these novel devices, which will of course lead to more interdisciplinary research.

BME covers many areas, but equally important, we are one team and we support one another. As a small department with a giant footprint, we see ourselves as a manager for promoting collaborative research campuswide, whereas BME departments elsewhere may hold a more self-sufficient point of view. Conceptually, this is a nonconventional way of looking at a department, but were a department with a unique character, concludes Wang.

Materials Science and Engineering: Its All About Energy

Yu-Li Wang, head of Biomedical Engineering

his fall the College is launching a new masters program in Energy Science, Technology and Policy. This is an independent, college-wide program that was initiated by Materials Science and Engineering. From designing and building devices for power plants to developing and securing the smart grid to swaying public policy, literally every CIT department with perhaps the exception of BME is involved in energy research. Considering the expansive energy work underway in the College, the question arises: Why did the new program start in MSE? Theres a perception that there is no connection between materials and energy, and I say the situation is just the opposite. Materials and energy are closely coupled, states Gregory Rohrer, the head of MSE. Virtually everything we do in materials has something to do with energy. Materials are intrinsically connected to the production, distribution and utilization of energy and this affects our environment. Making his point, Rohrer raises the example of coal-fired power plants. On average, they are about 30 to 35 percent efficient, yet plants have been designed that have 46 percent efficiency and 50 percent is believed achievable. The increase in efficiency comes from operating the plants with higher temperature steam and the key to this is materials alloys for the turbines

that remain stable at higher temperatures for longer times and ceramic coatings that protect the materials in the turbine, says Rohrer. Increased efficiency results in lower costs, better use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by about a third. Renewable energy efforts grab media attention, but Rohrer states, these things are sometimes oversold. Wind-generated energy is extremely useful for certain situations, but it can not replace our current electric generation capacity. The most reliable estimates indicate that you can cover the country with windmills; yet, it will not produce the amount of electricity that people will need if they want to run their air conditioners and computers. While large-scale deployment of reliable, sustainable energy systems that dont harm the planet may not materialize in our lifetimes, there are actions we can take now to improve energy production and mitigate environmental damage. MSE is developing materials for use in highly efficient solid state lighting systems, industrial batteries, fuel cells and the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy. We are poised to transform the way energy is produced, stored and used, says Rohrer.

E ffic iency Makes a D ifferen c e

What people dont easily see when they look at MSEs research is that many of

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Gregory Rohrer, head of Materials Science and Engineering

the projects are directly related to energy efficiency, says Rohrer. For instance, Robert Davis is working on light emitting diode systems (LED) that probably have five to ten times the efficiency of normal light bulbs. The impact of this work, with regards to fuel costs and environmental implications could be far-reaching, considering that worldwide, grid-based electric lighting consumes 19 percent of total global electricity production, states Davis, the John and Claire Bertucci Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Incandescent lighting and fuel-based lamps (which are widely used around the world for lighting) convert 5 percent or less of the energy they consume into light. Solid-state lighting (SSL), which uses semiconductor materials to make the LEDs that convert electricity directly into light, is far more efficient. SSL is being positioned to meet our future lighting needs the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) goal is that SSL will be 30 to 50 percent efficient by 2015. This is certainly an improvement over the present state, but there are significant scientific and design hurdles to overcome before well see widespread use of this technology in our daily lives. Metal production is another area where energy efficiency is of great importance. The processing of materials, especially metals,

takes up a significant fraction of world-wide energy use and these costs are reflected in a products price, states Rohrer. When you buy a can of soda, youre paying, in part, for the cost of aluminum production. These costs are significant because aluminum is an energy-intensive material. Three percent of the total global electricity supply is used to make aluminum, says Rohrer. However, over the last few decades, advances in materials processing have decreased the amount of energy used to make aluminum by about a third. Recycling aluminum is worthwhile because it takes roughly 90 to 95 percent less energy to recycle aluminum than to make aluminum from ore.

