Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 22:56:55 +0000

New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material admin Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:56

A group of physicists, including two Georgia Tech researchers, have discovered a new quantum state. The study, published in the journal Nature, uncovered novel looping currents flowing along the edges of octahedral cells in a crystal of Mn3Si2Te6, which allowed for a billion percent increase in the material’s electric conductivity. The findings could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices and superconductors.

The team consisted of Georgia Tech theoretical physicists Sami Hakani and Itamar Kimchi, along with experimental physicists Feng Ye (Oak Ridge National Lab), Lance DeLong (University of Kentucky), and, from the University of Colorado at Boulder: Gang Cao, Yifei Ni, Yu Zhang, and Hengdi Zhao. The group was drawn to the research after their previous study investigated the same material.

“Because this material did not fit any preexisting models, we had to develop new ideas to understand it,” said Georgia Tech graduate student Hakani, who played a key role in developing the theory. “These new ideas will help us study related materials that could be used for next-generation magnetic field devices.”

An Exception to the Rule

The physicists first became interested in the Mn3Si2Te6 material due to its unique electrical properties — in particular, a property called colossal magnetoresistance, an extreme enhancement in a material’s electrical conductivity when a magnetic field is applied.

In most materials, applying a magnetic field does not change that material’s conductivity. However, in another class of materials, applying a magnetic field does change conductivity; this is called magnetoresistance, and it can scale to “giant” and “colossal” changes in conductivity. In instances of colossal magnetoresistance, a material can change from behaving like an insulator (like Styrofoam) to being as conductive as a metal wire.

This change is not altogether unusual. Materials displaying giant magnetoresistance are not uncommon and are often used in computers; however, in all of these known materials, the material does not change its behavior in a way that significantly depends on the direction of the applied magnetic field. This new trimer-honeycomb material does.

“The phenomenon defies all existing theoretical models and experimental precedents,” said Kimchi, theoretical physicist and assistant professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. And that’s where he and Hakani come in.

Uncovering Looping Currents

“As theoretical physicists, we develop new kinds of mathematical models,” said Kimchi. “When it’s qualitatively difficult to understand how anything can make sense in experimental data — when there’s something qualitatively shocking — we try to come up with that basic picture.”

Using the information uncovered by the experimental physicists, Hakani and Kimchi set out to understand why the extreme change in conductivity only happens when the magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the honeycomb-like surface of the material.

“Our idea smelled promising, but, unfortunately, we quickly realized that currents between the magnetic manganese ions would be forbidden by symmetry, which was discouraging,” said Kimchi. “However, Sami then did the symmetry analysis for the octahedrally arranged tellurium ions, and, for them, currents were symmetry-allowed and could work out!”

Viewed from above, the material looks like a series of two-dimensional honeycombs. From the side, however, the material is composed of “sheets,” like a layer cake. Within each “sheet” of honeycomb, electrons can move in circular paths around each octahedral cell. These looping, circular-moving currents within the material are responsible for the material’s unique behavior.

On its own, without a magnetic field present, electrons move both counterclockwise and clockwise around the honeycomb “cells,” like cars going in both directions around a roundabout. Just like in uncontrolled traffic, “traffic jams” make it difficult for electrons to move quickly throughout the material. Without a way to streamline traffic, the material acts more like an insulator.

However, if a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the honeycomb-like surface, a “flow of traffic” is established, and electrons navigate the loops more quickly. The material then acts as a conductor, showing a seven-magnitude increase in conductivity — equivalent to an increase of a billion percent.

A New Paradigm

The transformation from insulator to conductor can also be driven by applying electrical currents in the material, but in that case, it doesn’t happen instantaneously. It can take seconds or even minutes for the material to switch from insulator to conductor.

The team believes that this tunability and slower type of switching, coupled with the material’s sensitivity to currents, could lead to new applications and discoveries in current-controlled quantum devices, a field of devices that range from sensors to computers to secure communication.

The next step? Working to better understand the newly discovered quantum state, and finding other materials where the quantum state might exist.

“Looking forward, we hope to understand not only what makes this material special, but also which microscopic ingredients are needed for related materials to become useful quantum technologies in our future,” said Hakani.

Subtitle

The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices.

Summary sentence

The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices.

Summary

A group of physicists, including two Georgia Tech researchers, have discovered a new quantum state in trimer-honeycomb material. The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices. The discovery builds on a previous study that first investigated the material, also known as Mn3Si2Te6, for its unusual and unique qualities.

Dateline

Thu, 02/23/2023 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

By: Selena Langner
Writer, College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Media Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications, College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

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School of Physics

quantum

quantum physics

quantum materials

loop currents

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Sami Hakani

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Source updated

Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:17

Researchers Chart Path to Cheaper Flexible Solar Cells

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 03:46:02 +0000

Researchers Chart Path to Cheaper Flexible Solar Cells admin Wed, 02/08/2023 - 22:46

There’s a lot to like about perovskite-based solar cells. They are simple and cheap to produce, offer flexibility that could unlock a wide new range of installation methods and places, and in recent years have reached energy efficiencies approaching those of traditional silicon-based cells.

