Energy Engineering
The domestication of energy defines mankind. The extraction, refining and use of non-renewable fossil energy sources such as oil and gas defined Chemical Engineers for more than two centuries, since the steam engine launched the Industrial Revolution. The demand for energy has become gigantic and a source of many headaches.
The demonstrated negative impacts of utilising fossil oil and gas resources on social justice, environment, and climate drive Chemical Engineers to look for alternative energy sources and vectors, and more sustainable and equitable ways of accessing and using it.
Today's primary energy sources are vastly more diversified and include nuclear energy as well as numerous renewable sources (biomass, sun, wind, hydro, geothermal). The Chemical Engineer is a key actor in all sectors of the energy transition.
Energy related research:
- Renewable electricity-to-gas conversion processes
- Hydrogen, ammonia, carbon dioxide conversion
- Efficient plasma power supplies
- Hydrogen production, conversion, and storage
- Catalysts and catalytic processes
- Renewable energy harvesting, conversion and storage materials and processes
- Circular fuels
- Electrical-to-chemical energy conversion processes and technologies
- Electrocatalytic conversion of wastes into value-added products
- Biogenic energy sources
- Energy transport phenomena
McGill Chemical Engineering researchers working in this field:
Sylvain Coulombe - Catalytic & Plasma Process Engineering (CPPE) Laboratory
Regan J. Hill – Reghan J. Hill's Research Group
Samuel Huberman – Huberman Lab
Anne Kietzig – Biomimetic Surface Engineering
Jan Kopyscinski - Catalytic & Plasma Process Engineering (CPPE) Laboratory
Sasha Omanovic - Electrochemistry / Corrosion Laboratory
Alejandro Rey - Materials Modeling Research Group (MMRG)
Ali Seifitokaldani - Electrocatalysis lab