Akanksha Menon, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded $3 million in funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of their Energy Earthshots™ Initiative to advance clean energy technologies within the decade. 

The initiative includes a total of $264 million in funding that will support 11 new Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs) led by DOE National Laboratories and 18 university research teams addressing one or more of the specific Energy Earthshots™ that aim to accelerate affordable and reliable clean energy solutions to mitigate the climate crisis to reach a net-zero carbon goal in 2050. 

Menon's project, titled Thermo-Chemo-Mechanical Transformations in Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Composites, will bring together Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the Woodruff School, Claudio Di Leo, assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and Jeff Urban from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to provide a fundamental understanding of the coupled thermo-chemo-mechanical phenomena in thermal energy storage (TES) materials that will enable low-cost and stable storage.

The Georgia Tech Energy, Policy, and Innovation Center, in partnership with Clean Cities Georgia, Atlanta Gas Light, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Power, and Southface Institute, hosted the 2023 Clean Cities Georgia Transportation Summit in September. The event highlighted the successes and benefits of all forms of clean transportation in Georgia and across the nation and provided an opportunity for more than 100 attendees to network and build public-private partnerships. The summit also honored the 30th anniversary of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Clean Cities Network, and Clean Cities Georgia, which was the first coalition founded in 1993.

Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute, Ian Skelton, natural gas vehicles director of Atlanta Gas Light, and Frank Norris, executive director of Clean Cities Georgia, provided the welcome and opening remarks followed by a panel of executives from UPS, Chevron, and the DeKalb County Fleet Management who discussed the benefits of adopting clean fuels for businesses.

“I am excited that Georgia Tech continues to play an integral role in convening industry and community in the local region and helping to build strong relationships that will positively impact the regional and national energy landscape,” said Lieuwen, Regents’ Professor and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Events like this tap into the regional expertise within academia, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and research facilities, which speaks to the vision of EPICenter.”

The daylong summit consisted of panels discussing use cases for alternate fuels available in the market: natural gas/renewable natural gas, electric vehicle (EV) applications, propane and renewable propane, biofuels and sustainable aviation fuels, and current and future hydrogen applications. Panelists shared processes and considerations that led to the successful implementation of alternate fuels within their organization, including choosing locations, procurement, state and regional policies, incentives, effects on the community, improvements in current processes, reduced carbon footprint, and scalability while shifting from fossil to alternate fuels.

Panelists from Cobb, DeKalb, and Henry counties shared successful implementations of alternate fuel vehicles in their respective localities that included propane, renewable natural gas and EVs and showcased some of their alternate fuel vehicles during the summit. Workforce development and infrastructure concerns included training new electricians, aging line men in the region, and future proofing charging stations. Transformer supply chain issues were also brought to the forefront during discussions throughout the day.

Representatives from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spoke to the audience on how to work with their respective agencies to get federal funding in this area. The event ended with a 30-year review of Clean Cities Georgia, a nonprofit that started as the first initiative of the DOE to focus on strategies to reduce petroleum consumption in transportation. There are now nearly 100 coalitions across the country.

The event was part of National Drive Electric Week, which took place during the last week of September. Presentations and other details from the summit can be accessed through the 2023 Clean Cities Georgia summit webpage.

David Sholl, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE), is leading a new Energy Earthshot Research Center (EERC) at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that is focused on developing chemical processes that use sustainable methods instead of burning fossil fuels to radically reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions to stem climate change and limit the crisis of a rapidly warming planet.

Sholl, who is director of ORNL’s Transformational Decarbonization Initiative, is director of the ORNL-led Non-Equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficient Reactions (NEETER), which also involves ChBE faculty members Fani Boukouvala and Carsten Sievers as key members.

NEETER is one of two new DoE EERCs involving ChBE faculty; the other (co-led by Professor David Flaherty) is Harnessing Electrostatics for the Conversion of Organics, Water and Air: Driving Redox on Particulate Liquids Earthshot (DROPLETS).

A new kind of polymer membrane created by researchers at Georgia Tech could reshape how refineries process crude oil, dramatically reducing the energy and water required while extracting even more useful materials.