But figuring out how to produce perovskite-based energy devices that last longer than a couple of months has been a challenge.

Now researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California San Diego and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reported new findings about perovskite solar cells that could lead the way to devices that perform better.

“Perovskite solar cells offer a lot of potential advantages because they are extremely lightweight and can be made with flexible plastic substrates,” said Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “To be able to compete in the marketplace with silicon-based solar cells, however, they need to be more efficient.”

In a study that was published February 8 in the journal Science and was sponsored by the U.S Department Energy and the National Science Foundation, the researchers described in greater detail the mechanisms of how adding alkali metal to the traditional perovskites leads to better performance.

“Perovskites could really change the game in solar,” said David Fenning, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego. “They have the potential to reduce costs without giving up performance. But there’s still a lot to learn fundamentally about these materials.”

To understand perovskite crystals, it’s helpful to think of its crystalline structure as a triad. One part of the triad is typically formed from the element lead. The second is typically made up of an organic component such as methylammonium, and the third is often comprised of other halides such as bromine and iodine.

In recent years, researchers have focused on testing different recipes to achieve better efficiencies, such as adding iodine and bromine to the lead component of the structure. Later, they tried substituting cesium and rubidium to the part of the perovskite typically occupied by organic molecules.

“We knew from earlier work that adding cesium and rubidium to a mixed bromine and iodine lead perovskite leads to better stability and higher performance,” Correa-Baena said.

But little was known about why adding those alkali metals improved performance of the perovskites.

To understand exactly why that seemed to work, the researchers used high-intensity X-ray mapping to examine the perovskites at the nanoscale.

“By looking at the composition within the perovskite material, we can see how each individual element plays a role in improving the performance of the device,” said Yanqi (Grace) Luo, a nanoengineering PhD student at UC San Diego.

They discovered that when the cesium and rubidium were added to the mixed bromine and iodine lead perovskite, it caused the bromine and iodine to mix together more homogeneously, resulting in up to 2 percent higher conversion efficiency than the materials without these additives.

“We found that uniformity in the chemistry and structure is what helps a perovskite solar cell operate at its fullest potential,” Fenning said. “Any heterogeneity in that backbone is like a weak link in the chain.”

Even so, the researchers also observed that while adding rubidium or cesium caused the bromine and iodine to become more homogenous, the halide metals themselves within their own cation remained fairly clustered, creating inactive “dead zones” in the solar cell that produce no current.

“This was surprising,” Fenning said. “Having these dead zones would typically kill a solar cell. In other materials, they act like black holes that suck in electrons from other regions and never let them go, so you lose current and voltage.

“But in these perovskites, we saw that the dead zones around rubidium and cesium weren’t too detrimental to solar cell performance, though there was some current loss,” Fenning said. “This shows how robust these materials are but also that there’s even more opportunity for improvement.”

The findings add to the understanding of how the perovskite-based devices work at the nanoscale and could lay the groundwork for future improvements.

“These materials promise to be very cost effective and high performing, which is pretty much what we need to make sure photovoltaic panels are deployed widely,” Correa-Baena said. “We want to try to offset issues of climate change, so the idea is to have photovoltaic cells that are as cheap as possible.”

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy EERE postdoctoral fellowship and grant Nos. DE-SC0001088 and DE-AC02-06CH11357, the California Energy Commission under grant No. EPC-16-050, the Skoltech NGP Program under grant No. 1913/R, the Hellman Fellowship and the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. CBET-1605495, DMR-1507803, GRFP 1122374, CHE-1338173 and ECCS-1542148. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, et al., “Homogenized halides and alkali cation segregation in alloyed organic-inorganic perovskites,” (Science, February 2019). http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5065

Summary sentence

Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California San Diego and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reported new findings about perovskite solar cells that could lead the way to devices that perform better.

Dateline

Thu, 02/07/2019 - 12:00

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John Toon

Research News

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Atlanta, GA

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Keywords

solar cells

perovskite

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Research

Energy

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Materials

Mercury ID

617145

Source updated

Tue, 01/07/2020 - 10:08

Researchers Receive ARPA-E Funding to Develop Eco-Friendly High-Voltage Circuit Breaker

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 16:52:11 +0000

Researchers Receive ARPA-E Funding to Develop Eco-Friendly High-Voltage Circuit Breaker admin Tue, 02/07/2023 - 11:52

Replacing the potent greenhouse gas SF₆in high-voltage circuit breakers with a clean alternative is critical as the U.S. looks to upgrade its aging electrical infrastructure.

Although well-known greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane contribute the most emissions, it is a lesser-known greenhouse gas, sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆), that owns the title as the “most potent.” The man-made gas has a global warming potential 23,900 times than that of CO₂ and an atmospheric lifetime persistence of up to 3,200 years.