Increme ntal Trans for mations

Energy efficiency plays a dominant role in MSEs research activities; however, energy storage is of great importance as we pursue renewable energy sources. A particularly exciting body of research coming out of MSE is in large-scale storage batteries. A thorny problem with wind and solar farms is that there is no economical way to store surplus energy to feed into the power grid for later use. CIT researchers, led by Jay Whitacre, a professor in MSE, have created a sodium ion battery. This promising storage technology garnered a $5 million grant from

DOEs Smart Grids Demo Program and has resulted in a Pittsburgh-based spinoff company, Aquion Energy. (See page 10 for How to Catch the Wind.) Fuel cells represent another major research area for CIT and Western Pennsylvania. With support from the DOEs Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA), work is underway throughout Carnegie Mellon to advance solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology. One goal is to develop large fuel cells that use gasified coal to produce electricity at power stations for $400 or less per kilowatt. (Presently, fuel cell-generated electricity costs roughly $4,500 per kilowatt.) These new systems would have near zero emissions because they would capture 90 percent or more of the CO2 produced. In addition, they would be at least 50 percent or more efficient in converting coal to energy. Bringing innovative technologies to market is exciting, but it doesnt happen quickly in materials science. On one hand, CITs materials department has a long list of patents and strong partnerships with industry. (The Center for Iron and Steel Making is nearly 100 percent industry funded.) But as Rohrer explains, a vast majority of our research is devoted to scientific understanding, and that wont lead to a new product next year. Case in point is the work being led by MSE

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Virtually everything we do in materials has something to do with energy. Materials are intrinsically connected to the production, distribution and utilization of energy and this affects our environment.
Professor Paul Salvador and Rohrer to convert solar energy directly to chemical energy by making photocatalysts from ferroelectric nanomaterials. (Photocatalysts are light-absorbing materials that change the rate of chemical reactions.) Salvador explains that the broad view of photocatalysis is that water represents oxidized fuel. If you take water and split it with sunlight (via a photocatalyst), it generates hydrogen and oxygen. You burn or react the hydrogen and oxygen to produce heat or electricity. You collect the spent fuel, which is water and you start all over again, says Salvador. This closed-loop process takes a lot of energy and sunlight is abundant. If you could cheaply synthesize hydrogen from sunlight that would change the way the whole planet works, says Rohrer. Building off this example, imagine a closed-loop process with carbon and oxygen. If you burn carbon with oxygen, you get CO2. If you could develop a photocatalyst that splits carbon dioxide back to carbon monoxide and oxygen, you would have a way of reversing the carbon cycle. Instead of sequestering CO2, you would break it down to use as fuel. You would take it out of the air, crack it, burn it, collect the emissions and you come full cycle says Salvador, who has no illusions as to how difficult it would be to realize this feat. It will be years before the science results in tangibles, but the scenario is ripe with possibilities as are many of the fundamental research projects underway in MSE. There is abundant, wellfounded conjecture as to what will be the next big thing in energy generation, but theres no question that materials science and engineering will play an integral role in the creation and use of future energy systems.

T h e Ma ste rs i n E n e rgy Sci e n ce, Te ch n o l o gy a n d Po l i cy (ES TP)

This new program is intended for students who seek a distinctive masters program that is based in engineering and informed by a broader perspective in economics and public policy. Students enroll in the program independent of a department, but select a disciplinary concentration within one of six different departments (MSE, ECE, CEE, ChemE, EPP and MechE) in the College of Engineering. The curriculum consists of 96 units and is designed to be completed in one academic year. The program is interdisciplinary and draws instructors from all the departments in CIT. It covers a wide range of issues from the harvesting and conversion of energy to its distribution, demand and usage. The subjects will be covered from different aspects including: The fundamental underlying scientific principles governing and limiting energy conversion and transport The technological, regulatory and other barriers that exist today and engineering challenges for enabling future power systems and infrastructure Sustainability and environmental issues The national and global socioeconomical questions that govern energy policy and legislature. Students graduating from this program will have a unique education that will be focused on energy and incorporates the different strengths that the various CIT departments offer. Most graduates will be interested in careers in utility companies, power plant design and manufacture, primary metals and other energy-intensive industries, consulting firms and government labs, as well as academic institutions. For more information about the Masters in Energy Science, Technology and Policy, on the Web, visit http://neon.materials.cmu.edu/energy
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