In 2013, Georgia Tech student Heidi Vreeland visited the community of Nuevo Amanecer, a small neighborhood in rural Nicaragua. While there, Vreeland was struck by how damaging the method of cooking with an open fire could be to people’s respiratory health, exposing them to high levels of smoke, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide. This led to the beginning of a project to give the people of Nuevo Amanecer clean cookstoves, a project that’s been the work of Georgia Tech’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB) for almost eight years now.

The project, funded in part by the Georgia Tech Student Foundation and Parents Fund, has led to the installation of nearly 100 clean cookstoves in Nuevo Amanecer over the last two years. The stoves use a combustion chamber and chimney that filters and redirects smoke away from the users. This technology has also led to a marked improvement in the community’s air quality.

While the EWB team wanted to be able to visit Nuevo Amanecer in person to help install the stoves, they had to work remotely and find partners that could get the equipment there. In 2019, political instability kept them from being able to travel safely. Instead, they worked with Rayo de Sol, a local NGO; Poleña, a stove manufacturer; and EWB field engineers in Nicaragua to make sure that their project came to fruition. This partnership also helped them throughout 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic prevented students from visiting the community for a second summer.

Proleña and Rayo de Sol effectively managed the stove installation and surveyed community members to determine their satisfaction and use habits. The EWB field engineers conducted air quality tests in the community to ensure that the new stoves were producing lower smoke emissions than traditional open fires. Back in Atlanta, EWB members at Tech analyzed the air quality data.

Working remotely also caused the EWB team to emphasize community relations. They made YouTube videos about the project, outlining best practices with the stove to share with the Nuevo Amanecer community. They also stayed in contact with members of the community via WhatsApp, checking in to see how the stoves were working and learn about life in Nicaragua.

While EWB’s goal of installing 100 cookstoves has almost been met and their time with the project draws to a close, members of the team still plan on maintaining the connections they made with the people of Nuevo Amanecer. Pending Covid-19 restrictions, a team plans on flying there in August to help monitor and evaluate the status of the stoves.

“It is not only rewarding to be able to apply skills I hope to use in my future career towards something I care so much about, but also being able to see and hear how your efforts are making a positive impact in the community,” said Sophie Zhang, a member of the project’s finance team. “Working on this project has shown me that change is made through passion and drive, and it has been wonderful working with people on campus who share that enthusiasm.”

Learn more about EWB’s Nicaragua project on Instagram (@ewbgtnicaragua) and Facebook.

GT Assistant Professor Emily Grubert joins NPR Morning Edition host Noel King to discuss how the extraordinary weather event in Texas caused the state's electrical grid to fail.

Morning Edition Audio Segment

Researchers in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) are principal investigators on six new projects that have been awarded a total of $4.35 million for studies related to direct air capture science and technology. Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a technology that removes carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from ambient air for use as a feedstock for chemical processes or transformed into a durable substance so that it can be sequestered. Some of the proposed chemical transformations that are possible with this technology include liquid fuels that could serve as “drop-in” replacements for the petroleum-based fuels we use for transportation.

With these recent awards, Georgia Tech researchers, with the support of Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), have launched the Direct Air Capture Center (DirACC) under the guidance of Christopher Jones, Professor and William R. McLain Chair, and Matthew Realff, Professor and David Wang Sr. Fellow. DirACC will create a forum for collaborative research on NETs and DAC, bringing together researchers from across the Institute working in energy, sustainability, policy, and related fields.

For more than a decade, Georgia Tech researchers have worked to develop materials and processes that extract carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and transform it into something more durable or useful. In 2008, Jones began collaborating with the founders of a startup company, Global Thermostat, to develop materials and processes for DAC. His group first disclosed the use of hybrid silica/organic amine materials for CO₂ capture from ambient air in 2009 at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting. Global Thermostat’s core technology marries the CO₂-sorbing materials developed by Jones’ group with a low energy process for ensuring good air contact with those materials. In 2015, Global Thermostat built their initial R&D facility in Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the nation’s oldest technology incubator. Global Thermostat operated its ATDC facility through the end of 2020, while building technology demonstration projects in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2019 and opening a new R&D facility in Denver, Colorado, in 2020.