Like other greenhouse gases, SF₆, plays a significant, albeit indirect, role in everyday life, as it is a key component in high-voltage circuit breakers and switchgear for electric power systems. For the U.S. to effectively decrease carbon emissions to goals set at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the country’s electrical power grid will need substantial updating, which includes finding an alternative to SF₆ electrical equipment

“High-voltage alternating current (AC) SF₆-insulated circuit breakers can be found in most electrical substations in the U.S. and around the world. They are vital mechanisms for a reliable and resilient power grid,” said Lukas Graber, associate professor in the Georgia Tech School for Electrical and Computer Engineering. “But any leaks of SF₆ are extremely bad for the environment due to its greenhouse gas effect.”

A team of researchers from Georgia Tech, led by Graber and in collaboration with Mississippi State University, has recently been awarded nearly $4 million from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop a three-phase SF₆-free AC high-voltage circuit breaker. Fittingly, the proposed design is called TESLA (Tough and Ecological Supercritical Line Breaker for AC), acknowledging AC electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla.

The Impact of SF₆

From 2008 to 2018, the annual emissions rate of SF₆ rose from about 7,300 tons to approximately 9,040 tons, an increase of 24%, according to a 2020 study published by the European Geosciences Union. That amount of SF₆ equates to greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 44 million passenger vehicles driven for one year, or 226 billion pounds of coal being burned.

According to ARPA-E, equipment leaks are a major source of SF₆ emissions from the electrical transport and distribution sector. This is particularly true for aging equipment which, due to natural deterioration, is more prone to gas leaks. Ironically, as the U.S. strives to supplant fossil fuel-derived electricity generation with cleaner wind and solar power, the power grid will become increasingly decentralized, which will require more SF₆ gas-insulated equipment.

“The electrical infrastructure in the US is in desperate need of upgrades to accommodate an increasing share of renewable energy, the electrification of the transportation sector, and improved resiliency against cyberattacks,” said Graber. “Existing electrical substations will require new equipment, and as part of these upgrades, a new eco-friendly generation of circuit breakers should be implemented.”

Looking to Supercritical Fluids

Replacing SF₆ is no easy task. While SF₆has exceedingly high global warming potential, the synthetic gas is an excellent electrical insulator — a material in which electric current does not flow freely. The gas is known for its effectiveness, stability, and intrinsic non-toxic, non-corrosive, and non-flammable nature, and while non-SF₆ equipment has long been available for low to medium-voltage applications, there are no alternatives for high-voltage equipment ready for market.

The team’s research has shown that the key to success may be utilizing recent breakthroughs in the dielectric (or electrical insulating) properties of supercritical fluid. A supercritical fluid is a highly compressed fluid that combines the properties of gases and liquids, and is most frequently used for power generation. The team is currently experimenting with supercritical CO₂, which has ecologically friendly attributes that could be utilized in high-voltage equipment.

“Our preliminary results show that the supercritical fluid is a better dielectric than SF₆,” said Zhiyang Jin, research engineer in Graber’s Plasma and Dielectrics Lab at Georgia Tech. “The breakdown voltage of supercritical CO₂ is at least three times that of SF₆, and since CO₂ is everywhere, so a man-made gas will no longer be needed.”

Unlike SF₆ circuit breakers, the design pressure needed for supercritical fluid in TESLA is significant — about ten times higher than SF₆ counterparts. Achieving this design means developing a different circuit breaker chamber to maintain structural integrity during and after the fault current interrupting event. Computational fluid dynamics models have already been developed to study the pressure and temperature changes, and the velocity distribution of supercritical fluids for designs of the chamber, nozzle, and contact system.

In addition to the engineering challenge of connection compatibility with existing high-voltage electrical equipment/infrastructure, and the subsequent workforce training that will entail, market adoption is critical hurdle to clear.

“To replace existing circuit breakers, we cannot just show that TESLA passed all required tests,” said Jonathan Goldman, principal at Georgia Tech’s Venturelab. “Gaining trust from large utility companies is also one of our crucial tasks. We will seek opinions from experts from various backgrounds.”

Goldman and electrical engineering professor Santiago Grijalva will work with several industry partners to guide the design process, explore additional application segments, and advise on the commercialization of TESLA.

Getting to Work

The interdisciplinary team will design and build the proposed circuit breaker at a high voltage rating (245 kV, 4 kA) and validate the design and functionality using a synthetic test circuit. The testbed will be modular in design and enable both high-current and high-voltage testing without needing access to a high-power source or generator. According to Graber, the development of such experimental capability is not only important for the TESLA project, but also for the power and energy industry of the U.S.

The three-year ARPA-E-funded project will culminate in the development of a TESLA prototype tested at the Paul B. Jacob High Voltage Laboratory at Mississippi State University — the largest university-operated high voltage facility in North America. The lab is directed by Chanyeop Park, who received his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech.

The team also includes Juergen Rauleder, assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and Lauren Garten, assistant professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering.

Raulder will investigate the fluid dynamics inside the circuit breaker and provide guidance for mechanical designs of a high-pressure tank, contact system, and arc quenching mechanism, while Garten will research metal oxide varistor characteristics for direct current circuit breaker applications. Garten’s research would have an impact on another ARPA-E-funded project at Georgia Tech called EDISON led by Graber.

“Edison and Tesla as people never got along with each other, but through advancements in high-voltage circuit breakers, we’re trying to make them good friends,” said Graber. “There is no win or lose for choosing AC or DC nowadays, together they can both make our world a better place to live.”

Summary sentence

Replacing the potent greenhouse gas SF6 in high-voltage circuit breakers with a clean alternative is critical as the U.S. looks to upgrade its aging electrical infrastructure.

Dateline

Tue, 06/14/2022 - 12:00

Contact

Dan Watson
dwatson@ece.gatech.edu

Location

Atlanta, GA

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Keywords

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

ARPA-E

High-Voltage Circuit Breaker

Lukas Graber

Supercritical Fluids

Department of Energy

Juergen Rauleder

Lauren Garten

Santiago Grijalva

Jonathan Goldman

venturelab

Zhiyang Jin

Chanyeop Park

go-researchnews

Categories

Institute and Campus

Research

Energy

Engineering

Environment

Core research areas

Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

Mercury ID

658887

Source updated

Mon, 06/27/2022 - 10:08

$2.3B Qcells Solar Power Investment Holds Major Potential for Georgia

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 22:47:05 +0000

$2.3B Qcells Solar Power Investment Holds Major Potential for Georgia admin Mon, 01/23/2023 - 17:47

The state of Georgia is at the epicenter of what may be the largest investment in clean energy manufacturing in U.S. history, and Georgia Tech is poised to play a key role in an investment that is slated to create thousands of jobs and boost solar power infrastructure in our state and beyond.

Qcells, a solar power company, plans to build a $2.3 billion manufacturing complex just north of Atlanta in Cartersville to not only make state-of-the-art components for solar panels, but also to build complete panels used in a variety of settings, from houses to large-scale commercial and industrial solar arrays.

Georgia Tech is home to some of the world’s leading researchers and experts in photovoltaic materials and solar energy. Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, assistant professor and Goizueta Junior Faculty Rotating Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and his research group have been blazing trails on the hunt for new materials that can be used in solar energy conversion.

“The most important part of this investment in U.S. manufacturing is the fact that Qcells is investing in the development of ingot and wafer production,” Correa-Baena said. Currently, silicon needs to be processed to form solar cells used to harvest energy. Ingots are the first step in the manufacturing process of refining raw materials into wafers. The wafers become the base for completed solar panels.

Over the past decade, most ingot and wafer production has been happening outside of the U.S. “With this investment, we guarantee that we can have full control of the supply chain by manufacturing all aspects of the solar panels domestically,” said Correa-Baena. Ultimately, the goal is to make solar energy more affordable for American consumers and create high-paying jobs for Georgians.

“It is exciting to see that silicon manufacturing is restarting in the U.S. and that Georgia is at the forefront of it,” said Ajeet Rohatgi, Regents’ Professor and John H. Weitnauer Jr. Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Rohatgi is one of the world’s leading researchers in photovoltaics – the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials like silicon. He is the founding director of the first university-based and Department of Energy-funded Center of Excellence for Photovoltaics Research and Education. The center’s work focuses on finding and improving the materials used to make solar cells while also improving their efficiency.

Qcells built its first plant near Dalton, Georgia, in 2019. By 2022, the facility had become the largest producer of solar panels in the western hemisphere. Rohatgi says representatives from Qcells have visited his research facilities on campus, and he and his team have visited the company’s Dalton facility as well.

“As demand for clean energy continues to grow nationally, we’re ready to put thousands of people to work creating fully American made and sustainable solar solutions, from raw material to finished panels,” said Justin Lee, CEO of Qcells. “We are committed to working with our customers as well as national and Georgia leaders to bring completely clean energy to millions of people across the country.”

Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute, Regents' Professor, and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair said, “Georgia Tech is a key leader in most of the core technologies associated with clean energy industries, has nationally distinctive researchers and facilities, and educates a lot of undergraduate and graduate students in these areas.”

That is why Tech has the potential to be a valuable partner in this project. “We are in a unique space where we can interface with Qcells to help them improve materials processing and explore new materials, but also aid in their manufacturing processes by introducing artificial intelligence to optimize processes and increase their productivity,” said Correa-Baena.

The announcement is not just significant for Georgia Tech, but for the state of Georgia as well. In Lieuwen’s view, Georgia is emerging as a center of clean energy manufacturing and technology, in no small part thanks to the Institute’s partnerships, research, and workforce development efforts. He says advancements in electric vehicles, batteries, and hydrogen power are all picking up steam in our state. “Having these types of companies in areas where Georgia Tech is focusing research and development efforts is good for the Institute and the state.”

The Qcells expansion is likely just the tip of the iceberg, as leading researchers from across campus identify projects like these where Tech ingenuity and innovation can make a difference.

“I’m enthusiastic about this expansion of solar cell manufacturing in Georgia because it builds on other clean energy, electrification, and energy storage industries already existing or planned for our state,” said Julia Kubanek, professor and vice president for Interdisciplinary Research. “The Southeast is increasingly becoming known as a hub for cleantech innovation, and Georgia Tech is proud to be a key contributor to this ecosystem.”

Production at the new Qcells solar plant is expected to start in 2024.

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech experts are at the forefront of technology and research that could revamp clean energy infrastructure in our state.

Summary

Georgia Tech experts are at the forefront of technology and research that could revamp clean energy infrastructure in our state.

Dateline

Mon, 01/23/2023 - 12:00

snorris@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Norris
snorris@gatech.edu

Director, Media Relations and Social Media
Georgia Institute of Technology

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Atlanta, GA

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Georgia Tech

solar power

solar energy

qcells

renewabl energy

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Business and Economic Development

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Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

Materials

Mercury ID

665028

Source updated

Mon, 01/23/2023 - 17:27

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation: Learning to LEED

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 19:45:16 +0000

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation: Learning to LEED admin Thu, 01/19/2023 - 14:45

Whether they know it or not, most city dwellers have probably been inside a so-called “green” building. Plaques boasting various types of environmental or energy certifications — known as ecolabels — often hang prominently in their lobbies. They’re visible, but how can we know if ecolabels have a real impact or are mostly about showing off?

Daniel Matisoff, professor of public policy at Georgia Tech, illuminates the role and impact of green building ecolabels in his book, Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation: Learning to LEED, which traces the curve of ecolabel adoption in the building market, revealing how ecolabels have transformed the economy and construction industry to achieve green market transformation. Co-authored by Douglas Noonan, professor of public policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, it is the first book to comprehensively assess the green building movement. The book was published by Cambridge University Press in October 2022.

Green building ecolabels, simply stated, are marks or designations that indicate environmental performance and sustainability certifications. Matisoff and Noonan investigated prominent ecolabels, such as LEED, and examined how they work, exploring the theory and economics behind them. They also studied factors and initiatives that drive the adoption of green building ecolabels, breaking down the green building movement step-by-step.

“A central premise of the book is that early adopters, whether they are creating a demonstration project — such as Georgia Tech’s own Kendeda Building — or adopting an ecolabel early on produce positive information spillovers that help accelerate adoption of green technologies,” Matisoff said.

According to the authors, early adopters do this by moving both supply and demand curves for new energy and environmental technologies. When early adopters employ and experiment with new green building technologies, they help build supply chains, lowering costs for others interested in adopting the technologies. Undertaking green building projects also proves the market performance of new energy and environmental technologies, thereby reducing uncertainty and increasing demand by making them more visible and widely available.

“Early adopters often build pilot and demonstration projects largely for a marketing or reputational benefit, but then that provides positive information spillover to the market,” Matisoff said. “For example, once contractors become familiar with new energy and environmental technologies, they can recommend them to clients for new building projects.”

By looking at data, Matisoff found that there has been a rapid uptake of buildings using the LEED label. But the question that remained was, what does it ultimately accomplish? To answer that question, Matisoff and Noonan looked at several case studies. One such case study is The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, a certified “Living Building,” at Georgia Tech.

The Kendeda Building: Tossing a Pebble in a Pond

The goal of The Kendeda Building was to create a facility that would transform the building and construction industry in the Southeast. Matisoff considered that a testable hypothesis. The Kendeda building inspired Matisoff and his collaborators to dig into 30 years of LEED data to look at the effect of pilot and demonstration projects. They found that if you have a demonstration project in a particular geographic location, it doubles the probability that another green building is going to be built that has similar technologies.

For example, an electrical contracting company working on Kendeda noted that being forced to work with high density poly-ethylene (HDPE) piping — a sustainable alternative to using PVC piping for electrical conduit — led them to realize that HDPE was cheaper and easier to work with, in addition to being a more ecofriendly alternative. The contractor intends to switch to HDPE piping in future projects.

“We at Georgia Tech, by building the Living Building, are providing all this information to the marketplace,” Matisoff said. “And the hope is that other universities or institutions may see this building and say, ‘Hey, we want one of those.’”

Moving Forward

Lessons in Matisoff’s book include how to harness information spillover in addition to more traditional price tools such as subsidies, taxes, and cap-and-trade emissions policies. The authors highlight the importance of leveraging private actors to provide information to the market and suggest that policymakers think carefully about how to incentivize early adopters into the green building market, beyond just prices.

While recent legislation has created a lot of price incentives, subsidies, and tax breaks designed to encourage people to make greener choices, Matisoff’s work emphasizes that, especially at early stages, prices probably aren't enough.

“It's unlikely that there's enough momentum in the policy space to get to where we need to be to address climate change,” Matisoff said. “We hope the book will help us think more carefully about how we leverage information and learning to accelerate the uptake of advanced energy and environmental technologies to facilitate green market transformation.”

Matisoff also hopes the comprehensive study will show the roughly 100,000 certified green building professionals around the world that their efforts have been worth it.

