UMD College Park Engineering Sustainability Day Highlights Real Projects and Difficulties

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) No matter what you think of engineers, they have an important role to play in achieving goals of the Green New Deal and climate change mitigation. It was a great way to spending Earth Day -- at University of Maryland College Park as a sponsor, speaker and exhibitor for Engineering Sustainability Day – “Towards Zero Emissions and Beyond” with people engaged in doing the hard work of research and implementation of climate-smart initiatives.

From the welcoming address by Darryll Pines, Dean, A. James Clark School of Engineering and introductions by Eric Wachsman, Director, Maryland Energy Innovation Institute to the poster session and reception at the end of the day, attendees heard about real projects that will enable individuals, organizations and communities to move towards zero emissions and beyond. Paul Spies, Maryland Department of Commerce's Program Manager for Agribusiness & Energy provided the state-wide jobs and business-oriented perspective.

Ross Salawitch, UMD, Professor of Chemistry began with an overview of a climate change problem explaining how computer models operate to describe and analyze human activity on earth’s atmosphere with a concentration on the role of aerosols.

He was the first to bring up a repeated refrain: This is not easy and fixing one aspect may have other deleterious effects.

David Hart, Director, Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy at ITIF Information Technology & Innovation Foundation and George Mason University talked about carbon neutral fuels and carbon capture technologies, a popular topic throughout the day, with reference to the Washington Post Magazine’s Earth Day edition also dedicated to the topic. One complication Hart noted was the enormous amount of energy needed to pull CO2 out of the air. Will current technologies cause more pollution than they mitigate?

In the afternoon, Sam Gomberg of the Union of Concerned Scientists highlighted another complication of current carbon capture reality. A significant force behind the push for federal carbon capture legislation is the oil/gas industry which uses CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. Not exactly what many environmentalists have in mind when they think of carbon capture. But that’s where the funds come from now for development of technologies to take carbon from the atmosphere in a way that could enable underground storage. Not that there aren’t plenty of concerns expressed about that, either.

Another refrain was the concern that even with all the other carbon capture and use, carbon sequestration and carbon efficiency efforts, climate mitigation goals cannot be met; human suffering cannot be alleviated or avoided; damage to seaside ecosystems will continue and weather will become more extreme without capturing and sequestering carbon in some way.

Nevertheless, many are working on those other aspects of mitigation, described by the numbers of other speakers.

I had the opportunity to fill in the gaps regarding transportation energy mentioned by a number of previous speakers, representing the biofuels/renewable fuels sector. After a “Biofuels 101” introduction, I described how renewable fuels have already displaced 10% of ground transportation fuels in the US and how they are the near-term solution to decreasing transportation carbon footprints and other air pollution problems. There is no need to wait for affordable electric vehicles powered by renewable energy using "fair trade" batteries. I briefly reviewed the future role of renewable fuels and described biomass and waste conversion technologies, logistics challenges and the role engineers play in bringing ideas to reality. Presentation is available here.

During the afternoon, UMD students and faculty presented their scientific research work with presentations and at a poster session. Presenters incuded: Dongxia Liu, UMD; Steven Gabriel, UMD; Greg Hitz, Ion Storage Systems; Weidong Zhu, UMBC; YuHuang Wang, UMD; Reinhard Radermacher, UMD; Farah Singer, UMD.

Throughout the day students, faculty and visitors could stop by the Advanced Biofuels USA information table in the engineering building lobby to pick up a free magazine (recycled) and other information and at the info table of co-sponsor, Leaders in Energy.

What a great way for the UMD engineering college to celebrate Earth Day, highlighting and sharing the real work they are doing every day that contributes to understanding and mitigating climate change. They don't just talk the talk; they walk the walk. And they know from personal experience that this is not easy, that it is multifaceted and that it takes time and effort of many people, with valuable collaborations growing from connections made at knowledge-sharing events like this.