In 2010, David Sholl, John F. Brock III School Chair, collaborated with Jones on what is believed to be the first federally funded DAC research project sponsored by the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation played an early role in sponsoring DAC research at Georgia Tech as well. The foundation has recently produced a short film, featuring Jones, on the concept of DAC in its Chemistry Shorts film series, which is aimed at attracting young people to careers in STEM (chemistryshorts.org).

In 2017-18, Jones co-led a study on DAC technology for inclusion in the U.S. National Academies consensus study on Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda. This study adapted a technoeconomic analysis developed by Realff and former Georgia Tech Professor Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Nagoya University). The report explored all the terrestrial ways that CO₂ could be removed from the atmosphere, including DAC with geologic sequestration, bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS), carbon mineralization, and coastal, forest, and soil management practices. (nap.edu/read/25259/chapter/1).

In parallel, researchers at Tech have engaged in related technology developments in carbon capture, with large, established technology firms. Examples include projects with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company led by Associate Professor Ryan Lively, along with M.G. Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the James A. Carlos Family for Pediatric Technology; William Koros, professor and Roberto C. Goizueta Chair for Excellence in Chemical Engineering; and Realff, focusing on a range of CO2 capture problems. ExxonMobil has supported R&D efforts in CO2 capture at Georgia Tech dating back to 2005. To date, the GT-ExxonMobil relationship has resulted in the graduation of 10 Ph.D. students, the support of five postdoctoral researchers, and has resulted in more than 45 papers and 25 US patents.

Beyond the fundamental science and engineering of DAC, other research efforts at Georgia Tech are modeling the implications of large-scale deployment of negative emissions technologies. Alice Favero, an environmental economist in the School of Public Policy, develops economic models to study how NETs can be balanced with the optimal use of land and other climate mitigation policies. Recently, she has collaborated with Lively and Realff on assessing the global potential for DAC. In this work, the concept of using sustainable Bio-Energy for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS) processes coupled with DAC technology allows for significantly greater atmospheric CO₂ removal and avoids the complexity of connecting the biomass energy facility to the grid. In particular, Favero demonstrated that this technology can work in combination with ecological afforestation efforts that maintain or enhance the natural ecosystem services and avoid converting forested lands into plantations.

Georgia Tech is also conducting research on DAC methods that leverage the photosynthesis of plants other than trees to capture CO₂ from the atmosphere to produce chemicals and fuels. Valerie Thomas, the Anderson-Interface Professor of Natural Systems in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has worked with biofuels companies Algenol and LanzaTech to perform life cycle assessments to determine the potential for their technologies to contribute to carbon sequestration. Using life cycle assessment to study biofuel production also reveals the possibility of unexpected impacts and suggests ways that negative consequences can be averted or mitigated.

Climate models now show that reduction of current and future emissions alone will not limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5-2 °C, the level suggested that may allow society to stave off the worst impacts of global climate change. These models suggest that negative emissions technologies, such as direct air capture, will need to be developed and deployed at a large scale to stabilize the climate. Georgia Tech researchers have done pioneering work in this area and are poised to continue advancing the state of the art.

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Writer: Brent Verrill

It’s hard to believe that before coming to Georgia Tech, Gleb Yushin had never worked with batteries. Nearly 15 years later, his materials research is enabling space travel, revolutionizing the automotive industry, and contributing to clean, sustainable energy systems.

“When I arrived at Tech, I thought that innovations in batteries were long overdue,” recalled Yushin, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. “It may be hard to believe now, with so much excitement in electric vehicles and the recent Nobel Prize given to the lithium-ion battery inventors, but at that time, lithium-ion batteries were considered to be a ‘mature’ technology.”

Yushin’s passion for battery research led him to co-found Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc. in 2011, where he now serves as chief technology officer. Sila Nano just received a Series F funding round that boosted its valuation to over $3.3 billion. The latest investment will enable the company to evolve the electric vehicle batteries it has come to be known for and also begin introducing its high-energy battery technology into consumer devices, like fitness trackers and wireless earbuds.

For Yushin and his company, this is a watershed moment, as it looks to add 100 new positions to its existing 200 employee base and open a battery materials buildout factory in the U.S. by 2024.