The so-called DUCKY polymers — more on the unusual name in a minute — are reported Oct. 16 in Nature Materials. And they’re just the beginning for the team of Georgia Tech chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists. They also have created artificial intelligence tools to predict the performance of these kinds of polymer membranes, which could accelerate development of new ones.

The implications are stark: the initial separation of crude oil components is responsible for roughly 1% of energy used across the globe. What’s more, the membrane separation technology the researchers are developing could have several uses, from biofuels and biodegradable plastics to pulp and paper products.

“We're establishing concepts here that we can then use with different molecules or polymers, but we apply them to crude oil because that's the most challenging target right now,” said M.G. Finn, professor and James A. Carlos Family Chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.

Research faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology now have their own advocacy group. Since 2022, the Research Faculty Advisory Council (RFAC) has increased research faculty engagement and addressed concerns from researchers in the Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs), joining similar organizations that address such needs in other colleges.

The group addresses issues such as retention, professional development, recognition, and compensation. Julia Kubanek, vice president for Interdisciplinary Research (VPIR), formed the group after hearing feedback from research faculty and modeled it after a similar council in the College of Sciences.

“This advisory council has helped clarify how we can improve both the status and experience of research faculty on campus,” Kubanek said. “The recommendations they’ve provided and the initiatives they’ve launched are already making a difference.”

The 12 members are nominated from across the IRIs, plus two other interdisciplinary research units supported by the VPIR. These members include:

• Vishwadeep Ahluwalia (Center for Advanced Brain Imaging)
• Michael Chang (Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems)
• Sriram Chockalingam (Institite for Data Engineering and Science)
• Christine Conwell (Strategic Energy Institute)
• Andrew Dugenske (Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute)
• Ulrika Egertsdotter (Renewable Bioproducts Institute)
• Evan Goldberg (Global Center for Medical Innovation )
• Walter Henderson (Institute for Materials)
• Johannes Leisen (Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience)
• Paul Joseph (Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology)
• Leanne West (Pediatric Technology Center)
• Clint Zeagler (Institute for People and Technology)

In its first year, RFAC had two co-leads: Andrew Dugenske, the director of the Factory Information Systems Center and a principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, and Paul Joseph, a principal research scientist and director of External User Programs for Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor.

“Although the research faculty contribute significantly to the overall growth of Georgia Tech, we remain largely underrepresented, unrecognized, and underemployed because of the lack of suitable platforms to talk about the challenges faced by research faculty colleagues,” Joseph said. “It was not a surprise that the same concerns surfaced and were discovered by the council when we collected input from the research faculty throughout the IRIs on issues that concern and are important to research faculty.”

Although Joseph and Dugenske have completed their terms in their leadership roles, they are satisfied with RFAC’s initial success in creating awareness of research faculty challenges on campus, and initiatives that include a mentorship program with the Research Next team, a Research Faculty Mentoring Network, and efforts in RFAC bylaws creation. Leanne West and Walter Henderson now serve as co-leads.

“It was great for the administration to recognize the many contributions that research faculty make to the Institute and establish a way to improve research faculty job satisfaction and engagement,” Dugenske said. “During the first year of the RFAC, the committee did a great job of gathering issues of importance to research faculty and presenting clear and actionable recommendations to decision-makers.”

October is Campus Sustainability Month, an international celebration of sustainability on college and university campuses. Georgia Tech will host sustainability-focused events all month. With the recent release of the Institute’s Sustainability Next plan, these campus opportunities underscore our commitment to the objectives outlined in the plan. There are numerous options centered on climate and social sustainability topics in addition to trips to explore nature around Atlanta. The programming is hosted by diverse campus groups and offers a glimpse into the wide-ranging commitment to sustainability at Tech. 
 

Event Lineup 
 

Climate Action Plan Student Engagement Workshop 
Monday, Oct. 2  
5 – 6 p.m.  
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Room 210 

As a deliverable of the Sustainability Next Plan, the Georgia Tech Climate Action Plan is a roadmap for integrating climate action strategies across operations, research, and education focusing on climate justice and reducing emissions. Students are invited to join the Office of Sustainability for an interactive, in-person event to learn about the climate action strategies in the plan, share input, and enjoy free pizza. 

