Research Highlights
Current EGC Research Programs and Projects
Experimental and Numerical Studies of Stably Stratified Turbulent Boundary Layers
PIs: Elie Bou-Zeid, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Pino Martin, Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Lex Smits, Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Robert Hallberg, Lecturer in Geosciences, GFDL
Project Summary: One of the major scientific challenges of this century is the critical need to improve measurements and modeling of environmental systems and how they interact with engineered systems, with the ultimate aims of (1) Enchancing the sustainability of engineered systems by reducing their environmental impacts, and (2) Mitigating the effect of global environmental change on these systems, the economy, and society. To that end, significant research efforts are focusing on advancing our understanding of the dynamics of geophysical fluid flows. Atmospheric dynamics are of special importance in view of the increasing observational data and climate model predictions strongly indicating that climate patterns are changing in response to increasing concentrations of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, current efforts to improve general circulation models, our main tool for studying climate dynamics, are hampered by major deficiencies in the models representing the small-scale, unresolved physical processes. Specifically, major efforts are needed to improve the representations of clouds and of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) in these models. Here, we propose to initiate a study of the structure of stably stratified turbulent boundary layers that will help to improve our understanding of the interaction between turbulent and buoyant transport in the ABL. (For more information, click here.)
Designing New Materials for Harvesting Solar Energy
PI: Emily A. Carter, Arthur W. Marks ’19, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics
Project Summary: Our dependence on fossil fuels threatens our very survival on the planet. Our survival is at risk because of the unavoidable production of CO2 when such fuels are burned, which in turn contributes to global warming. This project concerns the ultimate clean, renewable, non-CO2 producing energy resource, the sun. Solar energy can be used for three purposes: (i) somewhat trivially for heat, by focusing the sun's rays onto absorbing media; (ii) to produce liquid fuels via 'photocatalysis'; and (iii) to produce electricity via 'photovoltaics'. State-of-the-art quantum mechanics methods are used to optimize properties of novel bio-inspired inorganic materials with the aim to improve the efficiency level ~ 20%. These methods are also used to optimize bio-inspired catalysts to produce H2 and other fuels. The goal is to find combinations of metals and oxygen that are inexpensive and efficient, which will be on primary concern for any mass production and use later on.
For video of Emily Carter on computational modeling of materials for energy applications, please click here.
The Chemical Biology of Energy Production
PI: Charles Dismukes, Professor of Chemistry
Project Summary: The depletion of global reserves of fossil fuels and the related problem of CO2 driven climate change provide increasingly visible and visceral incentives for students to pursue educations in technically relevant areas. Early exposure to biochemical and biotechnological approaches to the energy problem in the context of fundamental principles of chemistry, biology and physics will increase engagement at a technical level and enable students to go farther in this critical field, while also attracting more students into majors in chemistry, microbiology and bioengineering. This project proposes to develop a new undergraduate course as well as undergraduate research mentoring opportunities focusing on the scientific principles and methods of analysis essential to understanding the production of renewable fuels and energy. The course provides an overview of existing biotechnological methods used in producing fuels where approaches are discussed using fundamental chemical and biophysical principles.
Oil, Energy and the Middle East
PI: Bernard A. Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Project Summary: The Middle East--the Persian Gulf region in particular--contains the largest quantities of proven fossil fuel reserves in the world. Countries such as Saudi Arabia effectively dominate the oil market and have a determining role in setting the price for this commodity. Oil represents the largest single sector of the global economy by volume and value of transactions. These facts have resulted in particular social, political and economic dynamics (not to say pathologies) within the countries of the Middle East, in the relations between them and finally in how they relate to the rest of the world. The future of global energy demand and supply is inextricably dependent on what Middle Eastern nations decide to do with these reserves and how they manage them. By extension, the development of alternatives to these resources in the West and elsewhere will require a deep understanding of exploration and development taking place in the Middle East as well as the economic, political and energy policies of the producer countries. Energy and the Middle East are inextricably intertwined and never more so then in this current period of volatile oil prices. While the region has achieved significant momentum in its transformation to a non-hydrocarbon based and sustainable economy, in the near term the future rate of growth may be threatened by diminishing oil revenues just when the needs of a burgeoning population are the greatest. The twin goals of economic transformation and equitable resource allocation remain the region’s top priorities. The realization of these agendas requires an informed debate of policy tradeoffs. The choices made could have profound societal and political consequences and global macroeconomic and foreign policy implications. It is the appreciation for these advances, as well as, the nature and complexities of the ongoing regional debate for which the U.S. academic and policy leadership is seriously lacking in scholarship. It is the objective of the Oil, Energy and Middle East Program at Princeton to advance a nuanced understanding of the issues confronting the Gulf region and to engage in informed participation in the debate.
