U.S. Secretary of Energy Bodman Visits UC s College of Engineering

U.S. First District Congressman Steve Chabot was instrumental in bringing Secretary Bodman to campus. He noted that the 660,000 people in the First Congressional District hold the University of Cincinnati in high esteem and consider it one of the top institutions of higher education in the country. He also noted that the College of Engineering’s hydrogen fuel research was of particular interest to him, personally. (Chabot accompanied Assistant Energy Secretary Mark Maddox to UC in 2004 to announce

UC’s receipt of a DOE grant

.)

A roundtable discussion was held with the secretary, congressman, UC administrators and faculty from the College of Engineering. Provost Tony Perzigian and Sandra Degen, vice president for Research, provided background on UC’s history and rankings, noting that UC’s College of Engineering was where cooperative education began. Anne Chasser, associate vice president for technology transfer and commercialization, noted that UC is one of only 20 universities competing in the DOE-sponsored Solar Decathlon in Washington DC in 2007.

“I am quite impressed by UC’s physical plant,” said Bodman, noting that this was his first-ever visit to campus. (He is not a stranger to the area, however, having lived in Cincinnati and having married a woman from Middletown.) He was very interested in UC’s Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. “I am finding increasingly that in energy, chemical problems and materials problems are really engineering problems.” 

In his remarks to the faculty, Bodman focused particularly on two of President Bush’s current initiatives: the Advanced Energy Initiative and the American Competitiveness Initiative.

“The Advanced Energy Initiative will increase funding in research and development efforts that will diversify our fuel resources, improve how we fuel our homes and businesses and support new modes of transportation, such as cellulosic ethanol and battery technology. The American Competitiveness Initiative seeks to double federal spending on basic research — with special emphasis on the physical sciences and engineering — over the next ten years. This represents a 14 percent increase and includes tax credits to encourage more students to pursue science and engineering,” Bodman said. “I’m counting on this next generation.”

Bodman also noted that the need for electricity will double in the next 20 years.  “I don’t know how we could do it without nuclear energy,” he said. He cited the need for completing the geologic repository at Yucca Mountain and formalizing the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership proposal.

Bodman expressed his appreciation for Congress’ bipartisan support and passing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Signed by Bush on August 8, 2005, the legislation is intended to

• improve our nation’s electricity transmission capacity and reliability;
• promote a cleaner environment by encouraging new innovations and the use of alternative power sources; 
• promote clean coal technology and provide incentives for renewable energies such as biomass, wind, solar and hydroelectricity; provide leadership in energy conservation by establishing new mandatory efficiency requirements for federal buildings, and efficiency standards and product labeling; 
• decrease America’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil by increasing domestic oil and gas exploration and development on non-park federal lands and by authorizing expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s capacity to 1 billion barrels; and 
• encourage more nuclear and hydropower production by authorizing DOE to develop accelerated programs for the production and supply of electricity, setting the stage for building new nuclear reactors by reauthorizing Price Anderson and improving current procedures for hydroelectric project licensing.

The roundtable discussion was followed by tours of engineering research laboratories: Raj Singh demonstrated his solid oxide fuel cell and plasma processing labs, Vesselin Shanov explained his fuel cell demonstration with hydrogen production and Peter Smirniotis described his biomass gasifier research lab. Other engineering faculty involved were Raj Manglik, Vadim Guliants, Sang Young Son, Junhang Dong and Anastasios Angelopolous. College of Engineering Associate Dean Paul Bishop led the meeting.

"The College of Engineering at UC is doing cutting-edge research to develop new sources of energy for the American public," says Bishop. "This wide-ranging research runs the gamut from inventing new seals for fuel cells that can produce electricity from hydrogen and miniaturized fuel cells that can be used in a wide range of household products to efficient conversion of waste biomass to energy. Our researchers are also investigating ways to use nanotechnology to improve energy using systems. Secretary Bodman's visit was an excellent way to show him the major advances we are making and should lead to increased research funding from the Department of Energy. Hopefully, some of these new technologies will result in new industries being established in Southwestern Ohio."

Read about the UC visit at the Department of Energy Web site.