Environment

An abundant, organic material found in industrial dyes could be the key to advancing a type of battery with promise for storing and deploying large quantities of renewable energy. New research from The University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering introduces new materials using azobenzene to open the door for “high-capacity, long-life non-aqueous flow batteries.”

It's well known that poor air quality can lead to health problems. But research from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin uncovers new information about how air quality issues can affect important processes in the body and details how people who live in polluted areas could be at greater risk for lung disease and other illnesses.

Seagrasses are some of the earth’s most productive habitats producing a significant fraction of oxygen to the atmosphere. The exact amount of oxygen is unknown because present day techniques lack the sophistication to measure oxygen. A new interdisciplinary endeavor at The University of Texas at Austin that includes mechanical engineering professor Preston Wilson hopes to refine the important oxygen contribution seagrass meadows have by listening rather than looking.

A type of beetle capable of regulating its body temperature in some of the hottest places on Earth is the centerpiece of new research with major potential implications for cooling everything from buildings to electronic devices in an environmentally friendly manner.

A first-of-its-kind network of sensors for monitoring emissions across an oil and gas production region may soon revolutionize the way methane leaks are found. The United States has become the world’s largest producer of natural gas and a major exporter. However, methane, the main constituent of natural gas, has a role as a greenhouse gas in climate warming. A new partnership led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and bringing together Environmental Defense Fund, ExxonMobil, Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and Pioneer Natural Resources Company, aims to demonstrate a novel approach to measuring methane emissions from oil and gas production sites, using advanced technologies to help minimize releases into the atmosphere.

In January, Margarita García stood over a hot griddle, roasting cocoa beans to make a fine chocolate. Outside, the Oaxacan air was cold. But inside, the comales where the beans were cooking warmed the tiny brick-and-mortar room that houses the Lanní chocolate factory.

An international research team that includes Benny Freeman, professor in the Cockrell School’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, has pioneered a new filtration technique that could dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to extract lithium from the earth, taking the process from months and years to hours. This could improve the supply of lithium, which is essential for enabling electric vehicles and for the integration of renewable energy sources.

A multidisciplinary team of engineers and scientists has developed a new class of filtration membranes for a variety of applications, from water purification to small-molecule separations to contaminant-removal processes, that are faster to produce and higher performing than current technology. This could reduce energy consumption, operational costs and production time in industrial separations.

New research from The University of Texas at Austin finds industrial buildout in oil, gas and petrochemical sectors in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southwest regions could generate more than half a billion tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2030. That figure is equivalent to 8% of total current annual U.S. emissions. These emissions are driven by the regions’ oil and gas boom, and a substantial fraction comes from large industrial facilities such as new petrochemical plants, liquefied natural gas export terminals and refineries. The vast majority of these emissions will come from Texas and Louisiana.

A multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists has discovered a new method for water filtration that could have implications for a variety of technologies, such as desalination plants, breathable and protective fabrics, and carbon capture in gas separations. The research team, led by Manish Kumar in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, published their findings in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

The term “humanitarian engineering” is relatively new, first gaining popularity in 2002 when civil engineer Bernard Amadei founded the engineering organization Engineers Without Borders. Now, humanitarian engineering is an integral part of the engineering landscape, appearing in the course curriculum and program offerings at many universities nationwide.

With a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Cockrell School of Engineering is launching a unique initiative that aims to make The University of Texas at Austin a national hub for geothermal energy expertise and startups. The new Geothermal Entrepreneurship Organization (GEO) will bring together engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs to develop technologies and launch companies to help advance the geothermal energy industry.

Dakota Stormer was camping with his family in Galveston, Texas, in the summer of 2001 when Tropical Storm Allison made landfall. It was on that trip, at the ripe age of seven, that Stormer decided he wanted to become a meteorologist. With a last name like “Stormer,” the career choice could not have been more perfect. It wasn’t until Stormer was in high school and discovered his natural aptitude for math that he pivoted his career trajectory from meteorologist to engineer.

The rose may be one of the most iconic symbols of the fragility of love in popular culture, but now the flower could hold more than just symbolic value. A new device for collecting and purifying water, developed at The University of Texas at Austin, was inspired by a rose and, while more engineered than enchanted, is a dramatic improvement on current methods. Each flower-like structure costs less than 2 cents and can produce more than half a gallon of water per hour per square meter.

The World Economic Forum has announced the introduction of a Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) system to help tackle the problem of space traffic and congestion in the Earth’s orbit. The program will be led by a global team of experts in the field, including the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Moriba Jah, an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.

The University of Texas at Austin team that led a twin satellite system launched in 2002 to take detailed measurements of the Earth, called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), reports in the most recent issue of the journal Nature Climate Change on the contributions that their nearly two decades of data have made to our understanding of global climate patterns.

Members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) met at The University of Texas at Austin on March 7, 2019, to examine the growing role of data analytics in natural disasters and determine how the proper application of data could be used to develop better strategies for disaster preparation and response.

Access to clean water remains one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. A breakthrough by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin may offer a new solution through solar-powered technology that absorbs moisture from the air and returns it as clean, usable water.

Poor air quality is the largest environmental health risk in the United States. Fine particulate matter pollution is responsible for more than 100,000 deaths each year from heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and other diseases. But not everyone is equally exposed to poor air quality, nor are all people equally responsible for generating it.

With rising demand and dwindling supply, water is perhaps Earth’s most critical natural resource. One way to get more of it is to find more creative approaches — and new materials — to use and reuse existing water and improve upon existing water purification methods. That is the focus of the Center for Materials for Water and Energy SysTems (M-WET), a new multi-university research center headquartered in The University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering, uniting researchers from UT; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.