A consortium of three regional universities will receive up to $26 million in funding to develop cleaner fossil fuel technologies that may reduce greenhouse gases and the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and West Virginia University will form a partnership, called CWP Inc., and will work through an onsite contractor, RDS Inc., at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). NETL is the national laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy with facilities in South Park, Morgantown and three other states. More than 75 scientists and student researchers will work with more than 150 NETL scientists and researchers here to study cleaner methods for generating coal, oil and gas energy.

Areas of study will include carbon capture and sequestration, the conversion of coal to liquid fuels, developing improved turbine generators and new fuel cell technologies that use coal-derived synthetic fuels, says Andrew Gellman, Carnegie Mellon chemical engineering professor and director for the consortium.

“This offers an opportunity for the three universities to really enhance the research they’re doing in fossil fuels,” explains Gellman. “It creates a mechanism for the schools to collaborate with one another, bringing together different skill sets. Together we can do much more; it creates a synergetic kind of relationship.”

With fossil fuels comprising an 86 percent share of the U.S. energy supply into 2030, this research holds promise, Gellman adds. “In the next several decades, society has to rely on fossil fuel for energy. What we need is to use the fuel we have efficiently, without destroying the environment.”

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Andrew Gellman, Carnegie Mellon University, Morgan Kelly, University of Pittsburgh