![[Left] Researchers Rahul Pandey, senior scientist with SRI and principal investigator, and Praveen Bollini, a University of Houston chemical engineering faculty, are key contributors to the microreactor project.](/sites/ccoe.egr.uh.edu/files/images/news/2024/pandey-and-bollini-01-crop.jpg "[Left] Researchers Rahul Pandey, senior scientist with SRI and principal investigator, and Praveen Bollini, a University of Houston chemical engineering faculty, are key contributors to the microreactor project.")
A University of Houston-affiliated project that has the potential to transform sustainable fuel production was selected to receive $3.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
Led by leading nonprofit research institute SRI, “Printed Microreactor for Renewable Energy Enabled Fuel Production” (PRIME-Fuel) aims to develop a modular microreactor technology that converts carbon dioxide into methanol using renewable energy sources. UH, a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research institution, is contributing essential research needed for the project.
This is part of ARPA-E’s $41 million Grid-free Renewable Energy Enabling New Ways to Economical Liquids and Long-term Storage program, otherwise known as the GREENWELLS program, which includes 14 projects to develop technologies that use renewable energy sources like wind and solar to produce sustainable liquid fuels or chemicals, which can be transported and stored similarly to gasoline or oil. Selected teams will develop systems that use electricity, carbon dioxide and water at renewable energy sites to produce renewable liquid renewable fuels that offer a clean alternative for sectors like transportation.
Vemuri Balakotaiah and Praveen Bollini, faculty members of the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, are co-investigators on the project. Pandey, a University of Houston alumnus, earned his Ph.D. from the department in 2015. This shared connection played an integral role in bringing the three together on this project.
Read more about the project, and see some images from the lab, here!