“We wanted to tell a story, especially to green building professionals, about what they’ve accomplished over the past few decades, and the impact their work will have for years to come.”

Summary sentence

Daniel Matisoff's book traces the curve of ecolabel adoption in the building market, revealing how it has transformed the economy and construction industry to achieve green market transformation.

Dateline

Thu, 01/19/2023 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

Contact

Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer and Editor

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Atlanta, GA

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Keywords

Green Buzz

News room topics

Business and Economic Development

Earth and Environment

Core research areas

Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

People and Technology

Public Service, Leadership, and Policy

Mercury ID

664910

Source updated

Thu, 01/19/2023 - 14:40

Georgia Leaders Discuss the Business of Climate Solutions

bwaye3 — Fri, 13 May 2022 17:40:14 +0000

Georgia Leaders Discuss the Business of Climate Solutions bwaye3 Fri, 05/13/2022 - 13:40

Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera and Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian recently discussed how businesses, both small and large, can make positive changes to address urgent issues such as climate change. The conversation, “The Business of Climate Solutions, Local to Global,” was moderated by SaportaReport editor Maria Saporta and CNN national correspondent Nick Valencia, and hosted at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. The event was part of the Atlanta Press Club’s Newsmaker Leadership Series and produced in partnership with the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact, an initiative of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business. Read more for highlights from the discussion.

Urgent Action Needed

When Saporta asked Cabrera to rank on a scale of one to 10 the degree of urgency with which climate change needs to be addressed, without missing a beat, he responded, “10.” He referred to the latest “sobering” report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which describes how the perils of climate change are not only in the future but are already here now.

Bastian said, “We can’t walk out of this timeframe without a renewed commitment to replenishing the Earth … and creating an opportunity for all of our children going forward.”

Cabrera, hopeful that humanity can find solutions for this present threat, used the lightning-fast development of the Covid-19 vaccine as an example of what can happen when humanity unites to face a global threat. Solving the climate crisis, he said, will require “the best of our best thinking” from scientists, engineers, policy experts, social scientists, and others in many fields.

Embrace Innovative Solutions

Cabrera additionally shared how Georgia Tech and Delta partnered on a project to remove the wiring from certain aircraft entertainment systems to make them wireless devices. That small change, removing kilograms of material from planes, led to improvement on the fleet’s overall efficiency. Cabrera said, “A lot of innovation is not about, ‘Oh, let’s all stop flying … or stop living.’ No, it’s, ‘How can we be smart about doing this?’” He acknowledged Georgia Tech experts in the room who understand what types of combustion technology can be most efficient, and those who are working on carbon capture. He said that while some may think carbon reduction is anti-business, the truth is quite the opposite. Cabrera said that many innovative solutions will, in fact, create more opportunities for business.

Scaling Up

Developing innovative ideas and technologies isn’t the problem. The question is: How are they to be funded and scaled? Bastian said, “Ninety-eight percent of [Delta’s] footprint is fossil fuel … jet fuel.” The airline industry is classified as “hard-to-decarbonize.” While Delta is working with Georgia Tech and other organizations on how to replace their energy source, there isn’t presently a viable alternative to jet fuel. Bastian said, “At Delta, if we acquired all of the sustainable aviation fuel that exists in production today in the world, it’s enough to fuel our planes for one day.” Even though sustainable aviation fuel can be produced, it’s incredibly expensive, costing anywhere from three to five times a gallon more than jet fuel. “Energy producers aren’t going to invest the tens of billions of dollars required unless they know they’re going to have somebody on their side,” said Bastian.

The speakers expressed hope that our government can intervene the same way it did with electric vehicles (EVs). Incentives and subsidies created the investment for EVs to be produced – and this segment of the auto industry is now seeing a boom.

Preparing Business Leaders

The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business supports corporate sustainability through education, research, and industry partnerships. It is motivated by the example set by sustainable business visionary and Interface founder Ray C. Anderson (IE 1956, Honorary Ph.D. 2011), who understood the role of business in tackling the big challenges the world is facing.

Cabrera said, “[The center] is aligned with this vision that business ... and business leaders have a key role to play. And it all starts when a business leader says, ‘This is important, and I want to hire someone to lead the effort.’” He also explained that the solutions that are going to be coming forward are not just new technologies but new business models that accompany those technologies.

Climate Solutions Start at Home

Drawdown Georgia is a multi-university research collaboration led by Georgia Tech, with leadership from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Its research has resulted in a list of 20 proposed carbon solutions tailored to Georgia to help businesses of all sizes understand the importance of their carbon impact.

Cabrera said, “This is an effort to bring this global problem close to home.”

Drawdown Georgia takes into consideration the state’s unique economy, population mix, and geography. Delta is one of the 28 (and counting) Drawdown Georgia Business Compact members seeking to reduce their carbon footprint and positively impact “beyond carbon” issues of equity, economic development, and public health.

Overall, the discussion underscored the urgent need for businesses, the government, and individuals to take action immediately. Valencia summarized what exactly is at stake. He said, “This is one of the most important discussions of our time. As a father of two small children, I want to make sure that I leave a good world here behind for my kids, and I know that these individuals here are doing their part to make sure that the future generations have a world to live in.”

