Seed Grant Program Publications
A list of the publications resulting from the the Energy Institute's seed grant programs, by program and project.
Discovery of modified phosphate solid electrolytes for all-solid-state sodium batteries
Principal Investigators: David Mitlin, Donald Siegel
Reactive Carbide-Based Synthesis and Microstructure of NASICON Sodium Metal All Solid-State Electrolyte; Callum J. Campbell,* Scott Monismith, Vikalp Raj, Yixian Wang, Qianqian Yan, Cole D. Fincher, Rohit Raj, Yet-Ming Chiang, John Watt, Josefine D. McBrayer, and David Mitlin* |
De-risking carbon capture with amine solvents using high resolution mass spectrometer methods
Principal Investigators: Fred Closmann, Pawel Misztal, Ian Riddington
Closmann, Fred; Carter, Cameron S.; Rochelle, Gary T.; Alshehri, Fahad. “Amino Acids: Critical Oxidation Products in CO2 Capture by Aqueous Piperazine”. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Manuscript No.: ie-2024-03927x (10.1021/acs.iecr.4c03927), 2025, pp. 15–18. |
Carter, Cameron S; Closmann, Fred; Rochelle, Gary T, “Amino acids developing in degraded piperazine”, conference manuscript, 17th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference 17 (GHGT-17), Calgary, Alberta, October 20–24, 2024. |
Rochelle, Gary, and Fred Closmann, Safeguarding Amines from Oxidation by Enabling Technologies, Quarterly Technical Progress Report, submitted under Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FE0031861, October 1 – December 31, 2024, published January 31, 2025. |
Mitigating voltage sag disturbances for electrified industrial process loads
Principal Investigators: Surya Santoso, Brian Johnson
Hyeonseong Mun, Damjan Zechevikj, Surya Santoso, Lei Jiang, "Improving power quality of industrial plants using dynamic voltage restorers," in Proc. IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), Austin, TX, USA, Jul. 2025. |
Hyeonseong Mun, Optimal Placement of Dynamic Voltage Restorers and Static Synchronous Compensators for Enhancing Power Quality of Sensitive Loads, M.S. thesis, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, 2025. |
Evaluation of a novel integrated ceramic membrane/hollow fiber membrane contactor process for produced water reuse
Principal Investigators: Lynn Katz, Frank Seibert
Katz, L.E., McGuire, J., and Seibert A.F., Evaluation of a Novel Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactor/Ceramic Membrane/Process for Produced Water Reuse, In preparation. |
Alsulaili, A., Alshawish, S., Cooper, C. M., Katz, L. E., & Seibert, F. (2024). Advancing Produced Water Treatment: Hollow-Fiber Membrane Efficiency in Oil-Water Separation. In Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on New Technologies, NewTech 2024. Avestia Publishing. Additional Funding: Kuwait Oil Company |
Technical and techno-economic analysis of produced water treatment for green and blue hydrogen production in Texas
Principal Investigators: Vaibhav Bahadur, Michael Lewis, Michael Webber
V. S. S. Katakam, G. L. Childers, M. Lewis, Y.R. Glazer, E. Beagle, M.E. Webber, and V. Bahadur. Thermo-economic analysis of excess natural gas-powered produced water treatment techniques for clean hydrogen production, manuscript in preparation for submission to Journal of Cleaner Production. |
Katakam S. V. and Bahadur V. Heat-mass transfer analogy-based design method for osmotically assisted reverse osmosis membrane mass exchanges. Desalination, under review. (EI project was only source of funding) |
Banda, S., et al. Regulatory Framework and Policy Outlook for Produced Water Reuse for Hydrogen Production in Texas. Texas Water Research Network 12th Meeting. Austin, Tx, 2025. |
Breaking the Hydrocarbon Cascade in Electric Process Heating: Strategies for Upgrading Fuel Gas Streams
