barriers to the significant increase in implementation of CHP, WHR, and DE systems is lack of understanding of the technologies by the potential customers, concern by electric utilities that these systems invade their business space and reduce their revenues, ability to secure long term contracts and financing, and lack of state policies that encourage the implementation of these technologies.

Technical Approach

Key Achievements and Future Goals

The U.S. DOE Midwest CHP Technical Assistance Partnership (CHP TAP) was established at the Energy Resources Center (ERC) to promote and assist in transforming the market for Combined Heat and Power (CHP), Waste Heat-to-Power (WHP), and District Energy (DE) with CHP throughout the 12 state Midwest region.

The focus of the ERC work is to Market Opportunity Analysis, Education and Outreach, and Technical Assistance. The applied research areas include reciprocating engines, combustion turbines, microturbines, steam turbines, fuel cells, waste heat-to-power systems, organic rankine cycle, absorption chillers, desiccant dehumidification, grid interconnection, and anaerobic digestion.

The Midwest target market sectors emphasized include: healthcare, higher education, commercial office buildings, data centers, ethanol plants, industrial manufacturing facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, food processing plants, dairy/hog farms, etc.

In 2013, the Midwest CHP TAP: • was tasked by the U.S. DOE with providing technical assistance to 270+ industrial and institutional facilities in 24 states with coal and oil boilers that are facing stringent emissions limits under the Clean Air Act pollution standards of Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT).

• provided education and unbiased information to Midwest state energy offices, public utility commissions, utilities, and other stakeholders towards the understanding and evaluation of CHP/WHP technologies in state energy efficiency and renewable energy portfolio standards (EEPS / RPS).

• assisted MidAmerican Energy Company in the creation of revised standby rates.

F. Mashayek, MIE/UIC; D. Kopriva/FSU; G. Lapenta/LANL Primary Grant Support: ONR, NSF

Problem Statement and Motivation The goal of this project is to develop advanced computational techniques for prediction of various particle/droplet-laden turbulent flows without or with chemical reaction. These techniques are implemented to investigate, in particular, liquid-fuel combustors for control of combustion and design of advanced combustors based on a counter-current shear concept. The experimental components are conducted at the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland.

Key Achievements and Future Goals

Technical Approach • Turbulence modeling and simulation • Direct numerical simulation (DNS) • Large-eddy simulation (LES) • Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) • Droplet modeling • Probability density function (PDF) • Stochastic • Combustion modeling • PDF • Eddy-breakup • Flamelet • Flow simulation • Spectral element • Finite volume • Finite element

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Pioneered DNS of evaporating/reacting droplets in compressible flows.

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Developed a multidomain spectral element code for large clusters.

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Developed user-defined functions (UDFs) for implementation of improved models in the CFD package Fluent.

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Developed several new turbulence models for particle/droplet-laden turbulent flows.

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In the process of development of a new LES code with unstructured grid.

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Investigating advanced concepts for liquid fuel combustors based on counter-current shear flow.

Farzad Mashayek, MIE/UIC; John Shrimpton, Imperial College London Primary Grant Support: NSF

Problem Statement and Motivation Bio-fuel combustion in direct injection engines and stationary gas turbines is now widely considered as a potential solution to the future energy crisis.

Burning bio-fuels reduces CO2 production by naturally recycling this gas.

It is also strategically favored because of reducing our dependence on foreign mineral oil. The main impediment to existing technology for combustion of bio-fuels, however, is the difficulty of atomization due to higher viscosity of these oils.

The nozzle

Spray without (left) and with Combustion of Diesel (right) charge injection oil in open air

Key Achievements and Future Goals

Technical Approach We use an electrostatic process which has proven extremely efficient in improving atomization, dispersion, evaporation rate, and hence combustion mixture preparation. The novelty of this work lies in the implementation of this process for electrically insulating liquids such as bio-fuels. This is accomplished by injecting charge into the liquid prior to its flow through the orifice. The charging process is more efficient for more viscous fluids and requires a negligible (~ mW) electric power with a small (~ 3-4 bar) pressure. This makes these nozzles ideal for injection of highly viscous liquid fuels without any need for preheating.

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Electrostatic spraying has already been successfully implemented for a range of mineral oils.

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A workable theory exists for predicting the size of the drops by assuming a negligible role of hydrodynamics.

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The main goal of this project is to extend this process to bio-fuels which are viscous than common diesel oil.

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The role of hydrodynamic and the physics behind the charge injection process will be investigated theoretically to improve the design of the atomizer.

C. M. Megaridis, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Primary Grant Support: Motorola, NASA

Problem Statement and Motivation •

Droplet impact ubiquitous in nature and relevant to many practical technologies (coatings, adhesives, etc.)

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Spreading/recoiling of droplets impacting on solid surfaces (ranging from wettable to non-wettable) features rich inertial, viscous and capillary phenomena

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Objective is to provide insight into the dynamic behavior of the apparent contact angle  and its dependence on contact-line velocity VCL at various degrees of surface wetting

Key Achievements and Future Goals

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Perform high-speed imaging of droplet impacts under a variety of conditions

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Surface wettability has a critical influence on dynamic contact angle behavior

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By correlating the temporal behaviors of contact angle  and contactline speed VCL, the  vs. VCL relationship is established

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There is no universal expression to relate contact angle with contactline speed

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Common wetting theories are implemented to extract values of microscopic wetting parameters (such as slip length) required to match the experimental data

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Spreading on non-wettable surfaces indicates that only partial liquid/solid contact is maintained

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The present results offer guidance for numerical or analytical studies, which require the implementation of boundary conditions at the moving contact line

A. Salehi-Khojin, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Problem Statement and Motivation • To perform a fundamental understanding of chemical sensing in graphene-based chemical field effect transistors for the development of next generation chemical sensors.

• To examine the sensing performance of external defects on insulating substrate and internal defects on graphene surface.

• To study the effect of humidity and different dopant on the sensitivity of graphene sensors.

Technical Approach • Device fabrication, characterizations and sensing experiments under different conditions • Density Functional Theory calculations to explore the sensing mechanism in graphene

• Suspended graphene fabrication to deconvolute the role of external defects on substrate B. Kumar, K. Min, M. Bashirzadeh, A. Barati-Farimani, M.-H. Bae, D. Estrada, , Y. D. Kim, P. Yasaei, Y. D. Park, E. Pop, N. R. Aluru, A. SalehiKhojin, The Role of External Defects in Chemical Sensing of Graphene Field-Effect Transistors, NanoLetters, 3 (5), 1962–1968, 2013.

Key Achievements and Future Goals