Research Themes

  1. Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS):  LCSE faculty work on engineered materials and systems of CO2 capture, including emerging Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) approaches, as well as conversion technology and integrated mineralization and storage opportunities.
  2. Decarbonization of the Built Environment:  LCSE faculty develop sustainable concretes and construction materials utilizing captured CO2 in the production, reducing embodied carbon content in end-products with tailored physical and chemical properties.
  3. Future Mining & Production of Critical Minerals:  LCSE faculty are developing integrated, renewable-energy-driven metal recovery technologies using mine tailings and an innovative autogenous reactor system using Stirred Media Mills (SMM). This approach significantly reduces energy consumption in comminution and can be coupled with sustainable carbon mineralization, flotation and electrochemical recovery of key energy minerals.
  4. Energy System Optimization:  LCSE faculty are developing system-level decision making models and machine learning tools to promote the energy transition with minimal tradeoffs in investment returns, societal costs, and system reliability. 
  5. Advanced Sensing and Instrumentation Technology 

 

Carbontech Development Initiative

The Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy partners with the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) and Columbia Technology Ventures (CTV) to lead the Carbontech Development Initiative (CDI), bringing together highly interdisciplinary research teams that create technologies to convert carbon dioxide into valuable end products and services in New York State. The CDI sponsors innovative research programs specifically for LCSE faculty through a NYSERDA grant, as well as through competitive proposals for commercialization of new technologies, that focus on carbon capture systems, engineered building materials, and CO2-to-chemical products.