Principal Investigators: Michael Baldea, Thomas C. Underwood, Buddie Mullins
Tailoring Vibrational Excitation Pathways for High-Yield Oxidation of Methane to Methanol Charan R Nallapareddy and Thomas C Underwood, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering |
Controlling Catalytic Reaction Pathways with Plasma-activated Co-reactants for Selective Liquid Fuel Extraction Varanasi Sai Subhankar, C. Buddie Mullins, Thomas C Underwood, and Michael Baldea |
Modernizing Brownfield Electric Power System Reliability and Quality to Support the Electrification of Industrial Processes
Principal Investigators: Surya Santoso, Brian Johnson
Modeling of Industrial Power Distribution Circuits for Voltage Sag and Fault Analysis Cong, Moises, Antonio, Master’s Thesis, The University of Texas at Austin |
Modeling of the Dynamic Voltage Restorer in EMTP Zechevikj, Damjan, Master’s Thesis, The University of Texas at Austin |
Long-term Surveillance of Plugged and Abandoned Wells for Immediate Detection of CO2 Leakage in Geologic Carbon Storage Sites
Principal Investigators: Sahar Bakhshian, Susan Hovorka, Michael H. Young
Real-Time CO2 Leakage Detection Using Probabilistic Machine Learning and Soil Moisture Sensor Data Integration. (In preparation)
Enabling Zero Carbon Emission by Electrochemical CO2 Reduction Technology
Principal Investigators: Guihua Yu, Jamie Warner
Fluorine-Tuned Carbon-Based Nickel Single-Atom Catalysts for Scalable and Highly Efficient CO2 Electrocatalytic Reduction
The Effects of Surfactants, Salt Concentration and Suspended Solids on Selective Oil Permeation
Principal Investigators: Lynn Katz, Frank Seibert
Oil Recovery via Selective Oil Permeation
Cooper, C.M., Wang, M. Alshawish, S., Kinney, K.A., Alsulailli, A., Katz, L.E., Seibert, A.F.
A Modular and Flexible DC-AC Converter Cell for Future Grid Systems
Principal Investigators: Brian Johnson, Alex Hanson
Design and Control of an Input-Series Output-Series Modular Converter for Direct Drive Wind Applications
R. Mallik, G. Seo, D. Maksimovic, and B. Johnson
Manufacturing of High-Strength Nanolattice Coating for Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen Fuel Storage
Principal Investigators: ChihHao Chang, Li Shi
Multilayer Dielectric Reflector Using Low-Index Nanolattices Optics Letters |
Precise Control of the Optical Refractive Index in Nanolattices Optics Letters |
Analysis of Permian Basin Clean Ammonia Production, Distribution, and Market Demand
Principal Investigators: Z Michael Lewis, Ning Lin, Vaibhav Bahadur
The Market for Low-Carbon-Intensity Ammonia MDPI Haoying Wang, Ning Lin, Mariam Arzumanyan |
The dual role of low-carbon ammonia in climate-smart farming and energy transition Science Direct Ning Lin, Haoying Wang, Lorena Moscardelli, Mark Shuster |
Microbial Reactions during Underground Hydrogen Storage
Principal Investigators: Kishore Mohanty, Wen Song
Study of Geochemical Reactions During Geological Hydrogen Storage (In preparation) |
Leveraging Permian Basin Assets for the Emerging Clean Hydrogen
Principal Investigators: Michael C. Lewis, Ning Lin
Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation Final Report for co-funded project listed below |
Potential Paper on wind/solar energy pathways for renewable hydrogen out of the Permian Basin. Authors: Emily Beagle, Grace Childers, Andrea Kowal, Michael Lewis |
Combining Quantitative Leakage Risk Assessment with Financial Liability for CO2 Geologic Storage
Principal Investigators: Sahar Bakhshian, Susan Hovorka, James Dyer
Ali Farhadinia, Zahra Bajalan, Sahar Bakhshian, Susan D. Hovorka. Reactive transport modeling of the potential impacts of CO2 and brine leakage on groundwater quality, in preparation. |
Impacts of Geochemistry on Carbon Dioxide Adsorption in Organic-Rich Mudrocks
