EMS Energy Institute Awards by Source

(Fiscal Year 2022/2023)

EMS Energy Institute Projects by Program Area

(Fiscal Year 2022/2023)

EMS Energy Institute Funding by Source

(Fiscal Year 2022/2023)

EMS Energy Institute Funding by Program Area

(Fiscal Year 2022/2023)

Hilal Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy engineering and chemical engineering at Penn State, in research lab.
Credit: Courtney Robinson / Penn State

Toraman receives recognition from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Hilal Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy engineering and chemical engineering, was selected as a “Pioneer of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE)” by the CRE division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 

https://bit.ly/3R4tL2Y

Petroleum engineering faculty receive regional achievement awards

The Society of Petroleum of Engineers (SPE) has recognized three faculty members of the John and Willie Leone Family of Energy and Mineral Engineering (EME) for their exceptional service and leadership, as well as their significant professional contributions within their technical disciplines at the regional level. 

• Hamid Emami-Meybodi, associate professor of petroleum of natural gas, was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty for his superior teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the profession, and special effectiveness in advising and guiding students.
• Luis Ayala, William A. Fustos Family Professor in Energy and Mineral Engineering, was awarded the Regional Service Award for contributions to the SPE mission that exhibits an exceptional devotion of time, effort, thought, and action.
• Zuleima Karpyn, associate dean for graduate education and research at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Donohue Family Professor of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, was awarded the Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award for her outstanding achievement and contributions to the advancement of petroleum engineering in reservoir technology.

https://bit.ly/4bDC5Pp

Energy and mineral engineering doctoral candidate awarded fellowship grant

Younes Shekarian, a doctoral degree candidate in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering received the SME Ph.D. Fellowship grant from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME). The award helps support exceptional doctoral students who are seeking a career in academia.

https://bit.ly/454bZCN

Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and chemical engineering at Penn State, is one of 12 early-career scientists named to Chemical & Engineering News’ (C&EN) 2023 “Talented 12” list.
Credit: C&EN

Ezgi Toraman named to Chemical & Engineering News’ ‘Talented 12’ list

Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and chemical engineering at Penn State, is one of twelve early-career scientists named to Chemical & Engineering News’ (C&EN) 2023 “Talented 12” list that highlights early-career researchers in the chemical sciences who are fearlessly tackling difficult global problems. Toraman was selected for her research in technologies that turn waste into fuels, chemicals, and other products.

https://bit.ly/4aLAVQT

Srinivasan named to the 2023 Energy & Environment Power 100 list

Ever since America’s first commercial oil well began gushing in Pennsylvania in 1859, the state has profited from a robust energy industry. More recently, conservation and green-energy organizations have sprouted across the commonwealth’s three-quarters-rural landscape, pushing Pennsylvania to diversify into wind, solar, and other renewable resources. Whether drilling shale, promoting green alternatives, or keeping the power grids stable, the people on the 2023 Energy & Environment Power 100 list are all helping to write Pennsylvania’s sustainable next chapter.

https://bit.ly/4aEec9n

Penn State professor awarded technical honor from Society of Petroleum Engineers

Russell Johns, professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering, was selected to receive the 2023 SPE/AIME Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal from the International Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for technical leadership. The medal is SPE’s highest international technical award. Johns received the award at the 2023 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition October 16-18, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas.

https://bit.ly/4bWAaFs

Behzad Vaziri Hassas received the 2023 Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Metallurgical Engineering from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. He was recognized for his dissertation, “Process development for selective separation of critical elements from secondary resources.”
Credit: Penn State

EMS doctoral alum receives national 2023 Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Dissertation Award

Behzad Vaziri Hassas received the 2023 Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Metallurgical Engineering from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. Hassas, who earned his doctorate in energy and mineral engineering from Penn State last year, was recognized for his dissertation, “Process development for selective separation of critical elements from secondary resources.”

https://bit.ly/457YguD

Pisupati named fellow of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers

Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering, professor of chemical engineering, and director of the Center for Critical Minerals, was recently elected as a fellow of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. The induction ceremony was held in Kolkata, India on December 27, 2023.

Karpyn named recipient of 2023-24 U.S. Fulbright Scholar award

Eleven Penn State faculty, including Zuleima Karpyn, have received Fulbright Scholar Awards for the 2023-24 academic year, according to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Through the program, Penn State faculty members, staff, and administrators have opportunities to conduct advanced research, teach, or do both, and attend seminars abroad. The program also gives recipients the opportunity to interact with and impact their host communities during their Fulbright tenure.

https://bit.ly/3WZiOnf

New Lab Spaces

We are pleased to announce the creation of new shared laboratories. These labs boast state-of-the-art equipment, including relocated gas chromatography-mass spectrometers, surface analyzers, and thermogravimetric analyzers. Additionally, a dedicated sample preparation area featuring centrifuges, ovens, and grinding and polishing equipment is now available for researchers’ use.