For registration and additional information, click here. RSVP required. 

Climate Action Plan Campus Town Hall (Virtual) 
Wednesday, Oct. 4  
11 a.m. – noon  
Virtual via Zoom (RSVP Required) 

The entire Georgia Tech community can learn more about the Georgia Tech Climate Action Plan and share input during a virtual campus town hall hosted by the Office of Sustainability. 

For registration and additional information, click here.  

Approaching the Limits of Climate Viability: Urban Heat Vulnerability in Atlanta and How to Adapt 
Wednesday, Oct. 4  
Noon – 1:30 p.m.  
Scholar’s Event Theater, First Floor, Price Gilbert Library 

As part of Georgia Tech Library’s initiative to highlight research that makes data accessible and meaningful to the public, Brian Stone Jr., a professor in the School of City and Regional Planning, will present a lecture on the urban heat island effect and its context for Atlanta.  

Find more details and registration information here.  

Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems Seminar Series, Baabak Ashuri — Valuation of Investment in Sustainable Buildings and Renewable Energy Infrastructure 
Thursday, Oct. 5  
3 – 4 p.m.  
Hybrid Event: BBISS Offices, 760 Spring St., Suite 118, and on Teams 

Baabak Ashuri, a professor in the School of Building Construction and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems Fellow, will speak about how a new set of tools for the valuation and appraisal of renewable energy projects can enhance investment decision-making.  

Liam's Legacy Symposium 2023: Humanitarian Engineering with Juan Lucena 
Thursday, Oct. 5  
4 – 6 p.m.  
Coda Building, Ninth Floor Atrium 

Juan Lucena, director of the Humanitarian Engineering Undergraduate Program and professor of engineering, design, and society at the Colorado School of Mines will visit Georgia Tech for the annual Liam’s Legacy Symposium. Lucena will explore the relationship between engineers, engineering, and the well-being of communities, social justice, and sustainability.   

This event is presented by the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education in partnership with the School of History and Sociology, through a grant from the Gertrude and William C. Wardlaw Fund in support of the Conference on Human Rights, Changes, and Challenges. 

Sustainable Careers and Shared Value Panel 
Thursday, Oct. 12  
2 – 3:15 p.m.  
Scheller College of Business, Room 221 

Join the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business to hear from three panelists at various stages in their careers and diverse types of corporations about how sustainability is incorporated and how it has shaped their roles. 

More information and registration here.  

Lullwater Preserve (Emory) Bird Walk 
Friday, Oct. 13  
7 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  
Meet at Cherry Emerson  

Ride the GT/Emory bus with Birdwatchers @ GT to Lullwater Preserve, a beautiful, forested park on Emory’s Druid Hills campus. Open to beginner and expert birders alike — make sure to RSVP if you need binoculars. 

For more information and registration, click here. 

Campus Energy Challenge 
Oct. 16 – 22  
Residence Halls Across Campus 

Housing and Residence Life’s annual Energy Competition takes place the week of Oct. 16. The competition will give all campus residents a chance to see the daily energy use of their residence halls, along with tips on how to reduce their individual use. The residence hall that reduces its use the most will win a prize. 

Contact Malte Weiland, senior sustainability project manager, Auxiliary Services, for more information. 

A Conversation With Victor Luckerson, Author of ‘Built From the Fire’ 
Tuesday, Oct. 17  
7 – 8:30 p.m.  
Scheller College of Business, Room 100  

A panel discussion with Victor Luckerson, author of Built From the Fire, moderated by Todd Michney, associate professor in the School of History and Sociology. The book follows a multigenerational saga of a family and a community in Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification. 

Staff Council Drive-Thru Recycling Event  
Wednesday, Oct. 18  
2 – 4 p.m.  
O’Keefe Building Parking Lot, 151 Sixth St. NW 

The Georgia Tech Staff Council and CPEC subcommittee are hosting a recycling collection event for faculty and staff. Drop off items such as plastic bottles, mixed paper, household batteries, electronics, and glass.  

Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems Seminar Series – Dylan Brewer: Who Heeds the Call in an Energy Emergency? Evidence from Smart Thermostat Data 
Thursday, Oct. 19  
3 – 4 p.m. 
Hybrid Event: BBISS Offices, 760 Spring St., Suite 118, and on Teams 

Dylan Brewer, an assistant professor in the School of Economics and BBISS Fellow, will present research exploring the relationship between compliance with calls to conserve energy during a shortage situation and in an environment of political polarization.  

Climate and Innovation Business Forum  
Friday, Oct. 20  
1 – 5:30 p.m.   
Global Learning Center  

The Climate and Innovation Business Forum will convene stakeholders from various sectors to explore strategies for driving innovative climate solutions. Attendees are invited to participate in discussions on harnessing the potential of climate technology, forging innovative collaborations, and mobilizing capital for environmental and social impact. 

Administration and Finance Virtual Town Hall 
Friday, Oct. 20  
2 – 3 p.m.  
Virtual via Zoom gatech.zoom.us/j/95142941085 

Celebrate Sustainability Month at the A&F virtual town hall and learn about activities designed to promote sustainability across the Institute. We will share highlights from the recently published Sustainability Next plan, developing strategies from the Climate Action Plan, and how Georgia Tech is harnessing the power of data throughout our utility management efforts to foster a living campus for all.    

Georgia Tech Undergraduate Sustainability Education Panel  
Tuesday, Oct. 24  
11 a.m. – noon  
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Room 210 

Learn more about sustainability-focused campus educational opportunities at this panel discussion and hear from affiliated faculty, staff, and students. Snacks will be provided.  

Surviving the “Zombie Apocalypse” at Kendeda 2023 
Friday, Oct. 27  
4 – 7:30 p.m.  
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design 

The Kendeda Building is an example of resilient infrastructure, with its potable water storage, solar power system, composting toilets, and ability to grow food on its rooftop garden. This Office of Sustainability event will focus on the lessons that The Kendeda Building has taught us about sustainability, regenerative design, and the benefits of being more self-sufficient. Join us for a spooky Kendeda Building tour, snacks, and lessons in sewing and food pickling.  

Get tickets here. 

Extension of Community: What It Means to Be Sustainable in a Digital World  
Throughout October  

Locations include The Kendeda Building, the Library, and the Georgia Tech Media Bridge 

Experience an interactive art exhibit at the intersection of science and technology addressing sustainability and the climate crisis.  

• How have our technological and digital developments helped and harmed us?  
• How can we be more digitally sustainable?  
• What are the limits of technology and how can we shift our behaviors to help heal the planet? 

Fourteen artists and scientists reflect on community and sustainability within their practice and question the impact of technology on the environment and society. The exhibit, curated by Birney Robert, addresses themes of plastics and waste, social and environmental justice, and imagined futures. 

For more information, click here. 

Explore the Campus Sustainability Month 2023 Calendar for a comprehensive list of events and updates. Campus groups, departments, and organizations interested in adding their sustainability-focused event to the calendar can email sustain.gatech.edu. 

Nga Lee (Sally) Ng, Love Family Professor with joint appointments in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is AGU's 2023 Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award recipient.

The Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award is presented annually and recognizes excellence in research and leadership in the atmospheric and climate sciences from honorees between eight and 20 years of receiving their PhD.

Being selected as a Section Honoree is bestowed upon individuals for meritorious work or service toward the advancement and promotion of discovery and solution science. AGU, the world's largest Earth and space science association, annually recognizes a select number of individuals as part of its Honors and Recognition program.

The Atmospheric Sciences Section studies the physics, chemistry, and dynamics of the atmosphere. Ng received the Ascent Award for advancing the fundamental understanding of organic aerosol measurement, sources, chemistry, trends, and impacts in Earth’s atmosphere.

Ng earned her doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral scientist at Aerodyne Research Inc. She joined Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 2011.

Her research focuses on the understanding of the chemical mechanisms of aerosol formation and composition, as well as their health effects. Her group combines laboratory chamber studies and ambient field measurements to study aerosols using advanced mass spectrometry techniques.