Principal Investigators: Zoya Heidari, Nicholas Espinoza
Gomaa, I., Araujo, I., Heidari, Z., Espinoza, D.N. 2023. Molecular Simulation Study of the Competitive Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide and Methane in Organic Shale – Implication for Enhanced Gas Recovery. Paper URTEC-3858281-MS presented at the SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA, June 13–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15530/urtec-2023-3858281 |
Gomaa, I., Heidari, Z. and Espinoza, D.N. 2023. Molecular-Scale Quantitative Evaluation of The Competitive Sorption of Methane and Carbon Dioxide on The Different Constituents of Organic-Rich Mudrocks. Paper PWLA-2023-0057 presented at the SPWLA 64th Annual Logging Symposium, Stavanger, Lake Conroe, Texas, USA. June 10–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30632/SPWLA-2023-0057 |
Laboratory experiments and modeling to accurately evaluate critical CO2 saturation for geologic carbon storage
Principal Investigators: Timothy "Tip" A. Meckel, Sahar Bakhshian, David DiCarlo
Jose Ubillus, Hailun Ni, David DiCarlo and Tip Meckel. Small-scale heterogeneities and their influence on carbon dioxide geologic storage. 2024. (In preparation) (Cosupported by the Department of Energy through the Gulf of Mexico Partnership for Offshore Carbon Storage (GoMCarb) under grant award number DE-FE0031558.) |
Uncertainty Qualification for Circular Economies and Supply Chains
Principal Investigators: Michael Baldea, Erhan Kutanoglu
R. Park, E. Kutanoglu, M. Baldea, Uncertainty, Dynamics and Control in Circular Supply Chains, Computers & Chemical Engineering, Submitted 8/1/2023 and First Revision submitted on 9/23/2023. Manuscript has 31 pages. |
Developing a Network of Ecological Sensors for Analysis of Long-Term Acoustic and Environmental Data
Principal Investigators: Timothy Keitt, Andrea Contina
Andrea Contina, Eric Abelson, Brendan Allison, Brian Stokes, Kenedy F. Sanchez, Henry M. Hernandez, Anna M. Kepple, Quynhmai Tran, Isabella Kazen, Katherine Brown, Je'aime H. Powell, Timothy H. Keitt. BioSense: An Automated Sensing Node for Organismal and Environmental Biology. (Submitted to HardwareX) |
Keitt T.H. & Abelson E.S. (2021). Ecology in the age of automation. Science 373, 858–859. |
Smart Charging (and Discharging) of BEVs for Lower Grid Emissions and Better Grid Performance
Principal Investigators: Kara Kockelman, Benjamin Leibowicz
Balasubramanian Sambasivam, Kara M. Kockelman, and Benjamin D. Leibowicz ”Economic and Environmental Impacts of Electric Vehicle Smart-Charging Programs on the U.S. Power Sector.” (Under preparation for journal submission) |
Toward Equitable Transportation Electrification in Austin, TX
Principal Investigators: Junfeng Jiao, Kijin Seong, Abigail Johnson
Jiao, J., Choi S. J., & Nguyen, C. (2023). Towards Equitable Transportation Electrification Plan: Measuring Public Electric Vehicle Charging Station Access Disparities in Austin, TX. Transport Policy (under review) |
Choi, S. J., & Jiao, J. (2023). Uncovering Electric Vehicle Ownership Disparities with Unsupervised Machine Learning Technique. Journal of Sustainable Transport (under review) |
Choi, S. J., & Jiao, J. (2023). Measurement of Regional Electric Vehicle Adoption Using Multiagent Deep Reinforcement Learning. Transportation Research Record. (under review) |
Assuring Long-term Storage of Captured CO2: Technical-Legal-Policy-Business Models
Principal Investigators: Susan Hovorka, Lee Ann Kahlor
Predicting the CO2 Footprint in Saline Aquifers: A Numerical-analytical Hybrid Model GHGT-15 |
Defending the Electricity Infrastructure Against Extreme Weather Events, Now and in the Future
Principal Investigators: Erhan Kutanoglu, Surya Santoso
