On Friday, December 8th Professor Ahmed Ghoniem will speak on Fuels Beyond Fossil: Why, What and When?

On the road to decarbonize energy, power and propulsion systems, electrification (using low carbon electricity from renewables, nuclear or with CCS) of different sectors such as transportation, buildings and industry, is being pursued deliberately and successfully. However, some areas, especially the mobile types such as long distance (air, water and ground) transportations, are more challenging. Others include industries that need high temperature heat and long-term energy storage. For these sectors, using energy-dense chemical fuels, such as hydrogen and its carriers, and biomass sourced fuels, are promising alternatives. The first are very different than conventional fuels, and the second while similar are limited by the supplies. Scaling to meet the rising demand pose its own challenges, and infrastructure requirements need significant investment. I will discuss about why we will continue to need fuels in some sectors of the economy; the different options available now and what may be on the horizon, some of the technologies and related economic and infrastructure questions.

Ahmed F. Ghoniem is the Ronald C. Crane Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Center for Energy and Propulsion Research at MIT. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree from Cairo University, and Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. His recent research focus has been on clean energy technologies with focus on oxy-combustion for CO2 capture, renewable energy, biofuel and solar fuel production. He supervised more than 120 graduate students and post-doctoral students; published more than 500 articles in leading journals and conferences; and consulted for the aerospace, automotive and energy industry. He is fellow of the ASME, the APS, and the Combustion Institute, and associate fellow of the AIAA. He received several awards but most proud of the “Committed to Caring Professor” at MIT.