News

Energy frontier: USU scientists seek solutions to power problems

By Kevin Opsahl
The Herald Journal
February 21, 2011

(Eli Lucero/Herald Journal)
Kevin Shurtleff shows where they grow algae that can be turned into biodiesel fuel at EDL's "BioInnovations" Algae Energy Systems facility.

Studying under the world's expert of inductive power transfer, it might be easy to see how Hunter Wu got a job at a Utah State University research facility right after college.

Wu, born in China and raised in New Zealand, had become very interested in science and math at an early age. The whiz kid's smarts helped him start college at the age of 15 and complete his Ph.D. at 22 at the University of Auckland.

"I felt very lucky to be working with such a new technology in the world," Wu told The Herald Journal last week. "It's the most leading-edge technology that's currently being researched."

In July 2010, right after receiving his doctorate degree, Wu took his first full-time job at Energy Dynamics Lab on Utah State University's Innovation Campus.

Ky Sealy, born and raised in Georgia, received his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering in the same year at USU. He also came to EDL not long after earning his degrees.

Wu and Sealy are just two employees at EDL who represent Director Jeff Muhs' belief that most transformational ideas originate with "new kids on the block."

The Energy Dynamics Lab is devoted to finding high-tech solutions to provide improvements in United States energy security. The lab was founded in 2009 under the USU Research Foundation and employs dozens at locations in Salt Lake City, Park City and Vernal.

"(We're here) to solve some of America's most intractable energy problems," Muhs said. "The big challenges we face are our addiction to foreign oil and the transfer of wealth to other nations created by this addiction, economy-damaging energy price spikes, and the environmental impacts of energy production and use - such as poor air quality in cities. We are working on transformative solutions rather than incremental improvements."

And Muhs does not want those at the EDL to just stop at "demonstrating" new technologies they produce - "We want to commercialize them," he said.

Take the Smart Occupancy Sensor, for instance. Earlier this month, the EDL received a grant valued at $40,000 for further development of the sensor that was designed and is being tested there (the grant was awarded by the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development Centers of Excellence program, founded in 1986).

The Smart Occupancy Sensor, when fully developed, will allow people to not have to use their hands to flick the switch to turn off the lights. EDL Deputy Director Paul Israelsen has a prototype in his own office and wants to make the technology available to people for $80 to $100. The technology, he boasts, will be able to fit into the palm of their hand.

The EDL is also developing other lighting technologies, which by 2015 - when used together - will cut energy use by more than half when compared to today's system, according to its website. The sensor and lighting technologies are being developed at the Intuitive Buildings Laboratory.

The EDL has four major labs within its organization: the Intuitive Buildings Laboratory, Environmental and Wind Measurements laboratory, the Vehicle and Roadway Electrification laboratory, and the "BioInnovations" Algae Energy Systems facility.

In the Vehicle and Roadway Electrification laboratory, young scientists like Wu are currently working on providing power directly to vehicles from electrified highways, dramatically reducing their use of petroleum and the emission of carbon dioxide.

The power transfer pads would be embedded in parking lots and eventually on roadways and would supply wireless power to vehicles.

For now, they're working on the technology so it will be available in people's garages.

"We hope to push the commercialization of this petroleum-saving technology for cars out over the next several years," Wu said.

In the wind measurements laboratory, Alan Marchant and his team are working on DAISI, or dynamic aerosol in-situ imager. The purpose of DAISI is to create actual pictures of aerosol particles or particles floating in liquid.

"The sensor should give us new information about particle size, shape and flow characteristics," Merchant said. "This could help us, for example, to identify the source or composition of aerosol particles and distinguish between particles that are more dangerous or less dangerous."

The lab plans to use the DAISI configurations to characterize aerosols from outdoor air and particles process water, such as algae samples.

Kevin Shurtleff has been the branch lead of Algae Energy Systems at EDL since last July. Algae Energy Systems works to commercialize algae-to-biofuels technologies and demonstrate low-cost, large-scale biofuels production from algae. The complex boasts offices, a comprehensive wet lab, a greenhouse and six 1,200-square-foot growth pods.

Both Hunter Wu and Ky Sealy see energy as an "up-and-coming technology that has a lot of room for progress."

"It hasn't progressed nearly as much as computer technologies," Sealy said. "So engineering in the energy world is definitely compelling, especially now when the government is providing a lot of funding to us and allowing for extra innovation. This (EDL) is definitely a good place to be."

Wu agrees.

"I think there's a feeling right now that whoever out-competes the rest of the world will be the leader," he said. "It's not just about energy as a theme but really benefiting mankind ... if we continue to consume at this rate, there may not be much for the next generation."