In addition to the Atlanta Press Club and the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact, other sponsors included Delta Air Lines and Southern Company Gas.

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera and Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian discuss how businesses can make positive changes to address urgent issues such as climate change.

Summary

Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera and Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian discuss how businesses can make positive changes to address urgent issues such as climate change.

Dateline

Tue, 05/03/2022 - 12:00

Contact

Jennifer Lux

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business; sustainability

News room topics

Business and Economic Development

Categories

Institute and Campus

Alumni

Economic Development and Policy

Business

City Planning, Transportation, and Urban Growth

Energy

Environment

Core research areas

Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

Public Service, Leadership, and Policy

Mercury ID

657917

Source updated

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 10:10

The Future of 5G+ Infrastructure Could be Built Tile by Tile

bwaye3 — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:15:28 +0000

The Future of 5G+ Infrastructure Could be Built Tile by Tile bwaye3 Mon, 04/04/2022 - 11:15

5G+ (5G/Beyond 5G) is the fastest-growing segment and the only significant opportunity for investment growth in the wireless network infrastructure market, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. But currently 5G+ technologies rely on large antenna arrays that are typically bulky and come only in very limited sizes, making them difficult to transport and expensive to customize.

Researchers from Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering have developed a novel and flexible solution to address the problem. Their additively manufactured tile-based approach can construct on-demand, massively scalable arrays of 5G+ (5G/Beyond 5G)‐enabled smart skins with the potential to enable intelligence on nearly any surface or object. The study, recently published in Scientific Reports, describes the approach, which is not only much easier to scale and customize than current practices, but features no performance degradation whenever flexed or scaled to a very large number of tiles.

“Typically, there are a lot of smaller wireless network systems working together, but they are not scalable. With the current techniques, you can’t increase, decrease, or direct bandwidth, especially for very large areas,” said Manos Tentzeris, Ken Byers Professor in Flexible Electronics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Being able to utilize and scale this novel tile-based approach makes this possible.”

Tentzeris says his team’s modular application equipped with 5G+ capability has the potential for immediate, large-scale impact as the telecommunications industry continues to rapidly transition to standards for faster, higher capacity, and lower latency communications.

BUILDING THE TILES

In Georgia Tech’s new approach, flexible and additively manufactured tiles are assembled onto a single, flexible underlying layer. This allows tile arrays to be attached to a multitude of surfaces. The architecture also allows for very large 5G+ phased/electronically steerable antenna array networks to be installed on-the-fly. According to Tentzeris, attaching a tile array to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is even a possibility to surge broadband capacity in low coverage areas.

In the study, the team fabricated a proof-of-concept, flexible 5×5-centimeter tile array and wrapped it around a 3.5-centimeter radius curvature. Each tile includes an antenna subarray and an integrated, beamforming integrated circuit on an underlying tiling layer to create a smart skin that can seamlessly interconnect the tiles into very large antenna arrays and massive multiple-input multiple-outputs (MIMOs) — the practice of housing two or more antennas within a single wireless device. Tile-based array architectures on rigid surfaces with single antenna elements have been researched before, but do not include the modularity, additive manufacturability, or flexible implementation of the Georgia Tech design.

The proposed modular tile approach means tiles of identical sizes can be manufactured in large quantities and are easily replaceable, reducing the cost of customization and repairs. Essentially, this approach combines removable elements, modularity, massive scalability, low cost, and flexibility into one system.

5G+ IS JUST THE BEGINNING

While the tiling architecture has demonstrated the ability to greatly enhance 5G+ technologies, its combination of flexible and conformal capabilities has the potential to be applied in numerous different environments, the Georgia Tech team says.

“The shape and features of each tile scale can be singular and can accommodate different frequency bands and power levels,” said Tentzeris. “One could have communications capabilities, another sensing capabilities, and another could be an energy harvester tile for solar, thermal, or ambient RF energy. The application of the tile framework is not limited to communications.”

Internet of Things, virtual reality, as well as smart manufacturing/Industry 4.0 — a technology-driven approach that utilizes internet-connected “intelligent” machinery to monitor and fully automate the production process — are additional areas of application the team is excited to explore.

“The tile-architecture’s mass scalability makes its applications particularly diverse and virtually ubiquitous. From structures the size of dams and buildings, to machinery or cars, down to individual health-monitoring wearables,” said Tentzeris. “We’re moving in a direction where everything will be covered in some type of a wireless conformal smart skin encompassing electronically steerable antenna arrays of widely diverse sizes that will allow for effective monitoring.”

The team now looks forward to testing the approach outside the lab on large, real-world structures. They are currently working on the fabrication of much larger, fully inkjet-printed tile arrays (256+ elements) that will be presented at the upcoming International Microwave Symposium (IEEE IMS 2022) – the flagship IEEE conference in RF and microwave engineering. The IMS presentation will introduce a new tile-based large-area architecture version that will allow assembly of customizable tile arrays in a rapid and low-cost fashion for numerous conformal platforms and 5G+ enabled applications.

