UMass Amherst: Advanced Energy Research

Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Strategies

Jack Ahern
Professor, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
109 Hills North, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-
413 545 6632
jfa@larp.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/larp/faculty/jfa/

Ecological Engineering
Ecological engineering and sustainable landscape design provide a framework for building energy-efficient dwellings and communities.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Green urbanism planning -- Planning and designing ecological infrastructure to reduce energy use	Promote greater housing density and supporting public and pedestrian transportation alternatives
Ecological planting design	Energy efficiency promotion

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Lawrence Ambs
Professor Emeritus, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
220 E Lab, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-2210
(413) 545-2539
ambs@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/faculty/ambs.html

Industrial Energy Efficiency
Conservation is the most immediate way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Conservation strategies targeted toward industrial energy users have the potential to significantly reduce consumption. Our research and outreach activities are directed toward reducing industrial energy use, waste, and pollution as well as improving productivity, product quality, and profitability. Our research and outreach activities are directed toward reducing industrial energy use, waste, and pollution as well as improving productivity, product quality, and profitability.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Applied thermodynamics and energy conversion	Identifying operational strategies to minimize energy use of industrial equipment such as fluid chillers, cooling tower systems and injection molding machines
Cogeneration process and economics	Deploying Combined Heat and Power in Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Settings to reduce national energy use

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Director Northeast CHP Application Center Industrial Assessment Center

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Policy Analysis

Erin Baker
Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
120C Marston, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-22
413-545-0670
edbaker@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/faculty/baker.html

Operations Research: Applications for Alternative Energy Economics and Policy
Appying operations research methods to environmental and energy economics and policy. Professor Baker's current research program revolves around how uncertainty impacts global climate change policy in a strategic environment. Some questions she is addressing are: Is a technology policy a useful hedge against uncertain catastrophic damages from climate change? What is the impact of uncertainty on equilibrium emissions if there is an uncertain threshold of emissions beyond which damages are catastrophic?

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Economics of Distributed Energy Generation	This approach has applications for analyzing the institutional barriers to adoption of environmentally benign distributed energy generation technologies.
Interplay between energy and development in Africa	Energy generation and economic development are inextricably linked. Deeper understanding of this interplay may be applied to the creation of sustainable economic growth strategies for African nations.
Costs and Benefits of Alternative Energies	This research is designed to take some of the speculation out of alternative energy research and investment questions. Ultimately, the models developed will be combined with climate change models to explore how energy investment decisions balance against the potential damages from climate change.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Strategies

Annaliese Bischoff
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
313 Hills North , University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-
413-545-6623
abischof@larp.umass.edu
http://people.umass.edu/abischof/research.html

Sustainable Cities
Sustainable urban planning and design require inclusion of greenspaces and greenways. The benefits of such features include water resource protection and pollution abatement, riparian habitat enhancement and biodiversity, flood hazard reduction, recreation, environmental education, noise attenuation, microclimate enhancement.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Sustainable landscape architecture

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Charlie Curcija
Assistant Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Engineering Laboratory Building, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-2210
(413) 545-4454
curcija@ceere.org
http://www.ceere.org/faculty/curcija.html

Building Energy Efficiency
Professor Curcija's research on energy conservation technology in architecture is focused on fenestration, building envelopes, and environmental design.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Heat Transfer	Building energy conservation, Building envelope heat transfer
Fluid Mechanics	Numerical Methods/Computer Modeling in Thermal Fluids Area
Fenestration	Computer modeling and validation of energy flow around window. Objective is to improve fenestration performance - windows contribute up to 25% of all heating/cooling performance.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Stephen deBruynKops
Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
111B Marston, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-2210
413-545-0206
debk@acad.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/faculty/debk.html

Energy Efficiency and Pollutant Prevention through Turbulence Modeling
Prof. de Bruyn Kops is a fluid dynamicist whose research emphasizes transitioning and turbulent flows. He is currently studying variable density, density stratified and chemically-reacting flows. His general approach is to run very large direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a flow of interest and to use the results to understand the underlying physical phenomena.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Turbulent Mixing	Fuel, oxidizer and heat must mix for combustion to occur. Where and how fast this mixing occurs determines what pollutants are formed and the efficieny of the combustion process. In almost all instances, the mixing occurs due to fluid turbulence and so better understanding and modeling of turbulent mixing is fundamental to improving our use of fuels. The results of this research or incorporated into Computational Fluid Dynamics codes and used to improve gas turbine and other combustor designs.
Wind Energy	Atmospheric turbulence is not very well understood, especially over land at night when the air is stabilized due to the air near the ground being cooler, and so heavier, than the air above it. In addition to influencing the movement of pollutants, and thus their immediate effects on people, atmospheric turbulence causes the peak stresses on wind turbine blades. Understanding and modeling the turbulence will enable the design of more optimal wind turbine blades.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
Associate Director, Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy http://www.ceere.org/

