Researchers from across campus are coming together for a project that could help overcome dependence on fossil fuel chemical production. The idea is to create what they’re calling a “living refinery,” which is a plant-based way of using energy from the sun to convert atmospheric CO2 into aromatic compounds.
The project is an interdisciplinary effort leveraging researchers from across campus, including the College of Letters & Science, https://engineering.wisc.edu/b... and the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences. Hiroshi Maeda, a botany professor in L&S, is one of the lead researchers on the project.
In January, the U.S. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $147 million investment in advancing technologies to enhance grid reliability and accelerate carbon utilization. The investment included grants for 49 projects aimed at developing disruptive and ambitious technologies that advance America’s energy future, including this one. UW–Madison’s living refinery effort was awarded $2.81 million for its continued research.
“Accelerating transformative technologies is key to delivering reliable, affordable, and secure energy,” DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Director Evelyn N. Wang wrote in a news release about the investment. “The Vision OPEN 2024 program will support high-impact, high-risk technologies that tackle some of the biggest challenges for our energy future including how to advance nuclear fusion and geothermal, enhance our power grid, and use carbon to create new fuels and materials."
The potential impact of this UW–Madison research effort is massive. The living refineries would be applicable in the chemical industry, since aromatics serve as essential building blocks for so many of society’s most important industrial products. These include plastics, fuels, resins and semiconductor materials. This technology could help overcome the challenges presented by fossil-fuel-dependent chemical production that substantially contributes to CO2 emissions and environmental pollution.
UW–Madison’s Collective for Research Impact and Social Partnerships program in the College of Letters & Science and the Sustainability Research Hub were instrumental in helping researchers apply for and receive this award.