Ng currently leads the establishment of the Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork (ASCENT), a new comprehensive, high-time-resolution, long-term measurement network in the U.S. for the characterization of aerosol chemical composition and physical properties. Ng is the inaugural editor-in-chief of the American Chemical Society's (ACS)  ACS ES&T Air, a new journal that will publish novel and globally relevant original research on all aspects of air quality sciences and engineering.

Honorees will be recognized at AGU23, which will convene more than 25,000 attendees from over 100 countries in San Francisco and online everywhere on 11-15 December 2023. This celebration is a chance for AGU’s community to recognize the outstanding work of our colleagues and be inspired by their accomplishments and stories.

Alumnus Honors 
Ng is joined in receiving AGU23 accolades by Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences alumnus Vernon R. Morris (EAS PhD 1991), who receives this year's AGU Lifetime Achievement Award for Diversity and Inclusion.

Morris is professor and director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University, and an atmospheric scientist who studies the chemical evolution of atmospheric particulate during transport and residence in the lower troposphere and its implications to aerobiology, climate, and cloud processes. He has guided the research for more than 150 students at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels, published over 75 refereed papers, book chapters, and the scientific publications, ranging from quantum chemistry to the aerosol processes in tropical Africa.

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

Professor Christopher Jones was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. (AIChE).

Jones, the John F. Brock III School Chair of Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE@GT), will receive the award at the AIChE meeting in Orlando, Florida, this November. 

This award recognizes his contributions to ultra-dilute CO2 separations, such as the extraction of CO2 from air, also referred to as “direct air capture” or DAC. The Jones group has played a foundational role in developing materials and processes for CO2 removal from air, and in conjunction with the Lively, Realff, Sholl, and other groups in ChBE@GT, no academic institution has authored more publications on DAC than Georgia Tech. 

Professors Jones, Matthew Realff, and Ryan Lively are founding members of the Georgia Tech Direct Air Capture Center, or DirACC.

Gigatons of greenhouse gas are trapped under the seafloor, and that’s a good thing. Around the coasts of the continents, where slopes sink down into the sea, tiny cages of ice trap methane gas, preventing it from escaping and bubbling up into the atmosphere.

While rarely in the news, these ice cage formations, known as methane clathrates, have garnered attention because of their potential to affect climate change. During offshore drilling, methane ice can get stuck in pipes, causing them to freeze and burst. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is thought to have been caused by a buildup of methane clathrates.

But until now, the biological process behind how methane gas remains stable under the sea has been almost completely unknown. In a breakthrough study, a cross-disciplinary team of Georgia Tech researchers discovered a previously unknown class of bacterial proteins that play a crucial role in the formation and stability of methane clathrates.

A team led by Jennifer Glass, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Raquel Lieberman, professor and Sepcic-Pfeil Chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, showed that these novel bacterial proteins suppress the growth of methane clathrates as effectively as commercial chemicals currently used in drilling, but are non-toxic, eco-friendly, and scalable. Their study, funded by NASA, informs the search for life in the solar system, and could also increase the safety of transporting natural gas.

The research, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, underscores the importance of fundamental science in studying Earth’s natural biological systems and highlights the benefits of collaboration across disciplines.

“We wanted to understand how these formations were staying stable under the seafloor, and precisely what mechanisms were contributing to their stability,” Glass said. “This is something no one has done before.”

Sifting Through Sediment

The effort started with the team examining a sample of clay-like sediment that Glass acquired from the seafloor off the coast of Oregon.

Glass hypothesized that the sediment would contain proteins that influence the growth of methane clathrate, and that those proteins would resemble well-known antifreeze proteins in fish, which help them survive in cold environments.

But to confirm her hypothesis, Glass and her research team would first have to identify protein candidates out of millions of potential targets contained in the sediment. They would then need to make the proteins in the lab, though there was no understanding of how these proteins might behave. Also, no one had worked with these proteins before.

Glass approached Lieberman, whose lab studies the structure of proteins. The first step was to use DNA sequencing paired with bioinformatics to identify the genes of the proteins contained in the sediment. Dustin Huard, a researcher in Lieberman’s lab and first author of the paper, then prepared candidate proteins that could potentially bind to the methane clathrates. Huard used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of the proteins.