Student Engagement

To enhance the graduate student experience, we launched professional development and student engagement opportunities. This includes workshops, seminars, career skills training, and hands-on training, as well as new collaborative lounges for graduate students across two locations to foster more open communications and collaborations.

Seminar Series

We’re excited to announce the return of our Energy Exchange Seminar Series after an eight-year hiatus. These seminars delve into critical energy issues of today. We have had discussions on cutting-edge advancements in carbon capture and utilization, clean coal technologies, the latest in oil and gas exploration, fuel cell development, and more. Our speakers are a distinguished group, featuring Penn State faculty alongside experts from government agencies and industry leaders.

New Signage

We’ve been busy making improvements to the EMS Energy Institute facilities to improve your next visit. This includes clearer signage to help you find us more easily, a modernized lobby with a large information display and searchable people locator and upgraded conference rooms, and more than seventy new posters throughout our buildings to display our ongoing research and initiatives. We’re confident these changes will make your experience at the institute smoother and more efficient.

Machine learning to monitor stored carbon dioxide saves cost and time, researchers report

Incorporating field data for the first time, researchers at Penn State demonstrated machine learning can be a powerful and cost-effective tool for monitoring sequestered carbon dioxide, overcoming a hurdle for the burgeoning technology aimed at combating climate change.

https://bit.ly/4aEudw2

Carbon sequestration could potentially bridge some areas of transportation and manufacturing that are more difficult to shift to carbon neutral sources because the greenhouse gases can be stored deep in the earth. Yet the technology is costly. New work from researchers at Penn State demonstrates that machine learning could greatly reduce the long-term costs of monitoring carbon sequestration sites.
Credit: Pixabay

Carbon sequestration and mineralization

Addressing the incontrovertible risks of climate change requires deep decarbonization. In addition to green measures like upscaling renewables and improving energy efficiency, there is broad scientific consensus that large-scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) remains critical to limiting global temperature rise below 2° Celsius. CCS involves capturing carbon dioxide from a point source or directly from the air; compressing and transporting it via a pipeline; and storing it deep underground or utilizing it as a feedstock or agent in another industrial process.

https://bit.ly/4bO8z9w

An acid-mine sludge pond in central Pennsylvania. A byproduct of coal mining, such sites may be rich with critical minerals.
Credit: Provided by Sarma Pisupati

$4.99M DOE grant to build domestic supply chain for critical minerals

A Penn State research team was recently awarded a $4.99 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and assess advanced separation technologies for the extraction and recovery of rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal, coal wastes and coal by-products.

https://bit.ly/44zglBC

Penn State, Morgan Advanced Materials partner to improve semiconductor materials

Morgan Advanced Materials visited Penn State recently to sign a memorandum of understanding.
Credit: Christie Clancy/Penn State

Penn State and Morgan Advanced Materials have signed a memorandum of understanding to catalyze research and development of silicon carbide, known as SiC, a semiconductor material that operates more efficiently at high voltages than competing technologies. This agreement includes a new five-year, multimillion-dollar initiative and a commitment by Morgan to become a founding member of the recently launched Penn State Silicon Carbide Innovation Alliance, as well as to supply the graphite materials and solutions needed for SiC development to Penn State for use by internal and external partners. The initiative is a coalition of industry leaders, academic institutions, and government support led by Joshua Robinson, professor of materials science and engineering and acting associate dean for research in Penn State’s College of Earth and Minerals Sciences.

https://bit.ly/49BXOWk

Pennsylvania’s mine waste could play an important role in the nation’s green-energy future

Credit: Penn State

Experimental set-up in Sarma Pisupati’s lab for extracting and separating critical minerals from acid mine drainage.
Credit: Patrick Mansell

Critical minerals, including rare earth metals, are vital components of our consumer goods, national defense, and emerging green-energy technologies, but the U.S is heavily dependent on imports for an adequate supply. Penn State researchers are looking for ways to tap Pennsylvania’s coal mine waste as a domestic source for these materials and reduce environmental pollution at the same time.

https://bit.ly/3R6nbJs

A core sample of clay in the lab. The Mercer Clay, a large deposit in central Pennsylvania, may be a secondary source of the battery metal lithium.
Credit: Patrick Mansell

Hydrogen battery: Storing hydrogen in coal may help power clean energy economy

A Penn State researcher holds a large piece of coal.
Credit: Penn State

The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place—coal. A team of Penn State scientists found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas, much like batteries store energy for future use, addressing a major hurdle in developing a clean energy supply chain.

https://bit.ly/3VlRgWT

Scientists develop new method to create stable, efficient next-gen solar cells

An international research team, including Penn State faculty Nelson Dzade, reported a new method for creating more durable solar cells that still achieve high efficiency for converting sunlight to electricity.
Credit: Provided by Nelson Dzade

Next-generation solar materials are cheaper and more sustainable to produce than traditional silicon solar cells, but hurdles remain in making the devices durable enough to withstand real-world conditions. A new technique developed by a team of international scientists could simplify the development of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells, named for their unique crystalline structure that excels at absorbing visible light. The scientists, including Penn State faculty Nelson Dzade, reported in the journal Nature Energy their new method for creating more durable perovskite solar cells that still achieve a high efficiency of 21.59% conversion of sunlight to electricity.

https://bit.ly/3V4rp5g

2024 External Review

On April 22-24, 2024, the institute was evaluated by an external panel of experts as part of a mandatory eight-year review cycle. This review’s objective was to evaluate the institute within an international and national context of education and service and to provide constructive feedback on institute plans. This could include examining the institute’s short-term and long-term goals, the educational experience of graduate and undergraduate students, research accomplishments, service requirements, organization, facilities, and resource allocation decisions.  

Our external visiting panel consisted of four experts: 

• Franklin (Lynn) Orr, Jr., Keleen and Carlton Beal Professor of Petroleum Engineering, Emeritus, Stanford University  
• Rodney Andrews, Associate Vice President for Research and Development, Director of Center for Applied Energy Research, and Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Kentucky  
• Liang-Shih Fan, Distinguished University Professor, C. John Easton Professor in Engineering, and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University 
• Laura J. Pyrak-Nolte, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Director, Rock Physics Research Group, Purdue University 

During their visit, Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Sanjay Srinivasan, institute director, welcomed the external visiting panel. They were presented with a focused self-study prepared by the institute, and, during the review, the external visiting panel had meaningful interactions with faculty, staff, and graduate students. Some of these were in the form of individual meetings and some were in the form of judiciously selected groups. The panel also toured the institute’s facilities. On the final day, the panel members prepared a report from the visit with commendations and recommendations.  

External reviews are essential elements in improving the overall quality of education, research productivity and connectivity, and faculty service at the University, and the institute would like to thank the reviewers for their time and thoughtful advice to best advance our goals and mission. 

Critical minerals’ role in green energy topic of 2024 Shoemaker Lecture

Edward C. Dowling Jr., president and chief executive officer and board of directors’ member at Compass Minerals, gave the 2024 G. Albert Shoemaker Lecture in Mineral Engineering at Penn State. His talk, “Challenges and Opportunities of the Critical Minerals Revolution,” was held on April 19, in the Hub-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium and online via Zoom. A reception followed in Alumni Hall.

The lecture focused on the realities of climate change and how the global need to transition to non-carbon-emitting energy generation, distribution, and utilization creates fundamental national security implications. The transition also drives an order of magnitude demand increase for various critical and essential minerals. Dowling discussed how significant increases in critical and essential mineral production are strategically vital to achieving the desired green energy transition. His lecture presented the scale of critical and essential mineral requirements and focused on the many technical, human resource, jurisdictional, financial, environmental social, and governance challenges and opportunities that the mining industry faces.

Benefits, risks of a more electrified world discussed at recent workshop

A workshop focusing on the rise of cross-border electricity interconnections—and the high-stake challenges they introduce—was held on April 15, in 603 Barron Innovation Hub. The workshop was also available online via Zoom.

Moderated by Chiara Lo Prete, associate professor of energy economics at Penn State, the workshop, “The Geopolitics of Cross-border Electricity Grids” featured a twelve-person panel of policy and academic experts who discussed the implications of increased international electricity trade implications in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as the impact on research.

Penn State EMS Energy Institute Open House

The Penn State EMS Energy Institute hosted an open house from 4-7 p.m. on September 27, 2023, on the Penn State University Park campus to introduce faculty, staff, and students to new director Sanjay Srinivasan and to discuss the path of the institute.

The event began with a presentation led by Srinivasan and Bruce Miller, associate director of the institute. Miller presented an overview of the institute with a historical timeline and an overview of the types of fundamental and applied research performed, strategic program areas, and a breakdown of personnel and funding.

