News: CBE

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, academics and business professionals were shifting away from in-person travel to conference events because of the related carbon costs, especially for air travel. Climate leaders from Sweden’s Greta Thunberg to Dr. Peter Kalmus, the founder of “No Fly Climate Sci,” were calling attention to the environmental impacts of these gatherings. Whether it’s the 118 private planes that took leaders to COP26 in Scotland, or the high-emission foods on the menu at Davos, the public now notices too.But pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions accelerated the change, and... Read more

The Ezra’s Bridge program aims to address challenges faced by populations underrepresented in chemical and materials sciences by providing students with a full-tuition scholarship, research opportunities and mentoring. Read more

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With support from the Quantum Computer User Program (QCUP) at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), researchers from Cornell University have developed a new quantum computer–based artificial intelligence (AI) system for identifying and diagnosing faults in electrical power grids. The framework promises much faster response times and smarter solutions than current state-of-the-art systems and hints at the impact that quantum computers may have on daily life once the technology matures. Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering in Cornell... Read more

Peter Harriott ‘49, an emeritus professor of chemical engineering who taught for 48 years at Cornell and co-authored the defining textbook on unit operations, died Sept. 23 in Ithaca. He was 94. Harriott joined the faculty of what was then the School of Chemical Engineering in 1953 and worked closely with some of the school’s founders, including professors Fred H. “Dusty” Rhodes and Julian Smith. Harriott spent the next 48 years teaching undergraduate and graduate chemical engineering students about process control, chemical reactor design, and membrane and synthetic fuels. He supervised... Read more

December 9, 2021 Researchers at Cornell University, partially funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, recently published a study that outlines ways to sustainably repurpose used lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries to reduce their carbon footprint. The researchers investigated how battery chemistry, reuse and recycling influence the energy output and environmental impact of lithium-ion EV batteries. The analysis, published in Science Advances, found that the carbon footprint of a lithium-ion EV battery can be reduced by up to 17% if it is reused before being recycled. Batteries with... Read more

Abstract Soft matter provides the basis of a wide range of consumer products (from skin creams to salad dressings), yet our ability to engineer dynamic interfacial phenomena that underlie the structure and function of many of these products remains primitive. This presentation will explore how liquid crystalline oils can provide new methods to study non-equilibrium states of oil-water interfaces and new designs of functional soft matter. A first example will describe surfactant-driven flows at interfaces of liquid crystals, revealing how liquid crystals enable optical characterization of the... Read more

The Technical University of Denmark features Professor Fengqi You. He discusses quantum computing opportunities in chemical and biological manufacturing and highlights the importance of international collaboration and academic-industry partnership in this field. Read more

Every year, Nazih Kassem sits down to sort through heaps of data detailing the amount of organic waste, in tons, discarded by every restaurant, brewery, distillery, grocery store, farm, and school in New York State. Food waste floods our landfills, while agricultural waste, such as manure, is typically applied to fields. In either case, the waste decomposes and produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Kassem, a PhD student in Biological and Environmental Engineering, believes that we can redirect organic waste and extract... Read more

A new Cornell-led study identifies several keys to sustainably managing the influx, with an emphasis on battery chemistry, second-life applications and recycling. The study was led by Cornell Engineering Dean Lynden Archer, Systems field member Fengqi You and Systems Ph.D. student Yanqiu Tao. Read more