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Todd Emrick
Assistant Professor, Polymer Science and Engineering
A613 Conte Building, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-9292
(413) 577-1613
tsemrick@mail.pse.umass.edu
http://www.pse.umass.edu/faculty/emrick.html

Functional Polymers
Our research efforts target the synthesis of new materials, based especially on polymers and nanoparticles, for nanotechnology applications. The organic and polymer functionalization of semiconductor quantum dots is providing a means for their fabrication within a wide variety of polymer materials for energy-efficient light emitting devices.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Nanoparticles and Quantum Dots, and Nanoparticle-Polymer Composite Materials	Light emitting diodes, photovoltaics, sensors

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
Massachusetts Center for Renewable Energy Science & Technology (Mass-CREST)

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Sarina Ergas
Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Box 5205, Marston Hall 18B, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-
419-545-3424
ergas@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=3910&isa=Category&op=show

Reclamation of Industrial Wastewater
Biological treatments may be applied to treat contaminated waste water and air streams. Applications of this technology include significant increases in energy efficiency and pollution reduction.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Wastewater Energy Recovery and Water Reuse	Thermophilic biodegradation of chemical industry wastewaters can be engineered to optimize energy recovery and permit water reuse.
Thermophilic biodegradation of chemical industry wastewaters may be applied toward energy recovery and water reuse.	Wastewater Treatment
NOx Emmissions Treatment	Treatment of NOx emissions from combustion processes using thermophilic nitrifying organisms.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Paul Fisette
Professor, Natural Resources Conservation
Holdsworth 126, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-
413-545-1771
pfisette@forwild.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/architecture/faculty_staff/paul_fisette.htm

Energy Efficiency of the Built Environment
Professor Fisette's work focuses on energy efficiency of the built environment: housing, materials, and resource efficiency, energy conservation, and sustainable development

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Sustainable materials	Energy efficient and envrionmentally benign construction materials for use in commercial structures and residential dwellings.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Market Analysis

Easwar Iyer
Associate Professor and Chair, Marketing
ISOM 221A, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 1003
413-545-5667
iyer@mktg.umass.edu
http://www.isenberg.umass.edu/marketing/Faculty/Profiles/Easwar_Iyer/

Green Marketing
New energy technology marketing is essential to achieve successful market integration.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Sustainable business
Environmentally responsible behavior

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
Massachusetts Center for Renewable Energy Science & Technology (Mass-CREST)

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Strategies & Technologies

Beka Kosanovic
Senior Research Fellow, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Engineering Laboratory, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 1003
413-545-2505
kosanovi@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ceere.org/iac/iac_team.html

Industrial Energy Assessment & Combined Heat and Power
Dr. Kosanovic is responsible for managing the industrial audits performed by the Industrial Assessment Center. His research interests are combined heat and power, distributed generation, unit commitment modeling for dispatch of power plants in the gird, gas turbine combustion, mixing, and steam cycle analysis. In addition to his experience at CEERE, he has seven years of experience at an urban power plant/direct heating facility.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Combined Heat and Power	Combined heat and power (CHP) is proven technology capable of providing reliable and efficient electricity and thermal energy in the form of heating, cooling, and steam, while ensuring lower impacts on air, water and precious natural resources. Nationally, the U.S Department of Energy estimates that CHP produced 46 GW of power. DOE's goal is to double that supply to 92 GW by 2010.
Distributed Power Generation
Unit Commitment Modeling for Dispatch of Power Plants in the Grid

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Industrial [Energy] Assessment Center

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Resource Economics

Daniel Lass
Professor, Resource Economics
211 Stockbridge Hall, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-
413-545-1501
dan.lass@resecon.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/resec/faculty/lass/

Micro-Econometrics
Professor Lass' microeconometrics research focuses primarily on empirical microeconomic models applied primarily to firm decisions. Past research focused on microeconometric analyses of agricultural production, productivity measurement and decision-making by farm families. Recent research includes modeling commodity pricing and measuring market power.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Measuring and modeling energy supply and demand. Modeling energy pricing.	Assessing the supply and demand of biomass. Estimating models of energy prices, energy demand, substitution possibilities and energy pricing.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Strategies in Transportation

Anna Nagurney
Director, Virtual Center for Supernetworks and Supernetworks Laboratory for Computation and Visualization - John F. Smith Memorial Professor, Finance and Operations Management
SOM 316, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-
413-545-5635
nagurney@gbfin.umass.edu
http://www.isenberg.umass.edu/finopmgt/Faculty/Profiles/Anna_Nagurney/

Sustainable Supply Chains
Professor Nagurney specializes in sustainable supply chains, including electric power generation and distribution networks, and transportation networks.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Supply Chain Networks	Modeling interrelationships among decision-makers in supply chains, ranging from manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, to the consumers, assuming individualized behavior. Applications of the supernetwork theory to supply chains of electric power generation and distribution networks.
Sustainable Transportation Networks	Professor Nagurney's supernetworks theories have applications for the formulation, analysis, and computation of solutions to challenges posed by large-scale transportation networks through the use of appropriate policies ranging from tolls and tradable pollution permits to the design of the networks themselves.
Policy Modeling	Research also includes the modeling of environmental/energy policies such as taxes and tradable permits in the context of electric power supply chain networks as well as transportation networks.
Reverse Logistics	Electric recycling networks

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
Virtual Center for Supernetworks

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Omid Oliaei
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
215A Marcus Hall, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-9292
413-577-1970
oliaei@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/ece/dept/people/faculty/oliaei.html

Flame Characterization
Professor Oliaei employs a range of analytical methods in order to characterize flame types, including: Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuits, Analog and Digital Signal Processing, System Integration, CAD, Signal Theory, Noise and Stochastic Signals.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Three-Dimensional Characterization of Combustion Flames	Flame characterization may be applied to the design of more efficient combustion systems in power plants and automobile engines.
Online Fuel Identification

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Blair Perot
Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Elab 219, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-2210
413-545-3925
perot@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/faculty/perot.html

Computational Fluid Modeling for Efficient Use of Biofuels
Turbulence Modeling: using numerically generated data and resulting physical insights to construct engineering models (partial differential equation systems) which are able to predict the effects of turbulence on the mean flow motion.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Free-surface flows	Increased injection system efficiency through reduced surface drag.
Turbulence	Quantitatively accurate turbulence models for complex flows.
Numerics	Massively parallel computing for fuel injection simulation.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Strategies

Rutherford Platt
Professor, Geosciences
Department of Geosciences Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-5820
413-545-2499
platt@geo.umass.edu
http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/platt/

Ecological Urban Environments
Professor Platt specializes in public policy concerning urban land and water resources. The Ecological Cities program founded by Dr. Platt seeks to promote sharing of knowledge and experience among disciplines, sectors, and urban regions regarding new approaches to urban greenspace creation and management.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Sustainable development	New approaches to urban greenspace creation and management resulting in more energy efficient and livable cities.
Land use law	More judicious land use policies may contribute to increased energy efficiency and more sustainable use of natural resources.
Water Resource Administration

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

David Schmidt
Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
201B Marston Hall, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-2210
413-545-1393
schmidt@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/faculty/schmidt.html

Fluid Dynamics of Fuel Injection
The fuel injection process, which is a critical part of nearly all liquid-fueled engines, is one of the most complex and sensitive parts of engine design. The quality of the fuel/air mixing determines whether a engine runs relatively cleanly or emits unacceptable amounts of pollution. By optimizing the fuel injection process, we can develop strategies that allow us to run engines more efficiently with lower emissions. Schmidt's research group develops sophisticated simulation capabilities so that potential designs can be evaluated through computer calculation.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Fuel injection modeling	Diesel fuel injection is especially interesting because it combines cavitation with sprays. The fuel injector nozzles are usually cavitating. This cavitation process enhances the liquid atomization. Optimized nozzle design can enhance atomization, improve fuel mixing, and ultimately increase combustion engine efficiency and reduce pollution.
Atomization and Two-Phase Flow in Power Systems	Computational Fluid Dynamics can be used to optimize fuel/air mixing or investigate novel atomization technologies.

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Technology

Phillip Westmoreland
Professor, Chemical Engineering
157A Goessmann Lab, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-3110
413-545-1750
westm@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/che/faculty/westmoreland.html

Energy Efficiency Promotion and Pollutant Prevention through Flame Measurement and Modeling

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application
Molecular-beam mass spectrometry	MBMS is a key tool for us, used to measure concentrations of free radicals and molecules in low-pressure flames. With these data, we have evaluated and developed elementary-reaction mechanisms of pyrolysis, oxidation, and growth. Rate constants are both measured in the experiments and predicted by quantum reaction theories, and concentrations are predicted from the full mechanisms by solving coupled transport equations. This work has revealed unusual pressure dependences and new reactions that are now supported by data. The results are being used to design new gas turbines.
Flame Modeling	Model flames using complete reactions. Develop reaction models with computational quantum chemistry and quantum reaction theory. Research outcomes may be used to design clean, efficient jet engines and powerplant turbines.

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Advanced Energy Research >> Conservation >> Conservation Strategies

Eric Winkler
Environmental Technology Specialist, CEERE
201D Engineering Laboratory , University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-2210
413-545-2853
winkler@ecs.umass.edu
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/labs/ceere/faculty/winkler.html

Energy Efficiency Technology and Training
The Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Partnership (MAEEP) is a State EERE Partnership that works closely with the US DOE Industrial Technologies Program. Target audience includes: Industrial, commercial, and institutional facilities in Massachusetts and the NE. MAEEP provide Best Practices training tools and customized programs for industrial energy efficiency.

Energy Research Interest	Potential Application

Center/Institute Affiliation(s):
MAEEP - www.maeep.org

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