Hurricane Scenario Generation for Uncertainty Modeling of Coastal and Inland Flooding Frontiers in Climate |
Power System Resilience to Floods: Modeling, Impact Assessment, and Mid-Term Mitigation Strategies International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems |
Decarbonizing the City – Financing and Policy Solutions for Transportation
Principal Investigators: Andrew Waxman, Gian-Claudia Sciara
Around the Halls: Built Environment Issues That Could Define 2022 The Brookings Institution |
State Legislator Views on Funding 21st Century Transportation: Important Problems, Missed Connections Presented at Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. |
Design of Next-Generation Battery Packs for a Sustainable Future
Principal Investigators: Arumugam Manthiram, Venkat Subramanian
Towards More Environmentally and Socially Responsible Batteries Energy & Environmental Science |
Challenges in Moving to Multiscale Battery Models-Where Electrochemistry Meets and Demands More From Math Journal of the Electrochemical Society |
Driving Natural Gas Systems to Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Principal Investigators: David Allen, Paul Navratil
A Searchable Database for Prediction of Emission Compositions from Upstream Oil and Gas Sources Environmental Science & Technology |
Methane Emission Estimation Tool (MEET) for Predictions of Emissions from Upstream Oil and Gas Well Sites with Fine Scale Temporal and Spatial Resolution Science of The Total Environment |
Linking Plant Strategies to Subsurface Hydrology to Predict Ecosystem CO2 Storage Across Texas
Principal Investigators: Caroline Farrior, Daniella Rempe
Widespread Woody Plant Use of Water Stored in Bedrock Nature
Enabling Solar-Powered Water Purification Technology
Principal Investigators: Guihua Yu, Lynn Katz
Materials for Solar-powered Water Evaporation Nature Reviews Materials |
Hydrogels and Hydrogel-Derived Materials for Energy and Water Sustainability Chemical reviews |
Sectoral Feasibility of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Clean Energy Transitions
Principal Investigators: Joshua Busby, Benjamin Leibowicz
Enhancing Policy Realism in Energy System Optimization Models: Politically Feasible Decarbonization Pathways for the United States Energy Policy |
Assessing the Political Feasibility of Decarbonizing the US Electricity Sector UT Energy Institute |
Enabling the Sustainable Energy Transition: Economic Recovery of Rare Earth Elements
Principal Investigators: Wen Song, Thomas Underwood
Rare Earth Elements in Coal Fly Ash: Morphology, Distribution, and Recovery. Presented at American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. |
Modeling of Inductively Coupled Plasma Torch at Different Flow Regimes AIAA 2022-0830 Session: Plasma-Assisted Ignition and Combustion I |
Multi-Scale Design and Optimization of Next-Generation Carbon Capture Systems
Principal Investigators: Joan Brennecke, Michael Baldea
Predicting Thermophysical Properties of Dialkylimidazolium Ionic Liquids from Sigma Profiles Journal of Molecular Liquids |
Economic Optimization of Carbon Capture Processes Using Ionic Liquids: Toward Flexibility in Capture Rate and Feed Composition ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering |
Smart Decarbonization of Built Environment in Nexus of Climate Change, Growth & Technology Adoption
Principal Investigators: Juliana Felkner, Zoltan Nagy
MARLISA: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Iterative Sequential Action Selection for Load Shaping of Grid-Interactive Connected Buildings |
The CityLearn Challenge 2020, Presented at ACM BuildSys’20 |
Research Partnerships
To learn about research partnerships, reach out to sponsorships@energy.utexas.edu
Strategic Energy Seed Grant Program Contact:
