Notre Dame to develop next-generation refrigerant technology as part of a new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center

Published:August 21, 2024

Author:Brett Beasley

Jennifer Schaefer (Photo by Wes Evard/University of Notre Dame)

The University of Notre Dame is part of a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Gen-4 Engineering Research Center (ERC) called EARTH, which stands for Environmental Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub. Led by the University of Kansas, EARTH will bring together 80 institutions and researchers from a wide array of disciplines. In addition to Notre Dame, the University of Maryland, the University of Hawai'i, the University of South Dakota and Lehigh University will serve as core university partners.

All partners will collaborate around a shared goal: creating a sustainable refrigerant economy.

Currently, most of the air-conditioning and refrigeration systems used to preserve foods, store medicines and cool buildings rely on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs are greenhouse gases, some of which are thousands of times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Due to leaks and the energy required to operate existing systems, HFCs account for nearly 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The U.S. and 170 other countries are phasing down HFCs in accordance with domestic and international agreements signed in recent years, which creates a tremendous challenge to responsibly and sustainably replace billions of kilograms of refrigerants.

"A warming world combined with rising incomes around the world means that globally, we're adding air conditioners at a rapid rate. Over 3 billion people live in some of the hottest places on Earth, and only 8 percent currently have air conditioning," said Jennifer Schaefer, the Sheehan Family Collegiate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Notre Dame. "That means we'll likely see 10 new air conditioners sold every second over the next 30 years. We have to find alternative solutions to meet that demand without contributing to a vicious cycle of ecological harm."

Schaefer will serve as Notre Dame's lead and the center's deputy director. The Notre Dame team will also include eight additional members of the College of Engineering, including seven from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Assistant Professor Yamil Colón, Associate Professor Alexander Dowling, Frank M. Freimann Collegiate Professor of Engineering Ruilan Guo, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Engineering and Associate Vice President for Research Edward Maginn, Bernard Keating-Crawford Professor Nosang Myung, Assistant Professor Casey O'Brien and Rooney Family Collegiate Chair of Engineering William Phillip.

The team also includes Yanliang Zhang, the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Collegiate Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; John Onyango, an associate professor in the School of Architecture; and Bruce Huber, a professor in the Law School.

Schaefer explained that Notre Dame will contribute to all three main streams of the center's research.

The first stream focuses on innovative ways to handle current refrigerants. Notre Dame researchers will develop new, more economical ways to separate HFCs to reuse or recycle them. A second research stream aims to achieve safer refrigerants that maintain or improve performance but do not negatively affect Earth's atmosphere over time. Notre Dame will do computational prediction work for this stream in collaboration with atmospheric scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi. As part of a third stream, researchers at Notre Dame will pioneer technologies that will increase the energy efficiency of refrigeration systems to reduce the electricity demand on the grid.

Notre Dame researchers will also develop new ways of sensing refrigerant leaks, engineer solid-state systems that eliminate the need for refrigerant fluids and explore new approaches to moving heat while also contributing expertise in environmental law and sustainable architecture to support the successful implementation of new technologies developed by the center.

For Schaefer, EARTH's approach aligns well with the University's mission and current priorities.

"Refrigeration might not be the first thing that comes to mind as we think about protecting the environment, but it is a critical energy sustainability challenge, and we are grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting innovation in this area," Schaefer said. "At the same time, Notre Dame's new strategic framework asks us to 'draw the connections between the social and environmental dimensions' of climate change. That is exactly what the holistic, interdisciplinary approach embodied in EARTH is seeking to do."

Contact: Jessica Sieff, associate director of media relations, 574-631-3933, [email protected]

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