****

The authors declare no competing interests.

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

CITATIONS: He, X., Cui, Y. & Tentzeris, M.M. Tile-based massively scalable MIMO and phased arrays for 5G/B5G-enabled smart skins and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. Sci Rep 12, 2741 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06096-9

K.Hu, G.S.V.Angulo, Y.Cui and M.M.Tentzeris, “Flexible and Scalable Additively Manufactured Tile-Based Phased Arrays for Satellite Communications and 5G mmWave Applications,” accepted for presentation at IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2022, Denver, CO, June 2022.

Summary sentence

Manos Tentzeris and his team of Georgia Tech researchers flex their novel 5G+‐enabled massively scalable tile arrays

Dateline

Tue, 03/29/2022 - 12:00

dwatson@ece.gatech.edu

Contact

Dan Watson
dwatson@ece.gatech.edu

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

Manos Tentzeris

5G+ technologies

Tile-based phased arrays

MIMO

intelligent surfaces

go-ien

go-researchnews

News room topics

Science and Technology

Categories

Institute and Campus

Research

Engineering

Core research areas

Electronics and Nanotechnology

Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

Manufacturing, Trade, and Logistics

Materials

Mercury ID

656785

Source updated

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 15:17

Environmental Health Engineering Graduate Student Wins CRIDC Innovation Competition

bwaye3 — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 20:40:44 +0000

Environmental Health Engineering Graduate Student Wins CRIDC Innovation Competition bwaye3 Wed, 02/16/2022 - 15:40

Mo Jarin, a doctoral student in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has won the Career, Research, and Innovation Development Conference’s Innovation Competition for her VoltaPure water disinfection technology.

Jarin, who is pursuing her degree in environmental health engineering, earned a $1,000 cash prize for her efforts.

The annual event is sponsored by VentureLab, which helps Georgia Tech researchers explore market opportunities and create startups based on their work.

In her three-minute pitch, Jarin explained more than 800 million people worldwide lack consistent access to clean drinking water due to the high cost of treatment plants, difficulties in transporting chemicals, and the aftermath of carcinogenic disinfection byproducts.

“With the current trend in water disinfection centered on alternative solutions to standard chemicals like chlorine, we are excited to continue exploring the market opportunities for VoltaPure,” Jarin said. “I am honored and extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to present to a panel of experienced judges — and especially female entrepreneurs — on our current progress with the commercialization efforts for VoltaPure.

VoltaPure’s novel co-axial electrode copper ionization cell enables superior water disinfection, while producing a low-level, safe effluent copper concentration.

“Mo made a compelling case for the commercial potential of her VoltaPure water disinfection technology,” said VentureLab Director Keith McGreggor. “Her idea illustrates why the Innovation Competition is a great opportunity for Georgia Tech student researchers to think about what it might take to start a business based on their work.”

To better understand her technology’s potential, Jarin has already participated in Georgia Tech’s inaugural Female Founders program and audited the CREATE-X Startup Launch program. She was also awarded a $50,000 grant through the National Science Foundation’s Innovation-Corps program to participate in a seven-week bootcamp focused on experiential education to gain insight into her startup’s industry. She is advised by Xing Xie, the Carlton S. Wilder Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Strong Contenders

Two other student presenters were selected as runners-up and will each receive $500. Nathan Zavanelli, pursuing a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering/bioengineering, and advised by Woon-Hong Yeo in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, explained the benefits of his “smart patch” for sleep apnea assessments. The disorder affects more than 900 million adults worldwide, but most often goes undiagnosed.

Amirtha Varshini Anbuchezhiyan Sindhanai, a computer science master’s student in Tech’s College of Computing, and advised by James Rehg, described how her technology uses machine learning and machine vision to help job applicants review and enhance their nonverbal communications skills.

LaVonda Brown, a Georgia Tech alumna and founder of startup EyeGage, served as a judge alongside Nammy Vedire, director of platform and operations of Engage, the Georgia Tech-affiliated incubator for enterprise-focused startups.

VentureLab will provide ongoing support, reaching out to all the competitors to offer guidance and help them pursue programs and grants that support the transition from success in the lab to success in the market.

Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff interested in these opportunities to further the commercialization of their own research may contact VentureLab through its website, venturelab.gatech.edu, or by e-mailing info@venturelab.gatech.edu.

Summary sentence

Winning technology is disinfection system that addresses access challenges to clean drinking water

Dateline

Wed, 02/16/2022 - 12:00

peralte.paul@comm.gatech.edu

Contact

Péralte C. Paul
404.316.1210
peralte.paul@comm.gatech.edu

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

Water

clean water

venturelab

go-researchnews

Mo Jarin

News room topics

Health and Medicine

Science and Technology

Categories

Institute and Campus

Student and Faculty

Student Research

Research

Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics

Engineering

Core research areas

Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

Mercury ID

655531

Source updated

Wed, 02/16/2022 - 15:40