Jennifer Schafer (Photo by Wes Everard/University of Notre Dame)
Notre Dame is part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) new Gen-4 Engineering Research Center (ERC). EARTH stands for Environmental Applied Refrigerants Technology Hub. Led by the University of Kansas, EARTH will include 80 institutions and researchers from a wide range of disciplines. In addition to Notre Dame, the University of Maryland, University of Hawaii, University of South Dakota and Lehigh University are participating as key university partners.
All partners work together towards the common goal of creating a sustainable refrigeration economy.
Today, most air conditioning and refrigeration systems used to preserve food, store medicines, and cool buildings rely on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs are greenhouse gases, some of which are thousands of times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Due to leaks and the energy required to run existing systems, HFCs account for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
While the United States and 170 other countries are gradually phasing out their use of HFCs in accordance with recently concluded national and international agreements, replacing billions of kilograms of refrigerants responsibly and sustainably remains a major challenge.
“Global warming and rising incomes around the world are driving a rapid proliferation of air conditioners around the world. More than 3 billion people live in the hottest places on Earth, yet only 8 percent currently have air conditioners,” said Jennifer Schafer, Sheehan Family Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. “That means 10 new air conditioners will be sold every second over the next 30 years. We must find alternative solutions to meet that demand without contributing to a vicious cycle that harms ecosystems.”
Schaefer will serve as Notre Dame's leader and associate director of the center. The Notre Dame team includes eight members from the College of Engineering, including seven from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Assistant Professor Yamil Colon, Associate Professor Alexander Dowling, Frank M. Freiman Professor of Engineering Ruilan Guo, Keogh Hesburgh Professor of Engineering and Vice Dean for Research Edward McGinn, Bernard Keating Crawford Professor Nohsan Myung, Assistant Professor Casey O'Brien, and the Rooney Family Chair in Engineering William Phillips.
The team also includes Yanliang Zhang, professor of advanced materials and manufacturing in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, John Onyango, associate professor in the School of Architecture, and Bruce Huber, professor in the School of Law.
Schaefer explained that Notre Dame will contribute to all three major streams of research at the center.
The first stream focuses on innovative ways to work with current refrigerants. Notre Dame researchers will develop new, more economical ways to separate HFCs and reuse or recycle them. The second research stream aims to achieve safer refrigerants that do not negatively impact the Earth's atmosphere over time while maintaining or improving performance. Notre Dame will collaborate with atmospheric scientists from the University of Hawaii to conduct computational and predictive work for this stream. As part of the third stream, Notre Dame researchers will develop technologies to make refrigeration systems more energy efficient to reduce electricity demand on the power grid.
Notre Dame researchers will develop new ways to detect refrigerant leaks, design solid-state systems that do not require liquid refrigerants, and explore new approaches to moving heat, and will also provide expertise in environmental law and sustainable building to help ensure the successful implementation of new technologies developed by the center.
For Schafer, EARTH’s approach aligns well with the university’s mission and current priorities.
“Refrigeration may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about protecting the environment, but it is a critical challenge for energy sustainability, and we are grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting innovation in this area,” Schafer said. “At the same time, Notre Dame's new strategic framework calls for us to 'draw the connections between the societal and environmental dimensions' of climate change, which is exactly what the holistic, interdisciplinary approach embodied in EARTH aims to do.”
Contact: Jessica Sieff, Associate Director of Media Relations, 574-631-3933, [email protected]
