7 minute read
Faculty in Action
By Christine Reed
The Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion (CCCC) in the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources (SER) recently broke ground on a demonstration house made of coal-derived carbon building materials and char bricks.
The house is being built in tandem with a second house made from conventional building products and Pacific Clay bricks. The coal-derived bricks are made using low-energy, ecofriendly process technologies developed in the CCCC.
“The goal of the project is to see how the coal-derived building materials, especially char bricks, stand up to different environmental conditions and compare to conventional building materials that are currently used in the market,” says ChooiKim Lau, the civil and architectural engineering and construction management graduate student leading the project. “Our team will evaluate performance characteristics, such as the mechanical integrity, thermal resistance, weight, fire resistance, toxicity and electromagnetic radiation tolerance, with comparative durability, noise resistance, moisture absorption and weathering.”
Originally from Alor Setar, Malaysia, and now resident of Laramie as a U.S. citizen, Lau is working alongside undergraduate students Noah Scott and Jonathan Scott, of Cheyenne. They work under the direction of Kam Ng, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering within the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Focusing on the future of Wyoming coal, the project is part of the Carbon Engineering Initiative in the CCCC dedicated to discovering and advancing new uses for coal by making commodity products that are nonenergy and fuel based.
The goal of the demonstration is to showcase the various building materials that are made from Wyoming coal and, in particular, the coal-derived char bricks.
In the summer of 2021, the team manufactured over 4,000 coal-derived char bricks in the span of 30 days using basic tools and equipment. The bricks were produced using a zero-waste construction method in which they can be manufactured, transformed and recycled in a comprehensive life cycle, minimizing residual materials.
According to Lau, the initial findings regarding the properties of the char bricks show attributes that are superior to clay bricks. They are lighter weight, provide better insulation and have the ability to regulate the moisture content in the building.
“The porosity and thermal properties of the coal char bricks are such that they have the ability to absorb moisture from inside buildings on humid days, and release moisture on dry days, which mean that the building is consuming less energy,” Lau says. “Additionally, according to the industry-standard fire endurance test, char bricks receive a rating of Class A, which is the highest score possible.”
The char bricks are more economical
The UW team researching the performance of coal-derived carbon building materials in comparison with conventional building materials consists of, from left: undergraduate students Jon Scott and Noah Scott, of Cheyenne, and graduate student ChooiKim Lau, of Laramie. They are in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management.
to produce, as well. The team made each individual brick by hand and used the Wyoming summer sun to dry and cure the bricks, bypassing the costly firing process used in the manufacturing of clay bricks.
Richard Horner, the CCCC’s director, says products derived from coal are an extremely important step forward for Wyoming.
“Our objective in the School of Energy Resources is not just to do research, but to also commercialize these efforts and create new jobs and industries in Wyoming,” Horner says. “Currently, coal is a main source of income for the state, so efforts to keep mines operating will allow us to have a continued revenue stream for our state to invest in education, infrastructure, medical care, emergency services and the overall well-being of Wyoming citizens.”
Once construction of the demonstration houses is completed, the team will carry out yearlong performance monitoring tests to provide a good baseline to see how the coal-derived building materials outperform the conventional building materials. The data and results then will be shared with interested industry partners, with the hope they’ll take the technology to market.
The team is optimistic about the feasibility for the scale-up or mass production of this technology.
“We are eager to gather performance data on our building materials,” says Professor Ng. “We hope that our research will highlight the competitive advantages of our coalderived char bricks to the construction industry and increase the products’ marketability, usage and consumption, further advancing to the next stage of commercialization and production.”
Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering Morteza Dejam is working to establish a world-class research program on “Enhanced Subsurface Energy Recovery” in the University of Wyoming’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.
The research is designed to be practical, addresses issues defined by the energy industry, and is focused on optimizing industry capacity to extract energy resources. The program will contribute to developing new environmentally friendly energy recovery technologies, a leader in integrated geothermal energy and hydrogen geological storage research, and a platform to engage stakeholders to address the critical energy industry challenges during the energy transition.
In addition, the program will lead research on energy-related areas with high potential for job creation in the region, which can lead to diversification and strengthen of Wyoming’s economy and the UW’s energy brand.
More importantly, the research program provides an opportunity to train the next generation of engineers that assist the industry in making decisions that reduce environmental impacts, produce a more sustainable energy future, and improve the economic prospect of the region during the energy transition.
The UW College of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Petroleum Engineering “Enhanced Subsurface Energy Recovery” research program has received financial support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, American Society for Engineering Education, UW’s Center for Global Studies International Research Grant, UW’s Tier-1 Engineering Initiative, and UW’s Department of Petroleum Engineering.
To learn more about this exciting research program, visit
www.uwyo.edu/petroleum.
CEAS Dept. of Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering Selects First Female Department Head in College’s History
The University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Applied Science is proud to announce the appointment of Erica Belmont, a talented academic leader, researcher, mentor and engineer, to the position of department head for the Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering Department. Belmont assumed her new role during the fall 2021 semester, and she has become the first female department head in the college’s 129-year history.
“UW’s Department of Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering is an incredible department full of talented students, staff, and faculty,” says Belmont. “I am glad to have the opportunity to support and help facilitate the many exciting and impactful things that these members of our department do.”
Belmont is stepping into a department that has been in the hands of Carl Frick for six years. and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation, including an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program grant. She also co-founded a spin-off company, Evoseer LLC, with a Ph.D. student in her research group, Kurt Stahlfeld, based on their research together at UW. Evoseer LLC recently received a Small Business Technology Transfer Program grant from NSF for development of next-generation battery components.
The College of Engineering and Applied Science has been making a strong push to promote women in engineering over the years, in a field which suffers from severe underrepresentation.
Despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, women are still vastly underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce.
Women made gains—from 8 percent of STEM workers in 1970 to 27 percent in 2019—but men still dominated the field.
Overall, female engineering students comprise only about 19.07 percent of the undergraduate population in the college.
“The UW Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering Department welcomes all students who want to advance technology, improve quality of life and contribute to solving the biggest problems of our time through engineering. We encourage interested students to reach out to us to find out more about our degree programs,” says Belmont.
For more information on Belmont and the Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering Department at the College of Engineering and Applied Science, visit www.uwyo.edu/
mechanical.
Belmont has been a faculty member in the department since 2014 and received her B.S. in chemical engineering and M.S. in mechanical engineering from Tufts University in Medford, Mass., and her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
“Many of us in the college recognized early on that Erica Belmont had both great technical competences, but also a rare ability to motivate and inspire those around her,” says College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Cameron Wright. “That’s the basis of good leadership, and when the department head position became available, it was natural to think of her. She’s doing a superb job and is a great role model for other female engineers.”
In addition to serving as the department head, Belmont is an active researcher. Her current research is funded by the National Aeronautics
