Published: March 27, 2008 12:21 am      

Fossil energy research planned

Goal: Rely more on energy resources available in the U.S.

FAIRMONT — West Virginia University, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are joining forces to conduct fossil energy research.

Over the next two years, the three-university consortium, called CWP Inc., will get funding of up to $26 million to support research targeting the clean and efficient use of fossil energy. The National Energy Technology Laboratory is financing the research through RDS Inc., which provides support services to NETL.

The consortium is set up as a collaboration with scientists and engineers at NETL, said Curt Peterson, interim vice president for research and economic development at WVU and president of the WVU Research Corp.

Andrew Gellman, professor and head of the chemical engineering department at Carnegie Mellon, said the idea is to have the faculty and students set up labs and operate research programs on site at NETL, which has certain capabilities and equipment that the universities lack. In return, NETL can take advantage of the skills that the faculty and students have.

“This consortium allows the three universities to collaborate together so that they can work more effectively than they can individually,” Gellman said. “The three universities are quite different in nature, and they have different skills. The three universities bring skill sets together.”

Faculty at the campuses are already interacting with NETL personnel, and they will continue developing plans for the consortium, Peterson said.

Gellman said the schools have been ramping up slowly for the research endeavor over the last couple years, and significant efforts started during the last six months. Twenty-four faculty and 80 graduate student and postdoctoral researchers at the three universities will work on a broad range of projects related to fossil-fuel technology.

“It’s all energy research-related,” Peterson said. “It’s related to a number of different energy areas. All of these are areas that are important in terms of current energy research initiatives at (the universities).”

The research will explore materials for energy technologies, process and dynamic systems modeling, catalyst and reactor development, and carbon management. Other program areas are sensor systems and diagnostics, energy conversion devices, gas hydrates, and ultradeep and unconventional oil and gas production technology.

“I anticipate there will be success in each of these eight program areas,” Peterson said. “I think that we will see significant advancements in advanced energy initiatives.”

He said this research is important as far as energy initiatives from a national and international perspective. These energy-related topics should provide significant advances in better understanding energy and applications associated with energy use, Peterson said.

Gellman said most of the energy used in the country and across the world comes from fossil fuels — such as oil, coal and natural gas. The ultimate goal is “to create sustainable energy technologies that will last hopefully for thousands of years.” But right now, the objective is to use fossil energy efficiently, which Gellman sees as a platform for developing long-term energy resources.

He said the research of WVU, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh could provide many potential long-term impacts.

Petroleum-based fuels are some of the primary sources of energy that the nation relies on today, and the United States is dependent upon external countries for much of its petroleum supply, Peterson said.

The United States has “an enormous amount” of fossil energy available in the form of coal. In its research, the consortium can examine ways to reduce the dependency on foreign petroleum and rely more on energy resources available in the country.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity,” Peterson said. “It’s a collaboration that should pay great benefits to the region and to the nation, and I think it’s natural that these three institutions with their records of accomplishment and research in energy have come together like this. I think it’s very exciting, and we’re very optimistic about it.”

E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.