But this also marks a significant moment for Georgia Tech. Sila Nano’s success can serve as inspiration to faculty, research scientists, and students looking to commercialize their own research.

“The more successful entrepreneurs we have at Tech, the more they can teach others to do it right,” Yushin said. “Furthermore, successful startups generate recognition and publicity for their universities, helping to attract ambitious and talented students from around the world.”

Companies like Sila Nano – and others that have been spun out of incubators like ATDC and CREATE-X – are playing a large role in building the commercialization ecosystem at Georgia Tech.

“The success of Sila Nano — not just in its latest valuation, but also the impact it’s having on the U.S. economy and clean energy initiatives — is very exciting for Tech,” said Raghupathy Sivakumar, interim chief commercialization officer, co-founder of CREATE-X, and engineering professor at Georgia Tech. “Bringing together commercialization and technology transfer activities with a goal of moving more intellectual property out into the marketplace greatly expands Georgia Tech’s impact on the world. We couldn’t be prouder of Gleb and the company he has built with his co-founders.”   

From Research to Commercialization

At Tech, research doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Engineers and scientists like Yushin actively look for ways to translate technology advancements into practical applications. Case in point: Sila Nano alone has licensed 14 different patents from the Georgia Tech Research Corporation.

“Most large companies have trouble identifying and commercializing revolutionary technologies that now commonly originate at universities or national labs rather than in industrial laboratories,” Yushin said. “If we want to have a strong, innovation-driven economy, commercializing university research is a must.”

The lab-to-market pipeline at Tech continues to grow, with a growing list of successful companies —  Brain Rain Solutions, Carbice, Zyrobotics and Sanguina, to name a few recent examples. Yushin said forming a proper ecosystem is the key to establishing the culture of thriving innovation at Tech and in Atlanta.

“The more notably successful startups that originate from Tech, the higher the chance that venture capital firms and aspiring entrepreneurs will be looking to us for breakthrough technology and research,” Yushin said. “Also, many students come to Tech with a goal of starting their own company because they see what we are doing.” 

So, what’s next for Sila Nano? Yushin plans to continue to improve and dramatically expand production of revolutionary materials for next-generation batteries that will power electric cars, trucks and buses and eventually hybrid-electric ships, planes and autonomous flying taxis. They will also become part of the renewable energy grid, he said.

As Yushin keeps advancing the storage power of batteries so, too, will Tech continue tapping the power of research and innovation to develop market-ready ideas that improve the human condition. The example of Sila Nano demonstrates the powerful potential. 

“It is incredibly exciting to contribute to building a clean, energy-sustainable future rather than waiting for it to happen,” Yushin said. “At Sila, we have showcased the major impact of materials science engineering on the future of transportation and the clean energy economy. As a Tech scientist and engineer, that makes me very proud.”

Decarbonizing U.S. electricity production will require both construction of renewable energy sources and retirement of power plants now operated by fossil fuels. A generator-level model described in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal Science suggests that most fossil fuel power plants could complete normal lifespans and still close by 2035 because so many facilities are nearing the end of their operational lives.

Meeting a 2035 deadline for decarbonizing U.S. electricity production, as proposed by the incoming U.S. presidential administration, would eliminate just 15% of the capacity-years left in plants powered by fossil fuels, says the article by Emily Grubert, a Georgia Institute of Technology researcher. Plant retirements are already underway, with 126 gigawatts of fossil generator capacity taken out of production between 2009 and 2018, including 33 gigawatts in 2017 and 2018 alone.

“Creating an electricity system that does not contribute to climate change is actually two processes — building carbon-free infrastructure like solar plants, and closing carbon-based infrastructure like coal plants,” said Grubert, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “My work shows that because a lot of U.S. fossil fuel plants are already pretty old, the target of decarbonization by 2035 would not require us to shut most of these plants down earlier than their typical lifespans.”

Of U.S. fossil fuel-fired generation capacity, 73% (630 out of 840 gigawatts) will reach the end of its typical lifespan by 2035; that percentage would reach 96% by 2050, she says in the Policy Forum article published in Science. About 13% of U.S. fossil fuel-fired generation capacity (110 gigawatts) operating in 2018 had already exceeded its typical lifespan. 

Because typical lifespans are averages, some generators operate for longer than expected. Allowing facilities to run until they retire is thus likely insufficient for a 2035 decarbonization deadline, the article notes. Closure deadlines that strand assets relative to reasonable lifespan expectations, however, could create financial liability for debts and other costs. The research found that a 2035 deadline for completely retiring fossil fuel-based electricity generators would only strand about 15% (1,700 gigawatt-years) of capacity life, along with about 20% (380,000 job-years) of direct power plant and fuel extraction jobs that existed in 2018. 

In 2018, fossil fuel facilities operated in 1,248 of 3,141 counties, directly employing about 157,000 people at generators and fuel extraction facilities. Plant closure deadlines can improve outcomes for workers and host communities — providing additional certainty, for example, by enabling specific advance planning for things like remediation, retraining for displaced workers, and revenue replacements.

“Closing large industrial facilities like power plants can be really disruptive for the people who work there and live in the surrounding communities,” Grubert said. “We don't want to repeat the damage we saw with the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s and ’80s, where people lost jobs, pensions, and stability without warning. We already know where the plants are, and who might be affected. Using the 2035 decarbonization deadline to guide explicit, community grounded planning for what to do next can help, even without a lot of financial support.”

Planning ahead will also help avoid creating new capital investment that may not be needed long-term. “We shouldn't build new fossil fuel power plants that would still be young in 2035, and we need to have explicit plans for closures both to ensure the system keeps working and to limit disruption for host communities,” she said. 

Underlying policies governing the retirement of fossil fuel-powered facilities is the concept of a “just transition” that ensures material well-being and distributional justice for individuals and communities affected by a transition from fossil to non-fossil electricity systems. Determining which assets are “stranded,” or required to close earlier than expected, is vital for managing compensation for remaining debt or lost revenue, Grubert said in the article.

CITATION: Emily Grubert, “Fossil electricity retirement deadlines for a just transition” (Science, 2020). https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6521/1171

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By Michael Pearson

Drawdown Georgia, the statewide effort powered by research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and other universities to find cost-effective ways to drastically cut the state’s carbon footprint, publicly rolls out its top 20 solutions this week.

Led by noted energy and climate policy expert Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, the cross-campus research team identified solutions that could, based on existing science, cut the state’s CO₂ emissions by one-third by 2030.

“Our work shows Georgia already has the necessary tools to reduce its carbon emissions by a third in the next ten years, and do it in a way that does not harm the economy,” Brown said. “These proposals actually can pay for themselves and create a healthier, more prosperous state.”

“In fact, adopting these goals can put Georgia on a path to sustainably meeting the climate goals presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Paris Accord,” she said.

The findings, and the science behind them, will be the subject of a webinar on Wednesday hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology. The event is free and open to the campus community.

Brown worked for more than a year alongside faculty members across Georgia Tech, as well as Emory University, the University of Georgia, and Georgia State University to research and develop 20 recommendations in five high-impact areas: electricity, buildings and materials, food and agriculture, transportation, and the land.

Their proposals include increasing solar and electric vehicle capacity, retrofitting buildings to be more energy-efficient, reducing food waste, and growing more forests to soak up carbon emissions.

Each proposal had to meet four criteria. It had to be technologically and market ready for Georgia. The state had to have sufficient local experience and data to implement them. They had to remove at least one megaton of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere per year. Finally,  they had to be cost-effective.

Many of the proposals will pay for themselves, according to the team’s research. Such recommendations include reducing food waste, boosting rooftop solar, and cogeneration – the simultaneous generation of electricity and thermal energy for heating or cooling.

The research team will further refine the 20 solutions to a list of five high-priority action items. Those will be featured in a statewide campaign by Drawdown Georgia to encourage businesses, private sector groups, and residents to work together to put the state on the path to a zero-emissions economy by 2040.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Tech team’s work is not done. Brown has already begun planning a dashboard that will help each of Georgia’s 159 counties, and their residents, to track progress on key parameters. An early version of the dashboard could be available by next summer, Brown said.

Also, the Scheller College of Business will take the lead in creating the “Georgia Carbon Club,” an effort to bring business on board to support the goals, according to Brown.

This week’s rollout features a series of events, from an opening night celebration on Saturday to a series of civic dinners. The campaign plans to engage Georgia residents in citizen science and action on climate change.

Drawdown Georgia is based on Project Drawdown, founded by environmentalist and author Paul Hawken. That project seeks to reach “drawdown,” the point at which levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere start to decline, as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.

The Georgia effort is the first in the country to adopt the Project Drawdown model. The Ray C. Anderson Foundation is funding the project, including the research at Georgia Tech and other universities.

In addition to Brown, other Georgia Tech researchers involved in the work include Daniel Matisoff from the School of Public Policy, Kim Cobb of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Michael Oxman and Beril Toktay in the Scheller College of Business, Mike Rodgers from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rich Simmons in Mechanical Engineering and the Strategic Energy Institute, and Laura Taylor, chair and professor in the School of Economics.

To view the full list of solutions, visit the Drawdown Georgia website at https://www.drawdownga.org/

Metro Atlanta’s business community has recognized The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design as one of the region’s most innovative projects at the intersection of sustainability and commerce.

The Atlanta E3 Awards honor projects, organizations, and people working to conserve metro Atlanta’s natural resources and develop clean technologies to enhance the economy and environment. The Kendeda Building won one of four 2020 awards.

“The Kendeda Building was built to inspire change, not just on Georgia Tech’s campus, but across the Southeast building industry,” said Shan Arora, the building’s director. “We are honored that the region’s leaders have recognized the building for demonstrating what is possible in terms of buildings that return more to the environment and people than they take.”

The Metro Atlanta Chamber selects a handful of projects each year that prove doing the right thing by the environment is not at odds with making a profit. The awards celebrate collaboration, problem-solving, and making a positive difference for the region.

“This year’s Atlanta E3 winners represent the very best of the cutting-edge companies advancing what sustainability means for metro Atlanta’s businesses and their communities,” said Katie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “We are thrilled to showcase their impact in the region and in their respective industries.”

The Kendeda Building officially opened for classes in January. The project’s goals extend far beyond sustainability — it’s a regenerative facility that generates its own electricity and collects its own water for onsite consumption. It also diverted virtually all of its construction waste from landfills. The building is in a one-year performance period for Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification.

“Completing The Kendeda Building was just the beginning,” Arora said. “Now we have to apply what we’ve learned across the entire metro Atlanta region so we have the highest-performing buildings in the country.” 

Other E3 Award winners this year include:

• Genuine Parts Company
• Atlanta Hawks/State Farm Arena
• Georgia Power

A new low-temperature, multi-phase process for upgrading lignin bio-oil to hydrocarbons could help expand use of the lignin, which is now largely a waste product left over from the production of cellulose and bioethanol from trees and other woody plants.

Using a dual catalyst system of superacid and platinum particles, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have shown they can add hydrogen and remove oxygen from lignin bio-oil, making the oil more useful as a fuel and source of chemical feedstocks. The process, based on an unusual hydrogen cycle, can be done at low temperature and ambient pressure, improving the practicality of the upgrade and reducing the energy input needed.

“From an environmental and sustainability standpoint, people want to use oil produced from biomass,” said Yulin Deng, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Renewable Bioproducts Institute. “The worldwide lignin production from paper and bioethanol manufacturing is 50 million tons annually, and more than 95% of that is simply burned to generate heat. My lab is looking for practical methods to upgrade low molecular weight lignin compounds to make them commercially viable as high-quality biofuel and biochemicals.”

The process was described September 7 in the journal Nature Energy. The research was supported by the Renewable Bioproducts Institute at Georgia Tech. 

Cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin are extracted from trees, grasses, and other biomass materials. The cellulose is used to make paper, ethanol, and other products, but the lignin — a complex material that gives strength to the plants — is largely unused because it’s difficult to break down into low-viscosity oils that could serve as the starting point for kerosene or diesel fuel.

