Funded Projects

In a project titled, "Drivers of Energy Service Transitions and Impacts on Well-being in Forest Dependent Rural Communities," a group of Michigan Tech researchers are studying energy transition pathways that enhance the well-being of underserved rural communities through improved public health, economic opportunity, and energy justice. This project was awarded via the Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results (EPA STAR) program and is being conducted in partnership with the Center for Energy and Environment. Michigan Tech researchers involved in this project include Dr. Chelsea Schelly (Social Sciences), Dr. Judith Perlinger (Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering), Dr. Ana Dyreson (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Dr. Jenny Apriesnig(Business), Dr. Sarah Green (Chemistry), Dr. Shiliang Wu (Geological and Mining Engineering & Sciences), and Dr. Jiehong Guo (Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering). 

Native Sun Community Power Development is the lead organization on a project funded by the Department of Energy on “Expanding Regional EVSE Access with Tribal Nations based in Community Priorities.” CISR researchers Chelsea Schelly (Social Sciences) and Ana Dyreson (ME-EM) are collaborators on this project. The primary goal of this project is to advance deployment of EV charging infrastructure in Tribal Nations across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Dr. Schelly’s role involves supporting engagement efforts, and Dr. Dyreson is supporting efforts to track and quantify the benefits of EV charging infrastructure deployment. This ongoing project is an example of the kind of collaborative, engaged, and impactful work that CISR researchers support through their relationships with external partners like Native Sun.

Dr. Chelsea Schelly is collaborating with partners at The Pennsylvania State University and the Philadelphia Energy Authority on a Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) project funded by the National Science Foundation Clean Energy Technology initiative titled “RAISE: CET: Design and operation of community-informed equity-based virtual power plants for achieving impact in Philadelphia”. The goal of this project is to construct new models for equity-based design and control of virtual power plants (VPPs) that incorporate the unique conditions and priorities of residents in disadvantaged communities who may not have the financial means to otherwise participate in and benefit from a VPP. Dr. Schelly will be leading the social science research on this project, which will involve engagement with residents and their local energy authority to better understand how shifts in energy consumption behaviors could be valued in VPPs in ways that advance energy justice for low income residents.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities provided support for Dr. Shardul Tiwari (EEP PhD graduate) and Dr. Chelsea Schelly to host an on-campus workshop on energy and community resilience in May 2023. The workshop brought almost 30 collaborators to campus to gain insights regarding local and regional resilience challenges and share information regarding past and ongoing work. The report from the workshop is accessible here.

RiKarbon is developing new methods to chemically recycle plastics, by breaking down plastic polymers into their individual monomer fragments. This allows plastics to be rebuilt as good as new, and hopefully will make plastics recycling more useful and feasible in the future. MTU is partnering to help RiKarbon understand the environmental impacts of their new technology, to make sure we aren't generating more harms from this process than we are avoiding by eliminating the need for new plastics. 

Lacks Enterprises is a family-owned business that has been operating in the Grand Rapids area for more than 60 years, making a wide range of exterior and interior car parts. Their production processes, which involve the use of several hazardous substances, have evolved over the years as regulations have changed at the federal and state level. This project is helping Lacks to map out the evolution of key federal and state policies over the past several decades, in comparison to how their business practices have changed. This will help them see more clearly the changes that have occurred in the past, and anticipate potential changes that will be needed in the future.  

RiKarbon is working on the development of chemical products from renewable resources. In this project, biomass feedstocks are being converted into 2-methylfurna to be used in a variety of industrial applications. Michigan Tech is partnering to help RiKarbon understand the environmental and economic outcomes of this new production system. 

The University of Washington is developing new strains of methane-consuming bacteria, with the goal of deploying bioreactors of these hungry microbes near methane sources like landfills or wastewater treatment plants. In order to remove a significant quantity of methane from the atmosphere, many thousands of these bioreactors would have to be deployed and operated. Michigan Tech researchers are helping the team understand the environmental and economic benefits of this approach, to ensure that we wouldn't do more harm than good with this approach to fighting climate change. 

Every year, a great deal of effort is put into harvesting small-diameter trees at the Superior National Forest and other places around the country, to reduce the threat of large wildfires. Typically, these trees are just piled and burned, making several small fires to help prevent major fires. From a biomass and carbon perspective, this seems like a wasted opportunity! Researchers from the US Forest Service, Michigan Tech, Iowa State University, and the U of Minnesota are collaborating to instead take these forest thinnings and convert them into biochar, which would have a few potential industrial or agricultural uses. The Michigan Tech team is helping to evaluate the overall environmental benefits of using the forest thinnings in this way, compared to business as usual. 

Since electric vehicles have been around for a while now and many more are being produced every year, there is a growing market for reuse of the large batteries that are past their service life for automotive applications. These batteries may still have many years of service left if they were put to other uses. The electric utility DTE is evaluating the potential to use clusters of EV batteries as a form of connected utility grid storage to balance the load on our electrical grid. Michigan Tech is helping to evaluate the environmental benefits of such a strategy for extending the service life of these batteries. 

RiKarbon is working on the development of chemical products from renewable resources. In this project, biomass feedstocks are being converted into base oils to be used in a variety of industrial applications. Michigan Tech is partnering to help RiKarbon understand the environmental and economic outcomes of this new production system.