Creating Seafloor Conditions in the Lab

Huard passed off the protein candidates to Abigail Johnson, a former Ph.D. student in Glass’ lab and co-first author on the paper, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia. To test the proteins, Johnson formed methane clathrates herself by recreating the high pressure and low temperature of the seafloor in the lab. Johnson worked with Sheng Dai, an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, to build a unique pressure chamber from scratch.

Johnson placed the proteins in the pressure vessel and adjusted the system to mimic the pressure and temperature conditions required for clathrate formation. By pressurizing the vessel with methane, Johnson forced methane into the droplet, which caused a methane clathrate structure to form.

She then measured the amount of gas that was consumed by the clathrate — an indicator of how quickly and how much clathrate formed — and did so in the presence of the proteins versus no proteins. Johnson found that with the clathrate-binding proteins, less gas was consumed, and the clathrates melted at higher temperatures.

Once the team validated that the proteins affect the formation and stability of methane clathrates, they used Huard's protein crystal structure to carry out molecular dynamics simulations with the help of James (JC) Gumbart, professor in the School of Physics. The simulations allowed the team to identify the specific site where the protein binds to the methane clathrate.

A Surprisingly Novel System

The study unveiled unexpected insights into the structure and function of the proteins. The researchers initially thought the part of the protein that was similar to fish antifreeze proteins would play a role in clathrate binding. Surprisingly, that part of the protein did not play a role, and a wholly different mechanism directed the interactions.

They found that the proteins do not bind to ice, but rather interact with the clathrate structure itself, directing its growth. Specifically, the part of the protein that had similar characteristics to antifreeze proteins was buried in the protein structure, and instead played a role in stabilizing the protein.

The researchers found that the proteins performed better at modifying methane clathrate than any of the antifreeze proteins that had been tested in the past. They also performed just as well as, if not better than, the toxic commercial clathrate inhibitors currently used in drilling that pose serious environmental threats.

Preventing clathrate formation in natural gas pipelines is a billion-dollar industry. If these biodegradable proteins could be used to prevent disastrous natural gas leaks, it would greatly reduce the risk of environmental damage.

“We were so lucky that this actually worked, because even though we chose these proteins based on their similarity to antifreeze proteins, they are completely different,” Johnson said. “They have a similar function in nature, but do so through a completely different biological system, and I think that really excites people.”

Methane clathrates likely exist throughout the solar system — on the subsurface of Mars, for example, and on icy moons in the outer solar system, such as Europa. The team’s findings indicate that if microbes exist on other planetary bodies, they might produce similar biomolecules to retain liquid water in channels in the clathrate that could sustain life.

“We’re still learning so much about the basic systems on our planet,” Huard said. “That’s one of the great things about Georgia Tech — different communities can come together to do really cool, unexpected science. I never thought I would be working on an astrobiology project, but here we are, and we’ve been very successful.”

Citation: Dustin J E Huard, et al. Molecular basis for inhibition of methane clathrate growth by a deep subsurface bacterial protein, PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2023.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad268

Funding: National Aeronautics & Space Administration, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund

Georgia Tech co-authors included Zixing Fan, Ph.D. student, and two undergraduates, Lydia Kenney (now a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University) and Manlin Xu (now a Ph.D. student in the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program). Ran Drori, associate professor of chemistry at Yeshiva University, also contributed.

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) chose Adjunct Professor and alumnus Tim Lieuwen, M.S. ME 1997, Ph.D. ME 1999, to give a keynote address about net zero pathways in the U.S. energy system as part of the 2023 Global Grand Challenges Summit. Lieuwen’s talk, which took place on September 19, surveyed transitions of the three major elements of the energy system — energy sources, energy carriers and storage, and energy users. He discussed how these elements will evolve as the U.S. decarbonizes, including current modeling results for the lowest-cost mix of energy sources and carriers.

Lieuwen is the interim chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering; Regents’ Professor; the David S. Lewis, Jr. Professor; and the executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute.