Dr. Gaurav Sant, Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Henry Samueli Fellow, presented testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology as they reviewed private sector leadership in the next generation energy technology to increase efficiency, environmental benefits and consumer savings, and associated research and regulatory hurdles.
Dr. Sant focused his testimony on research on carbon upcycling which converts carbon dioxide into a novel building material, CO2NCRETE. As outlined in his written testimony found HERE, “Electricity generation from coal-fired power plants alone represents 25% of CO2 emissions from the United States (1.2 billion tons of CO2 emitted in 2016). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been proposed as a solution to mitigate CO2 emissions caused by industrial activities. However, CCS is not always viable due to: (i) its high cost, (ii) uncertainty in the permanence of the sequestration solution, and/or, (iii) the lack of suitable geological features in the local vicinity where CCS can be achieved. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and create new pathways for the beneficial utilization of CO2 while simultaneously yielding a permanent CCS solution.”
See the full committee hearing “Energy Innovation: Letting Technology Lead”.