The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced $125 million for the creation of two Energy Innovation Hubs to provide the scientific foundation needed to address the nation's most pressing battery challenges and encourage next generation technological developments, including safety, high-energy density and long-duration batteries made from inexpensive, abundant materials. University of Houston – The Energy University – is part of one of the national hubs, the Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA).
Progress in energy storage and batteries is crucial for a clean energy future. It would enhance grid reliability, optimize renewable energy usage, reduce emissions and support the growth of electric transportation and other clean energy technologies.
ESRA brings together nearly 50 world-class researchers from three national laboratories and 12 universities, including UH, to push the boundaries of energy storage science to drive technological innovation and strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness.
Yan Yao, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor at the UH Cullen College of Engineering and principal investigator at the Texas Center for Superconductivity, is the deputy lead of the soft matter scientific thrust and the principal investigator for UH's portion of the project.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Yao. "To collaborate with world-class experts to understand and develop new science and make discoveries that will lead to the next generation of batteries and energy storage concepts, and potentially game changing devices is exciting. It's also a great opportunity for our students to learn from and work with top scientists in the country and be part of cutting-edge research."
This project is led by Argonne National Laboratory and co-led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
"The demand for high-performance, low-cost and sustainable energy storage devices is on the rise, especially those with potential to deeply decarbonize heavy-duty transportation and the electric grid," said Shirley Meng, ESRA director, chief scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science and professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at The University of Chicago in the Argonne press release. "To achieve this, energy storage technology must reach levels of unprecedented performance, surpassing the capabilities of current lithium-ion technology. The key to making these transformative leaps lies in a robust research and development initiative firmly grounded in basic science."
Leveraging decades of national investment in basic sciences, ESRA seeks to enable transformative discoveries in materials chemistry, gain a fundamental understanding of electrochemical phenomena at the atomic scale and lay the scientific foundations for breakthroughs in energy storage technologies. The hub will focus on three interconnected scientific thrusts – liquids, soft matter and condensed matter phases – and how they work together.
Yao and his team are globally known for their work to create next-generation batteries using abundant, low-cost organic materials. In the cathode, the team previously used quinones — which can be synthesized from plants and food like maize or soybean — to increase energy density, electrochemical stability and overall safety. They were the first to make solid-state sodium batteries using multi-electron conformal organic cathodes with a demonstrated record of recharging stability of 500 charging cycles.
Pieremanuele Canepa, Robert A. Welch Assistant Professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH, will serve as co-PI. Both researchers will investigate phase transitions in multi-electron redox materials and conformable cathodes to enable solid-state batteries by marrying Yao's experimental lab work with Canepa's expertise in computational material science.
Joe Powell, founding director of the UH Energy Transition Institute and a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will create a community benefit plan and develop an energy equity course to teach students about energy equity and provide avenues for them to research energy equity issues.
"New energy infrastructure and systems can have benefits and burdens for communities," Powell said. "Understanding potential issues and partnering to develop best solutions is critical. We want everyone to be able to participate in the new energy economy and benefit from clean energy solutions."
He added that UH students will be conducting studies to identify gaps in energy equity, particularly concerning the societal impacts associated with new energy systems. Their research will explore opportunities such as job creation and emissions reduction, while also examining strategies to close these equity gaps.
Claudia Neuhauser, UH vice president for research, is proud of the UH researchers participating in the project.
"The partnership with Argonne National Lab to be a part of the DOE-funded Energy Storage Research Alliance is a testimony of our commitment to sustainable energy solutions and our strength in battery science," she said. "We look forward to this multi-institutional collaboration and to leveraging our investments in a battery manufacturing facility."
Collaboration among national laboratories and universities is crucial to discovering new materials, accelerating technology development and commercializing new energy storage technologies. The achievement of ESRA's goals will lead to high-energy batteries that should never catch fire, offer days of long-duration storage, have multiple decades of life and are made from inexpensive, abundant materials.
"To fuel innovation and cultivate a sustainable and equitable energy future, all universities, government entities, industry and community partners have to work together. No one person or entity can achieve all this by themselves," said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation at UH. "As the Energy University and a Carnegie-designated Tier One research university, located in Houston — a center of diverse talent and experience from across the energy industry — UH has a unique advantage of continuing to build on Houston's global leadership and demonstrating solutions at scale."
The DOE will provide up to $62.5 million in ESRA funding over five years.
"Providing the scientific foundation to accelerate this important research is key to our economy and making sure the U.S. plays a lead role in transforming the way we store and use electricity," said Harriet Kung, DOE's Acting Director for the Office of Science. "Today's awards provide our Energy Innovation Hub teams with the tools and resources to solve some of the most challenging science problems that are limiting our ability to decarbonize transportation and incorporate clean energy into the electricity grid."
