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May 4, 2007 Seminar Examines the Business of Clean Energy Technology By Kate Fink |
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From inventors to investors, the interest in clean energy in our oil-dependent society runs high. Research labs and start-up companies produce a dazzling array of ideas. But, piecing together a patchwork of these technologies that can blanket our country and the world with clean energy solutions will take long-term dedication and collaboration of academic, engineering and business worlds. On Friday, April 27 the College of Engineering and the School of Management hosted a day-long seminar, “Clean Energy: Pathways to Adoption.” The event, part of the Emerging Technology and Best Practices Seminar Series, examined the developing landscape of clean energy and explored new technologies and challenges facing their use. The nearly 200 attendees -- industry representatives, alumni, BU faculty and students -- listened to 19 speakers discuss promising technologies, investing in clean energy, efficiency and conservation, and impediments to adoption. University President Robert Brown opened the seminar by noting the importance of university-based research in addressing such big technological challenges. Technology still used by the petroleum industry originated in university laboratories decades ago, he said, and today, “our solutions will come from a complex interplay of many technologies.” “This seminar addresses one of the astonishing, grand challenges of our time,” said Engineering Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen. “Unlike any other major technological challenge is the sense of urgency here.” Clean energy research has spread into fields from biology to materials science, noted keynote speaker Tony Lent, founder of US Renewables Group, a private company that manages clean energy assets. He added, “Progress is being made so fast that a lot of these emerging technologies will find their way to market.” Clean energy, Lent said, encompasses all types of energy production that strive to lower use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, instead turning to renewable energy sources. These include wind, wave and solar power, fuel cells, and using plants or biomass to make biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Speakers from a range of clean energy companies explained their approach to the engineering and marketing challenge of producing a clean energy technology. Amyris Biotechnologies’ founder Jack Newman discussed his company’s efforts to develop microbes engineered to digest sugars in a specific way so they produce a new type of biodiesel that will burn well in conventional engines. James Cross, vice president of technology at Nuvera Fuel Cells, likes hydrogen fuel cells because they do not run on carbon-based fuel, but challenges facing his company include improving the durability of the cells, and finding ways to get around the high cost of platinum, which is used to build the cells. Scott Gardner, a principal at US Renewables Group, described his company’s conversion of a coal-fired power plant to burn biomass -- mostly wood and brush cleared from nearby towns. The changeover comes with the uncertainty of using an old boiler to burn a new fuel, leaving the question of efficiency unanswered until renovations are complete and the boiler is fired up for the first time. Burning biomass releases carbon into the atmosphere, like burning fossil fuels, but can be considered a clean energy because the re-release of carbon the plant captured to grow has little net effect on carbon balance. These efforts to develop clean energy solutions require input from scientific, engineering and business disciplines, fields often in close proximity at universities. At Boston University, for example, researchers in the College of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Management all study different aspects of clean energy. “They are synergistic and complimentary in nature,” said Professor Uday Pal (MFG). The College of Engineering’s contributions include research in fuel cell manufacturing, energy-efficient metal production, solid oxide fuel cells, bio batteries with microbe catalysts, and energy-efficient LED lighting. Business students study corporate social responsibility, technology adoption strategies and business models for energy intermediaries -- the companies between utilities and customers. These complementary areas of study have Pal and colleagues considering the idea of a clean energy center at BU to formally link clean energy projects across the University’s schools and colleges. Speakers at the symposium agreed that no clean energy source can single-handedly replace the more than 20 million barrels of petroleum products used daily in the US. This opens the door for innovation, allowing today’s engineering and business students to pursue the many new technological challenges and economic opportunities in clean energy. |
 Prof. Uday Pal (MFG) speaks at the seminar. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Abrahamson) |
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