Greening IT: From the Phone to the Data Center
PIs: Mung Chiang, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Margaret Martonosi, Professor of Electrical Engineering
Michael Freedman, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Jennifer Rexford, Professor of Computer Science
Project Summary: Information technology consumes 2.5% of the world’s electricity, translating to one billion tons of CO2 produced annually. In the United States, data centers alone consume more than 60 billion kilowatt hours a year—equivalent to the consumption of the entire transportation manufacturing sector. Under current efficiency trends, this gigantic amount of energy will nearly double by 2011 for an overall electricity cost of $7.4 billion per year. IT plays a crucial role in reducing other sources of energy consumption by enabling remote collaboration in lieu of frequent travel and by providing energy monitoring and sensing technologies. These activities lead to further demands on the world’s computing and communications infrastructure even as society’s “greening” continues. This project investigates how to reduce IT energy consumption from an end-to-end perspective‐ from the mobile phone to the data center. This initiative aims to build a comprehensive research area on Green IT, to help meet the target of reducing IT energy consumption by over one‐third without damaging the economic productivity offered by IT and to make the ever more pervasive IT products increasingly green. Research expertise draws from computer architecture, communication networks and wide‐area services, drawing on both theoretical techniques and systems prototyping.
The Biological Effects of Ocean Acidification
PI: Francois M. M. Morel, Blanke Professor of Geosciences
Project Summary: The ongoing rise in atmospheric CO2 is increasing the dissolved CO2 concentration in the surface ocean, decreasing its pH, and consequently modifying the chemistry of many seawater constituents. These chemical changes in turn affect the ocean biota via a multitude of mechanisms. For example, the decrease in the degree of saturation of calcium carbonate makes it harder for calcifying organisms to precipitate their mineral structures. The decrease in pH changes the bioavailability of essential algal nutrients such as iron. Most directly, the increase in CO2 may change the composition of the biomass, e.g., its C:N ratio. Such biological effects potentially lead to major perturbations in marine biogeochemical cycles --including notably the biological export of CO2 to the abyss-- and may provide a key feedback, negative or positive, on the CO2 buildup in the atmosphere and surface ocean. This research project is based on a series of mechanistic hypotheses on the biological effects of ocean acidification and comprises laboratory experiments as well as oceanographic field studies.
Climate Change, Shifting Settlements, and Pressure on Biodiversity in South Africa
PIs: Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School
David Wilcove, Professor of Public Affairs and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Project Summary: The objective of this project is to examine an effect of climate change that is second order in a causal sense but potentially first order in its impact: how the response of human populations to climate change impinges on vulnerable ecosystems and species that themselves may or may not come under substantial pressure due to the direct effects of global warming. To date, most studies of the likely impacts of climate change on biodiversity have ignored these second-order effects. Yet the response of humans to climate change could have an even greater impact on biodiversity than changes in the climate variables per se. This is of particular concern in areas where changes in productivity or economic viability of certain types of agriculture are projected to bring under the plow those forest or grassland habitats that are currently uncultivated or otherwise managed in a low-impact manner. In addition to the conversion of habitats and associated extirpation of wildlife, the application of pesticides and herbicides, runoff of nutrients, and changes in ground and surface water flows and availability raise concerns about water quality and ecosystem resilience. There may also be significant shifts in livestock production, with either harmful or beneficial impacts to biodiversity, depending on where the livestock go. South Africa, which, according to AOCCM projections, is in the bull’s eye of climate change, and also encompasses significant biodiversity hotspots, presents a perfect laboratory for testing these ideas.
Carbon Capture and Geologic Sequestration: Linking Undergraduate Education with Cutting Edge Research
PI: Catherine A. Peters, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Project Summary: This project integrates new undergraduate teaching and independent research opportunities with cutting edge research on geologic carbon sequestration (GCS). The project engages undergraduates interested in climate change mitigation through opportunities created by an interdisciplinary collaboration between Princeton professors, scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and at the University of Minnesota. The collaboration, entitled “Basin-Scale Leakage Risks from Geologic Carbon Sequestration: Impact on CCS Energy Market Competitiveness”,seeks to bridge the gap between scientists, who are actively studying relevant geological processes and are building models to predict CO2 leakage, and the public and private-sector decision makers, who need to use this information in a practical way to make siting and investment decisions to manage GCS risks. The project aims to develop a framework for integrating tools that quantify CO2 leakage risk with basin-scale information of competing subsurface land uses, and uses this information to evaluate market competitiveness of carbon management options.
Climate Change, the Ocean, and the Global Cycles of Biologically Active Elements
PI: Daniel M. Sigman, Dusenbury Professor of Geosciences
Project Summary: Human activities have begun to insert themselves into the global cycles of biologically active elements, with consequences for climate and other global environmental parameters. Most critically, fossil carbon is being vented into the atmosphere, altering the greenhouse forcing of the planet. This increases the global temperature and changes the circulation of the ocean and atmosphere, with the potential for many unintended secondary effects. Nitrogen fixation, the process responsible for most biologically available (“fixed”) nitrogen, is being carried out by humans at a rate that is now comparable to that of natural fixers. This alters the fertility and ecology of the terrestrial and marine environments, even seemingly remote ones. The combined emissions of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur compounds are altering the atmosphere’s aerosols and the deposition of various biogeochemically active elements in the solid phase (e.g., iron) on the open ocean and on remote terrestrial settings. Through ocean-going research activities suited for undergraduate involvement, we are developing a deeper understanding of nutrient and carbon cycling in the ocean, its past and present impacts on atmospheric CO2, and its sensitivities to alteration by human activities. A series of new undergraduate courses communicate the most fundamental concepts and pressing questions to Princeton students with a broad range of intellectual and professional trajectories.