Srinivasan highlighted the benefits of being affiliated with the institute and his plans for the institute’s future, which include fostering collaboration, identifying and supporting niche areas, and leveraging resources to better support researchers. He hopes to build a vibrant student community, promote professional development opportunities, and advance students’ research writing and presentation abilities. In addition, he wants to build a stronger infrastructure that better supports collaboration with industry, national laboratories, and other research organizations.

Participants were also led on a tour of several laboratories to get a better look at facilities and research being conducted at the institute. The labs highlighted included some used for critical minerals research, shared analytical labs, and pilot-scale facilities.

https://www.energy.psu.edu/ei-open-house-2023

Energy Exchange Seminar Series

Energy Exchange is a seminar series hosted by the EMS Energy Institute as part of its outreach mission. The seminars focus on highly relevant energy topics. Energy topics discussed include new innovations in carbon dioxide utilization, clean coal, petroleum and natural gas, fuel cells, and more. Speakers include Penn State faculty as well as government and industry professionals. The Energy Exchange Seminar Series will return in the fall. Please check our website often for updates: energy.psu.edu

This year’s speakers were:

The EMS Energy Institute welcomes the following new members who have joined the Institute since our last publication. Detailed profiles can be found at energy.psu.edu.

Faculty

Thandazile Moyo
Assistant Professor

Moyo is an assistant professor in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering and a co-funded faculty in the Materials Research Institute. She is experienced in the hydrometallurgical processing of gold and base metals. Her research interests are developing flowsheets and testing green technology for metal recovery from primary and secondary resources. Some of her research uses electrochemistry and electroanalytical tools to study surface reactions in mineral dissolution. Beyond the purely technical, Moyo is passionate about the sustainable development of mineral resources and researches the long-term impacts of mineral extraction. She researches artisanal and small-scale mining, looking at the technological challenges and the sector’s contributions to sustainable development. Before she joined Penn State, Moyo completed her doctoral degree in chemical engineering at the University of Cape Town. She worked as a researcher, focused on flowsheet development and testing for metal recovery from waste polychlorinated biphenyls, and co-developed and taught courses on sustainability in minerals extraction at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. 

Olumide Samuel Ogunmodimu
Assistant Professor

Ogunmodimu is an assistant professor in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, with roles in the EMS Energy Institute, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, and the Materials Research Institute. With an academic foundation in physics and solar, advanced degrees in energy studies, and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, his expertise lies in comminution and classification in mineral processing. Before joining Penn State, he gained experience as a research fellow at the University of Cape Town and the University of Queensland’s Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre. His research spans the full spectrum of mineral processing, particularly emphasizing the detailed study of granular flow modeling to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability within the mineral processing value chain. Utilizing cutting-edge techniques like positron emission particle tracking and advanced mathematical and computational models, Ogunmodimu is dedicated to advancing mineral processing and materials science, aiming for more sustainable and efficient methodologies. 

Staff

Jeralyn Brewer 
Multimedia Specialist 

Brewer joined the EMS Energy Institute in January 2024. She has experience in various areas of graphic and digital design. She currently creates print and digital materials, including flyers, posters, brochures, slides, and more. Prior to joining the institute, Brewer worked in the news media business. She has a bachelor of science degree in geography. 

Aime Jones
Administrative Assistant 

Jones joined the institute in November 2023. Before starting in her current role, she worked beginning in April 2023 in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. She studied labor and human resources at Penn State. 

Colin Minnick
Research Assistant 

Minnick joined the institute as a research assistant in December 2023. He holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering technology from Penn State. 

Researchers

Faras Al Balushi 
Post-doctoral Scholar 

Al Balushi joined Penn State as a postdoctoral scholar in the Arash Dahi Taleghani research group in January 2024. He received his bachelor of science, master of science, and doctorate degrees, all in petroleum and natural gas engineering, from Penn State. His research interests include multiscale—pore-, particle-, and field-scale—modeling of subsurface systems for applications in oil and gas and geothermal reservoirs. His doctoral research focused on finding an innovative solution for thermal breakthrough in enhanced geothermal systems and performing sensitivity and feasibility analyses to determine the effectiveness of the developed approach. 

Livio Yang Santos 
Post-doctoral Scholar 

Yang Santos joined Penn State as a postdoctoral scholar in the Arash Dahi Taleghani research group. His research interests include expandable proppants for hydraulic fracturing. 

 
Hello friends:  

Greetings to you on a beautiful sunny day in State College after a rainy and damp winter and the beginning of spring. The University Park campus is resplendent with the colors of azaleas, phlox, and the ever-pleasing roses. The lines at the Nittany Lion Shrine are slowly starting to become more manageable, after the frenzy of spring graduation. It is indeed gratifying to note that the University has put forth the next generation of talented and well-trained young professionals to take on the myriad of challenges facing our society. The EMS Energy Institute also had its share of graduate and undergraduate students, well-trained in many aspects of energy research, who are eager to unleash their skills to shape the transformation that is ongoing in the energy sector. We wish them well and look forward to hearing about their career exploits and the major ways in which they have impacted the energy industry.

In the meantime, I have spent my first year as the director of the EMS Energy Institute mostly familiarizing myself with the current activities within the institute. We have an incredibly talented group of administrative and technical staff, and they constantly strive to outdo each other in contributing to making the institute a fantastic place to work. Despite budget reductions, personnel reorganization initiated by the University, and numerous demands placed by funding organizations, these staff members go about doing their jobs with the utmost dedication and diligence, and for that, I am extremely grateful. It gave us much happiness to celebrate our esteemed colleague Elizabeth Wood’s retirement. Liz, as many of you know, was the key person responsible for maintaining the institute’s presence on the worldwide web. She is a graphic artist par excellence, and her artistic touch is visible in nearly every poster on display on the walls of the institute.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of the staff and the army of research affiliates associated with the institute, we have been successful in launching several initiatives during this year.

Some of these are:

• Reorganization of the institute into four thematic areas:  
  • Materials and Minerals for the Energy Transition  
  • Science and Engineering of Energy Systems  
  • Socioeconomic and Environmental Aspects of the Energy Transition  
  • Predictive Data Analytics and Computational Aspects of the Energy Transition  

For each thematic area, we identified a team of area leads. We entrusted these leads to engage researchers in discussions and produce recommendations for allocation of research resources such as labs, facilities, assignment of graduate assistants, seed funds, etc., recommend members to join the institute’s advisory board, and suggest names of speakers for the Energy Exchange Seminar Series.

• The institute underwent an external review in April 2024. Several activities were initiated and completed in preparation for the review. These included:  
  • Compilation of a self-study report. Although we decided to use much of the content in the report that was prepared in 2020 in preparation for the review that year, prior to it getting cancelled due to COVID-19, there were several items that needed to be revised and new sections added to highlight the future plans of the institute. We also added several new appendices to the report to highlight new initiatives, consortia, etc.  
  • Complete overhaul of posters and displays throughout the institute. This was a major job that involved drafting, printing, and displaying about seventy new posters around the EI complex.  
  • Sprucing up of laboratory facilities throughout the EI complex. As part of this effort, we have eliminated 98 percent of our old chemical inventory. In addition, we also went through the equipment in labs and tagged several old pieces of non-operational equipment to be hauled to salvage.   
• Commissioned two new laboratories with shared analytical equipment. We accomplished this by relocating some of the gas chromatography-mass spectrometers, surface analyzers, and thermogravimetric analyzers and equipment that were sitting idle in single principal investigator’s labs into a shared lab. In addition, we have also created a sample preparation area with centrifuges, ovens, grinding and polishing equipment, etc.  
• Cleaned out and created new laboratory spaces for research into plastics recycling and for creating a database of reaction kinetics for catalyst-aided low temperature oxidation, hydrogen storage in reservoir environments, mineral extraction, and optimization of energy usage for mineral comminution.   
• Established an advisory board for the EMS Energy Institute consisting of members representing the various activities in the institute. This outstanding group of industry thought leaders and top-notch research managers in research labs are anxious to help the institute formulate its vision and engage in strategic development in key areas pertaining to the energy transition.  
• Launched professional development activities for graduate students affiliated with the institute. This included the launch of a graduate seminar series that featured laboratory managers of major facilities on campus, a resume building session with a career planning professional, as well as a hands-on session focused on explaining the use of plastic, copper, and stainless-steel tubing with discussions on the use of Swagelok fittings. In addition to these activities, we have also invested some resources to create collaborative lounges for graduate students in two areas of the institute.  
• Engagement in several other minor projects focused on upgrading the EI facilities. That includes projects like improved signage to indicate the EI facilities, a revamped lobby with a large monitor that serves both as an information display unit as well as a searchable people locator, and improved conference room facilities. I am sure you will appreciate these changes during your next visit to the institute.  

Through all these activities, the institute has striven to provide top notch research support to all our affiliates. Whether it be helping projects with research accounting, ordering supplies and chemicals, aiding with organization of meetings, or assisting researchers in the setup of their lab, our staff remain committed to make these as streamlined and efficient as possible. They may be lean in number but large-hearted in their efforts to assist everyone affiliated with the institute. Together we will strive to attain even higher standards in service and efficiency.  

Sanjay Srinivasan
Director, EMS Energy Institute
Penn State