Sustainable Energy Systems

Cornell University is committed to being a leader in the field of sustainable development. In addition to the Cornell Energy Systems Institute (CSEI), several Cornell Centers coordinate efforts in related research and education including the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future and the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute. The Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is a key part of those efforts. With a framework that includes physical, chemical, and biological energy transformations, transport of heat and mass in fluids and solids, materials for energy capture and storage, process analysis, design, and simulation, and full life cycle analysis of energy and mass flows, a chemical engineering education provides the ideal skill set for tackling a wide range of energy problems. Energy-related research conducted in CBE has direct applications in:

• Chemical engineering processing for renewable and cleaner conventional energy extraction, upgrading, and conversion.
• Fabrication of next-generation solar cells and photochemical converters and batteries and other storage devices from nanoscale building blocks.
• Production of energetic materials, fuels, and bioproducts from a wide range of biomass feedstocks ranging from energy crops and algae to agricultural and food wastes, as well as energy production from Earth energy systems including engineered geothermal systems.