Pyrolysis techniques done at temperatures over 400 degrees Celsius can be used to create bio-oils such as phenols from the lignin, but the oils lack sufficient hydrogen and contain too many oxygen atoms to be useful as fuels. The current approach to addressing that challenge involves adding hydrogen and removing oxygen through a catalytic process known as hydrodeoxygenation. But that process now requires high temperatures and pressures 10 times higher than ambient, and it produces char and tar that quickly reduce the efficiency of the platinum catalyst.

Deng and colleagues set out to develop a new solution-based process that would add hydrogen and remove the oxygen from the oil monomers using a hydrogen buffer catalytic system. Because hydrogen has very limited solubility in water, the hydrogenation or hydrodeoxygenation reaction of lignin biofuel in solution is very difficult. Deng’s group used polyoxometalate acid (SiW₁₂) as both a hydrogen transfer agent and reaction catalyst, which helps transfer hydrogen gas from the gas-liquid interphase into the bulk solution through a reversible hydrogen extraction. The process then released hydrogen as an active species H* at a platinum-on-carbon nanoparticle surface, which solved the key issue of low solubility of hydrogen in water at low pressure.

“On the platinum, the polyoxometalate acid captures the charge from the hydrogen to form H+, which is soluble in water, but the charges can be reversibly transferred back to H+ to form active H* inside the solution,” Deng said. As an apparent result, hydrogen gas is transferred to water phase to form active H*, which can directly react with lignin oil inside the solution.  

In the second part of the unusual hydrogen cycle, the polyoxometalate acid sets the stage for removing oxygen from the bio-oil monomers. 

“The super-acid can reduce the activation energy required for removing the oxygen, and at the same time, you have more active hydrogen H* in the solution, which reacts on the molecules of oil,” Deng said. “In the solution there is a quick reaction with active hydrogen atom H* and lignin oil on the surface of the catalyst. The reversible reaction of hydrogen with polyoxometalate to form H+ and then to hydrogen atom H* on the platinum catalyst surface is a unique reversible cycle.”

The platinum particles and polyoxometalate acid can be reused for multiple cycles without reducing efficiency. The researchers also found that the efficiency of hydrogenation and hydrodeoxygenation of lignin oil varied depending on the specific monomers in the oil.

“We tested 15 or 20 different molecules that were produced by pyrolysis and found that the conversion efficiency ranged from 50% on the lower end to 99% on the higher end,” Deng said. “We did not compare the energy input cost, but the conversion efficiency was at least 10 times better than what has been reported under similar low temperature, low hydrogen pressure conditions.”  

Operating at lower temperatures — below 100 degrees Celsius — reduced the problem of char and tar formation on the platinum catalyst. Deng and his colleagues found that they could use the same platinum at least 10 times without deterioration of the catalytic activity.

Among the challenges ahead are improving the product selectivity by using different metal catalyst systems, and developing new techniques for separation and purification of the different lignin biochemicals in the solution. Platinum is expensive and in high demand for other applications, so finding a lower-cost catalyst could boost the overall practicality of the process — and perhaps make it more selective.

While helping meet the demand for bio-based oils, the new technique could also benefit the forest products, paper, and bioethanol industries by providing a potential revenue stream for lignin, which is often just burned to produce heat.

“The global lignin market size was estimated at $954.5 million in 2019, which is only a very small portion of the lignin that is produced globally. Clearly, the industry wants to find more applications for it by converting the lignin to chemicals or bio-oils,” Deng said. “There would also be an environmental benefit from using this material in better ways.” 

Beyond upgrading lignin biofuel, a broad impact of the research in Yulin's group is developing a technology to significantly increase the solubility of active hydrogen atoms or hydrogen gas in a solution, which can also be used in broader chemical reactions such as ammonia synthesis and general hydrogenation of different substances.  

In addition to Deng and first author Wei Liu, the research team also included Wenqin You, Wei Sun, Weisheng Yang, Akshay Korde, and Yutao Gong, all from Georgia Tech.

CITATION: Wei Liu, et al., “Ambient-pressure and low-temperature upgrading of lignin bio-oil to hydrocarbons using a hydrogen buffer catalytic system.” (Nature Energy, 2020).  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00680-x

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Reduced resilience of plant biomes in North America could be setting the stage for the kind of mass extinctions not seen since the retreat of glaciers and arrival of humans about 13,000 years ago, cautions a new study published August 20 in the journal Global Change Biology.

