The Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin announces its 2023 Strategic Energy Seed Grant Program research teams, made possible by corporate partners Chevron, Shell, SLB and longtime University of Texas at Austin supporters ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

These grants will support the research of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to spark new, impactful and collaborative research focused on climate security and decarbonization of the energy sector.

The partnerships, first announced in December 2022, allocate funds toward critical areas of research interest, and support opportunities for energy community members to engage directly with UT Austin students. In 2022, The Energy Institute awarded 17 interdisciplinary research teams more than $1 million dollars to help kickstart projects and attract federal funding for initiatives focused on emerging energy technologies aimed at reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.

“This funding will help accelerate the scientific, engineering, technological, economic and policy innovations necessary to ensure that all people have access to the energy they need as global energy demand continues to rise,” says Brian Korgel, director of The Energy Institute and Rashid Engineering Regents Chair Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. “It continues the momentum of initiatives aimed at dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and harmful environmental impacts.”

Nine teams, from The Cockrell School of Engineering and Jackson School of Geosciences were chosen from 46 proposals.

The 2023 Strategic Energy Seed Grant program represents an investment in the following diverse initiatives:

Industrial Decarbonization

• Breaking the Hydrocarbon Cascade in Electric Process Heating: Strategies for Upgrading Fuel Gas Streams: Michael Baldea, Thomas C. Underwood and Buddie Mullins (McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics)
• Modernizing Brownfield Electric Power System Reliability and Quality to Support the Electrification of Industrial Processes: Surya Santoso and Brian Johnson (Chandra Family Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering)

Carbon Management (Carbon capture, utilization, and storage, CCUS)

• Long-term Surveillance of Plugged and Abandoned Wells for Immediate Detection of CO2 Leakage in Geologic Carbon Storage Sites: Sahar Bakhshian, Susan Hovorka and Michael H. Young (Jackson School of Geosciences – Bureau of Economic Geology)
• Enabling Zero Carbon Emission by Electrochemical CO2 Reduction Technology: Guihua Yu, Jamie Warner and Yuanyue Liu (Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Materials Institute)

Water Resource Use, Treatment, and Conservation

• The Effects of Surfactants, Salt Concentration and Suspended Solids on Selective Oil Permeation: Lynn Katz and Frank Seibert (Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, Center for Energy and Environmental Resources)

Low and Zero-Carbon Fuels and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)

• A Modular and Flexible DC-AC Converter Cell for Future Grid Systems: Brian Johnson and Alex Hanson (Chandra Family Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering)
• Manufacturing of High-Strength Nanolattice Coating for Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen Fuel Storage: Chih-Hao Chang and Li Shi (Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering)
• Analysis of Permian Basin Clean Ammonia Production, Distribution, and Market Demand: Michael Lewis, Ning Lin and Vaibhav Bahadur (Cockrell School of Engineering - Center for Electromechanics, Jackson School of Geosciences - BEG, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering)
• Microbial Reactions during Underground Hydrogen Storage: Kishore Mohanty and Wen Song (Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering)

The following research projects were selected for funding in the 2025 Strategic Energy Seed Grant program:

Energy Beaming for Long-Range Commercial Aircraft Using Solar Phased Arrays

• Christian Claudel, Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Javad Mohammadi, Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Kara Kockelman, Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Efficient Synthesis of Sodium Phosphate Solid-State Electrolytes

• David Mitlin, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Donald Siegel, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Fundamental Understanding of Thermo-Hydraulic Fractures in Porous Media for Improved Geothermal Energy and Carbon Storage 

• David N. Espinoza, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• John T. Foster, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering 

Designing Low Emission Hydrogen Supply Chains

• Erin Tullos, Center for Energy and Environmental Systems Analysis, Cockrell School of Engineering
• David Allen, Mcketta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Arvind Ravikumar, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Engineering the Carbon Management System Through Technology and Policy Optimization

• Hugh C. Daigle, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Benjamin Leibowicz, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Andrew Waxman, LBJ School of Public Affairs

Electrochemical Hydrogenation for Production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels

• Joaquin Resasco, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Yuanyue Liu, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Designing Sensitive Bioassays for Produced Water

• Lydia Maria Contreras, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Lynn Katz, Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

The Electrification Race: Probing the Power Grid/Data Center/Manufacturing Nexus

• Michael Baldea, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Ilias Mitrai, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Erhan Kutanoglu, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Powering the Future: A Data-Driven Framework for Sustainable and Resilient Data Center Expansion in Texas 

• Ning Lin, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences
• Vaibhav Bahadur, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Lars Koesterke, Texas Advanced Computing Center

Securing Power Reliability and Availability for Critical Loads with Flexible Generation 

• Surya Santoso, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Brian Johnson, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Hybrid Dewatering/Desalination for Reducing Energy Consumption and Cost of Lithium Extraction from Hypersaline Brines 

• Vaibhav Bahadur, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Benny Freeman, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Driving the Future of Power Value Chain Decarbonization

• Xiuling Li, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Alex Q. Huang, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering