A SCIENTIST: THE CIVIL SERVANT
In the modern world, we view scientists as civil servants, which necessitates giving service back to society for investing in our work. While science is purely the pursuit of objective knowledge, our motivation for doing research is inherently subjective: fighting climate change. Climate change听, so we need an intersectional approach to solve this problem.
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Despite claims of valuing diversity and underserved students, many voices have elocuted on the exclusionary and hostile environment of academia and academic science. We acknowledge that science has been used to hurt and marginalize communities (especially Blacks, Indigenious, and socioeconomically-disadvantaged people)听throughout much of the world history. We also acknowledge the exclusion of women in much of the scientific settings worldwide. Therefore,听we believe it is our duty to provide opportunities for scientific growth to underrepresented groups while also developing a supportive, inclusive, and friendly听community for such groups.听To this end, we are involved in several media which we contribute time and resources to promote diversity in the sciences:
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A RENEWABLE VISION
Anthropogenic climate change has already caused drastic changes to our planet and climate. Curtailing these emissions and capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide is the only path to producing a habitable planet. Even with the transition to renewable energies, climate change will still be exacerbated by humanity's consumption of fossil fuel products. Carbon capture and remediation are necessary to return to pre-anthropogenic climate stability, outlined in the听. Our research group is passionately focused on science that can develop technologies to aid these efforts. All of these research efforts are in particular focused on听scalable听technology and technology听at scale,听bridging the gap between academia and industry in renewable energy.
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The figure on the right shows the remaining carbon budget if we were to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5-2.0藲C. With constant 2019 CO2 emissions, the 1.5藲C carbon budget will most likely be consumed. With no additional abatement, the remaining 2藲C carbon budget听is also expected to be consumed. This shows how important carbon capture and remediation to mitigating听climate change effects.听The bottom sub-figure demonstrates different scenarios to limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5-2.0藲C, with SSP1-1.9听and SSP1-2.6 scenarios considering Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies (e.g., Bioenergy with CO2 Capture and Storage (BECCS)听and Direct Air CO2听Capture and Storage听(DACCS)) to cover for hard-to-abate CO2 emissions. Our group's effort is focused on studying DACC听(without storage) technologies, renewably-driven electrolysis technologies, and their industrially-relevant integration.听
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SCIENCE AT SCALE
On the left is a case study of the necessary scale to achieve a full carbon capture and conversion facility powered by renewable energy to produce 10,000 tons/day of methanol from electrochemistry, based on the current state-of-the-art technology. An enormous gap exists between the current pilot plant technology and what is necessary to realize these systems. Part of the problem contributing to this is academia's aversion to discussing听science at scale:听understanding chemical and physical changes that occur when scaling the size of newly developed technology, and improving their durability. We hope to bridge that gap by doing exciting science that can inform both benchtop researchers and industrial partners. Science and society need these partnerships to flourish to bring about the technology of tomorrow, today.听