The warning comes from a study of 14,189 fossil pollen samples taken from 358 locations across the continent. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology used data from the samples to determine landscape resilience, including how long specific landscapes such as forests and grasslands existed – a factor known as residence time — and how well they rebounded following perturbations such as forest fires — a factor termed recovery.

“Our work indicates that landscapes today are once again exhibiting low resilience, foreboding potential extinctions to come,” wrote authors Yue Wang, Benjamin Shipley, Daniel Lauer, Roseann Pineau, and Jenny McGuire. “Conservation strategies focused on improving both landscape and ecosystem resilience by increasing local connectivity and targeting regions with high richness and diverse landforms can mitigate these extinction risks.”

The research, supported by the National Science Foundation, is believed to be the first to quantify biome residence and recovery time over an extended period. The researchers studied 12 major plant biomes in North America over the past 20,000 years using pollen data from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.

“We find that the retreat of North American glaciers destabilized ecosystems, causing large herbivores — including mammoths, horses, and camels — to struggle for food supplies,” said McGuire, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “That destabilization combined with the arrival of humans in North America to land a one-two punch that resulted in the extinction of large terrestrial mammals on the continent.”

The researchers found that landscapes today are experiencing resilience lower than any seen since the end of the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions.

“Today, we see a similarly low landscape resilience, and we see a similar one-two punch: humans are expanding our footprint and climates are changing rapidly,” said Wang, a postdoctoral researcher who led the study. “Though we know that strategies exist to mitigate some of these effects, our findings serve as a dire warning about the vulnerability of natural systems to extinction.”

By studying the mix of plants represented by pollen samples, the researchers found that over the past 20,000 years, forests persisted for longer than grassland habitats — averaging 700 years versus about 360 years, though they also took much longer to reestablish after being perturbed — averaging 360 years versus 260 years. “These findings were somewhat surprising,” said McGuire. “We had expected biomes to persist much longer, perhaps for thousands of years rather than hundreds.”

The research also found that forests and grasslands transition quickly when temperatures are changing fast, and that they recover most rapidly if the ecosystem contains high plant biodiversity. Yet not all biomes recover; the study found that only 64% regain their original biome type through a process that can take up to three centuries. Arctic systems were least likely to recover, the study found.

Landscape resilience, the ability of habitats to persist or quickly rebound in response to disturbances, has helped maintain terrestrial biodiversity during periods of climatic and environmental changes, the researchers noted. 

“Identifying the tempo and mode of landscape transitions and the drivers of landscape resilience is critical to maintaining natural systems and preserving biodiversity given today's rapid climate and land use changes,” the authors wrote. “However, resilient landscapes are difficult to recognize on short time scales, as perturbations are challenging to quantify and ecosystem transitions are rare.”

Contrary to prevailing ecological theory, the researchers found that pollen richness — indicating diversity of species — did not necessarily correlate with residence time. Ecological theory suggests that biodiversity increases ecosystem resilience by improving "functional redundancy,” allowing a system to maintain stability even if a single or several species are lost. “But species richness does not necessarily reflect functional redundancy, and as a result may not be correlated with ecosystem stability,” the researchers wrote.

The study used pollen data from five forest types — forest-tundra, conifer/hardwood, boreal forest, deciduous forest, and coastal forest; five shrub/herb biome types — Arctic vegetation, desert, mountain vegetation, prairies, and Mediterranean vegetation; and two no-analog biome types — spruce parkland and mixed parkland.

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database contains fossil pollen and spores that are ubiquitous in lake and mire sediments. Collected through core sampling, the samples represent a wide diversity of plant taxa and cover an extended period of time.

Though the effects of climate change and human environmental impacts don’t bode well for the future of North American plant biomes, there are ways to address it, Wang said. “We know that strategies exist to mitigate some of these effects, such as prioritizing biodiverse regions that can rebound quickly and increasing the connectivity between natural habitats so that species can move in response to warming.”

