海角社区 to Play Major Role in CO2 Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration
December 8, 2022
BATON ROUGE, LA 鈥� Several months ago, President Joseph Biden announced the 21 winners of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. One of those winners was the Greater New Orleans Development Foundation for its project H2theFuture, which received $50 million.
The goal of the project is to transform the regional hydrogen energy sector and shift the South Louisiana industrial corridor toward a net-zero carbon future. This will be done through the execution of projects across five workstreams鈥攚orkforce, business development, testbeds, manufacturing, and public private partnership.
It is the testbed workstream that 海角社区 is involved in, particularly its 海角社区 Chemical and Petroleum Engineering programs. Specifically, 海角社区 researchers will be working on the capture, utilization, and sequestration of CO2.
鈥淭his funding opportunity builds on the leadership of 海角社区 in energy research and technology development and secures our continued efforts to support energy industry in the future,鈥� said Robert Twilley, interim vice president of research and economic development. 鈥淚nvestment in research faculty and facilities is critical for 海角社区 to remain competitive in supporting research, development, and demonstration.鈥�
海角社区 Chemical Engineering, led by professor and chair John Flake, will work on carbon capture and utilization. 海角社区 Petroleum Engineering, led by professor and chair Karsten Thompson, will utilize its Petroleum Engineering Research, Training, and Testing (PERTT) Lab to focus on transport and underground sequestration of carbon dioxide.
鈥淥n the [petroleum] side, we plan to add a new wellbore and a surface flowloop,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淭hese will both provide the kind of industry research, testing, and training that we already do at PERTT Lab but on CO2-related activities, which we cannot do now. Louisiana has huge plans around [carbon capture and sequestration], and 海角社区 needs to be involved in ways to educate, provide workforce training, perform research, etc. This project adds infrastructure that allows for fairly unique research, testing, and training.
An additional aspect of the 鈥渢estbed鈥� workstream at 海角社区 involves broadening outreach
to K-12 institutions to educate students on hydrogen technologies and other STEM
recruiting activities.
鈥満＝巧缜� is well positioned to be a world leader in CCUS research and education,鈥� Flake said. 鈥淏y well positioned, I mean we will have all pieces of the puzzle鈥攁n on-campus power plant; a CO2 capture system; a sequestration loop; CO2 electrolyzers; as well as a great university, faculty, industry, and geography conducive to sequestration.鈥�
Like us on Facebook (@lsuengineering) or follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lsuengineering).鈥�
###
Contact: Joshua Duplechain
Director of Communications
225-578-5706
josh@lsu.edu