KU Energy Council, Current News:
Februrary
Tianjin University, China Looks to KU Energy Council Members for International Workshop
A Joint U.S./China Chemical Engineering Workshop on Energy and Environment was held in Tianjin University, China in February. The purpose of the workshop was to exchange the latest advances in energy and environment related research from leading research groups in the U.S. and China, and to foster collaborative research projects between institutions in the two countries.
The workshop was jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Chinese Government. Out of the fifteen participants invited from the U.S., three were from the University of Kansas, the only U.S. institution to have more than one representative at the workshop.
Each of the three KU participants were from the School of Engineering, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. Attendees included Trung Nguyen - Professor and Director of the Energy and Sustainability program at NSF, Aaron Scurto - Assistant Professor and DuPont Young Professor, and Bala Subramaniam - Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis.
June and July
KU Biodiesel Makes Local and National Headlines
The KU Energy Council Researcher Susan Williams was featured recently in several news stories reporting on the KU.s biofuels research. You can find the reports here:
Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis Professor Speaks at National Science Foundation Global Warming Workshop
Professor Daryle H. Busch, Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Deputy Director of the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis spoke at the Workshop on Reversing Global Warming: Chemical Recycling and Utilization of CO2 held in early July. The event was held at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, at the University of Southern California. The National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop explored aspects of chemical, electrochemical, photochemical, and thermochemical conversion of CO2 as a means to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions instead of mere CO2 sequestration.
KU Energy Council Member Serving on Scientific Committee for Kyoto Symposium
Kyoto Japan - Professor Bala Subramaniam is currently serving on the Scientific Committee of the Twentieth International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering. The symposium will be held from September 7-10, 2008 in Kyoto, Japan (http://www2.scej.org/iscre20/). The theme of the conference is Green Chemical Reaction Engineering for a Sustainable Future: Beyond the Kyoto Protocol. A major topic of the conference will be sustainable production of fuels and chemicals, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
KU and Purdue Partner to Chair US/India Chemical Engineering Conference with Energy and Sustainability Focus
Professor Bala Subramaniam, University of Kansas and Professor Arvind Varma of Purdue University will co-chair the Second Joint US/India Chemical Engineering Conference and Workshop on Energy and Sustainability to be held in Chandigarh, India this December.
The primary goal of the conference is to promote interactions between industry and academia from India and the United States on frontier topics in energy. The proposed joint conference on energy will focus on traditional, non-traditional, and future sources of energy. Topics include:
- Oil and Natural Gas
- Petroleum
- Coal
- Bioenery
- Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
- Solar Energy
- Nuclear Energy
- Wind
- Geothermal
Experts from both countries have been invited to lecture in each topical area. The conference will provide a unique forum for scientists and engineers in industry and academia from both countries to discuss the many energy-related challenges facing the global community. These include economic and sociopolitical issues, ongoing energy-related research activities, industry and government laboratories, and future research needs aimed at developing mutually beneficial collaborations.
The KU Energy Council on behalf of the University co-sponsored a Town Hall meeting arranged by Conoco Phillips on October 4th, in Topeka, Kansas, entitled a Discussion on Energy. The meeting was attended by over 200 members of the public and VIPs representing the Kansas State Legislature and a number of influential bodies including the Kansas Farm Bureau, the Kansas Energy Council, the Soy Bean Commission and the Corn Growers Association.