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants DEB 1655898 and SGP 1945013. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

CITATION: Yue Wang, Benjamin R. Shipley, Daniel A. Lauer, Rozenn M. Pineau, and Jenny L. McGuire, “Plant biomes demonstrate that landscape resilience today is the lowest it has been since end?Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions” (Global Change Biology, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15299

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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

To advance Georgia Tech’s new mission and strategic plan, the Institute is launching a campuswide sustainability effort to enhance Tech’s teaching, research, and operations. The long-term initiative will begin with two virtual events and a collaborative online activity during the Fall 2020 semester.

Soon after his investiture last fall, President Ángel Cabrera charged leaders and units throughout campus with spearheading a project that would promote, implement, and advance the 17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at Georgia Tech. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the SDGs are designed to address the world’s most pressing challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, and peace and justice. 

Featuring objectives such as “Affordable and Clean Energy,” “Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure,” and “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” the SDGs appear by name in Tech’s new strategic plan and align with the Institute’s areas of expertise as well as its mission to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

“Representing some of the most consequential and complex problems we face as a species, the SDGs range from health and hunger to gender equality and ocean biodiversity,” said President Cabrera. “They are not nice-to-haves; they are essential for the long-term sustainability of life and human development on our planet.”

The new sustainability initiative stems in part from Tech’s affiliation with the University Global Coalition (UGC), which President Cabrera chairs and helped found. Established in 2019, the UGC comprises a group of higher education leaders from across the globe who work together to advance the SDGs through education, research, service, and campus operations.

Fall 2020 Programming 

Events and activities planned for the Fall 2020 semester will focus on how Tech can use the SDGs as a framework to implement the new strategic plan, advance organizational innovation, unite the Institute’s broad spectrum of activities and responsibilities, strengthen Tech’s local and global collaborations, and address urgent challenges such as Covid-19 and racial injustice.

Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals at Georgia Tech
Thursday, September 10, 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Open to the public, the first event will feature a keynote address from President Cabrera and a panel discussion moderated by Anna Stenport, chair of the School of Modern Languages and co-director of the Atlanta Global Studies Center. Programming will focus on introducing the campus community to the SDGs, discussing their global importance and relevance to Tech, and demonstrating how the Institute can lead the region in implementing and advancing them. 

SDG Asset Mapping
September 10 – 23

Following the kickoff event, the Institute community will be invited to participate in a collaborative online effort to identify SDG-related assets — such as places, programs, projects, organizations, and web-based resources — that Georgia Tech can leverage to lead higher education in working toward achieving the SDGs. This simple mapping activity will allow community members to create an initial list of SDG-related assets that will become the starting point of the third event, 17 Zooms.

17 Zooms
Thursday, October 1, 9 a.m. – noon

A virtual version of the 17 Rooms event concept developed by The Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation, 17 Zooms aims to stimulate collective action toward implementing the SDGs. It works by convening 17 distinct groups of specialists to identify, in concert, high-impact objectives that can be met in 18 months.

17 Zooms will bring together select Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students, as well as relevant off-campus partners, for small group discussions in 17 different Zoom sessions, one for each SDG. Participants in each group will work together to recommend projects related to their session’s SDG that link research, teaching, operations, and service. At the same time, attendees will learn about existing SDG-related work and connect with people from different backgrounds and disciplines. 

After the event, leaders from each session will team up to identify several action items for Georgia Tech to implement over the following year and a half that will advance the SDGs and the strategic plan.

Learn More About Sustainability at Tech

For more details about these programs and Tech’s campuswide commitment to sustainability, visit SDGs at Tech.

The Fall 2020 SDG program committee comprises faculty and staff from the following units:

• Atlanta Global Studies Center
• Global Leadership LLC
• Impact LLC
• Institute Communications
• Institute Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Institute Relations
• Office of Campus Sustainability 
• Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business
• RCE Greater Atlanta (officially acknowledged by United Nations University)
• Serve-Learn-Sustain
• Sustainability and Building Services

Learn More About the Sustainable Development Goals

• 17 Goals to Transform Our World
• United Nations Division of Sustainable Development Goals
• United Nations Foundation
• RCE Greater Atlanta Resources Wiki
• RCE Americas Resources Wiki