 Economical: Cost
 Technical: Reliability
 Social: Acceptance
 Political: Government Policies
Mission Statement
The Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable
Energy (LCRE) is established to address the
societal need for clean, affordable and
renewable energy sources
• research
• education and outreach
• technology transfer
• sound public policy
Participating Campuses
and Schools
•IUPUI, IU Bloomington, IU South Bend
•School of Engineering & Technology (IUPUI)
•School of Science (IUPUI, IUB, IUSB)
•School of Public and Environmental Affairs
(IUPUI, IUB)
•School of Medicine (IUPUI)
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•Center Director: Dr. Andrew Hsu, Professor
of Mechanical Engineering.
•Associate Director: Dr. Alan Jones,
Assistant Professor of Mechanical
Engineering.
•Associate Director: Ken Richards, Associate
Professor of Public and Environmental
Affairs, IU Bloomington.
•Mechanical Engineering
•Biomedical Engineering
•Electrical Engineering
•Physics
•Chemistry and Chemical Biology
•Medicine, Yeast and Enzyme
•Polymer
•Combustion
•Computer modeling and multi-scale simulation
•Biology: energy generating plants
•Public and Environmental Affairs
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

•
•
•
•
•
Bio-fuel production and
applications
Environmentally benign usage of
renewable/bio-fuels
Renewable energy through fuel
cell technology
Renewable hydrogen (Solar,
Reformers)
Advanced battery technologies,
HEV and PHEV
Solar photovoltaic
Policy and societal issues
Solar Radiation
Planetary
Other
Photovoltaic
Solar thermal
Wind
Waves
Biomass/bio-fuel
Hydropower
Tidal
Geothermal
Hydrogen
Fuel Cells
Battery
• Find the plants best suited for energy production
• Study the differences in resource input and environmental impact
for different energy plants
• Genetically change the plants so that they can be produced in harsh conditions
that will not compete for resources with food production
Biofuel Production
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11
12
Comparison of Bio-Gasoline with
Regular Unleaded Gasoline
Volume Percent
30
25
20
Bio-Gasoline
15
Regular
Unleaded
10
5
0
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
Carbon Number
13
Clean Combustion of
Renewable/Synthetic Fuels
Future hydrogen-rich renewable and synthetic fuels enable
super-efficient combustion engines for power and
transport.
The Center conducts research on fuel conversion and
utilization from non-petroleum sources, and novel clean
combustion and pulsed compressor technologies for
aircraft, automobile, and power-generation engines. 14
Direct Methanol/
Ethanol Fuel Cell
•Renewable
•Zero emission
•High efficiency
Key technologies:
•Catalyst
•Membranes
15
Highlights in Fuel Cell Research
• Fundamental Research of Catalysts and
Membranes
–
–
–
–
Theoretical Modeling
Catalysts and Membrane Synthesis
Molecular Scale Characterization
Electrochemical Characterizations
• Fuel Cell Fabrication and Testing
– Electrode and Membrane Fabrication
– Performance, Durability and
Impendence Testing
• Applications
– Portable Electronics
– Commercial and Residential
– Regenerative Fuel Cell System (RFCS)
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Fuel Cell Research
Polymers for Fuel Cell Research
NHCO CH CH2
N
CH2
CH CONH
N
N
N
N
Co
N
N
NHCO CH CH2
N
NHCO CH CH2
17
Catalyst
Microcapsule
• Independent initiation of healing
• Automatically continues to completion
• Localized healing (only at damage)
Issues
•
•
•
White et al. Nature, 2001
rest
period
Demonstrated life extension
in model polymers
Compatible
Chemistries
Retains
conductivity
Resists
humidity
temperature
Maher Rizkalla
Matt Rubin
Thermovoltaic cells use multiple thermal
phonons (heat waves) with non-discrete energy
levels to generate electric carriers from all
phonons, allowing them to convert waste heat
into energy.
Calculations support power density of
0.6W/cm2 at 300K for bi-layer device
(shown left). Could reach 60%-80%
efficiency
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



Integration of renewable
energy in larger policy context
Economic and financial analysis
Lifecycle analysis of energy and
environmental impacts
Forest and agricultural land use
analysis
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• The Richard G. Lugar Center will be a
premier research center in the US
• World leader in selected research areas
• Prominent influence in the nation
attained through both research
activities and out reach activities such
as organizing and hosting public
forums, workshops, and conferences
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Today’s Installation
Electricity
Customer
Genset –
made in
Indiana
System Controller –
made in Colorado
Paralleling Switchgear –
made by several
companies outside
Indiana
Grid
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Hydrogen Generation and BioGasoline
1. Andrew Hsu, Professor of
Mechanical Engineering
2. Zhiwei Yang, Visiting Professor,
Instrumentation
3. Lihong Huang, Postdoctoral Fellow,
Catalysis
Photovotaic Solar Energy
1. Maher Rizkala, Professor of
Electrical Engineering
2. Mathew Rubin, IURTC
Distributed Power Generation and Hybrid Vehicles
1. Yaobin Chen, Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering. Power grid coupling, HEV
2. Steve Rovnyak, Assistant Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering. Power grid coupling
3. Sarah Koskie, Assistant Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering. Power grid coupling
4. Anwar Sohel, Assistant Professor of Mechanical
Engineering. HEV and PHEV
Combustion
•Razi Nalim, Associate Professor of
Mechanical Engineering. Clean
combustion
•Siva Krishnan, Assistant Professor of
Mechanical Engineering. Clean
combustion
Biofuel
1. Mark Goebl, Professor of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology, School of
Medicine. Enzyme and yeast for
cellulosic ethanol production
2. Stephen Randall, Professor Biology,
Biofuel production
3. Xianzhong Wang, Assistant Professor of
Biology. Energy generating plants;
Policy and Economics
•David McSwane, Professor, School of
Public and Environmental Affairs,
Indianapolis. Policies
•Ken Richards, Associate Professor, School
of Public and Environmental Affairs,
Bloomington. Policy and economics of
energy and CO2 sequestration.
•Patricia Fox, Assistant Professor,
Engineering and Technology, policy,
economics, and Sustainability
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• Basic structure for the Center has
been set up
• Good faculty participation
• Research activities show promising
results
• Outreach programs off to a good start
• Work remains to be done to reach our
goal but we are confident that we will
realize our vision
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• Increase activities in research and
outreach
• Increase manpower:
–attract world’s leading researchers in
selected research areas to the
center
• Establish a physical presence:
–cluster of state of the art labs (near
term)
–new building (mid to long term)
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Fuel Cell and Batteries
1. Andrew Hsu, Professor of ME, Fuel Cell Systems (1999)
2. Rongrong Chen, Associate Professor of MET. Electrochemistry,
catalysis, fuel cells, batteries (2004)
3. Guofeng Wang, Assistant Professor of ME, Materials (2007)
4. Jian Xie, Assistant Professor of ME, electrochemistry, fuel cell and
batteries (2007)
5. Guigui Wang, Assistant Research Professor, polymer membrane
synthesis (2007)
6. Dong Xie, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Polymer
synthesis
7. Kelsey M. Forsythe, Director of Computational Molecular Science
Facility; Quantum and molecular simulation of fuel cell catalysis
8. Jeffery Zaleski, Professor of Chemistry. IUB. Macrocycle Catalysts
synthesis
9. Hasan Akay, Chancellor’s Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
Computer modeling
10.Alan Jones, Assistant Professor of ME, Membrane Durability