Energy & Sustainability

Our research related to energy and sustainability focuses on meeting our societal needs for improved energy storage and water delivery while considering impact and feasibility.

As a student of chemical engineering at Northeastern University who wants to focus on energy & sustainability, you will interact with a multidisciplinary group of our faculty who are at the forefront of technology development and manufacturing, including:

• Batteries & energy storage systems, including the study of mechanisms within complex electrochemical systems. Research focuses on engineering materials and composite electrodes based on these materials, to address two critical needs for battery engineering: reducing cost and eliminating flammability.
• Computational chemical engineering methodology to enable predictive discovery, design, and mechanistic study of catalysts for sustainable energy applications. Research focuses on the acceleration of the discovery of catalysts and materials in various applications, from sustainable energy, public health, to national security.
• Transition to carbon-neutral chemicals production methods and speeding these new methods to market – through a focus on scalability. By appreciating the challenges of scale-up in the very early stages of the development of new technologies, this research targets to shortening the pathway from the discovery to the actual use of carbon-neutral manufacturing methods.
• Development and translation of a symbiotic co-culture to enable the high-yield conversion of carbon-rich waste gases to high-value fuels and chemicals.

---

Examples of research of faculty in their labs being conducted in this research area are highlighted below. Also, view all faculty associated with this research area.

	Magda Barecka Assistant Professor Barecka Lab focuses on transforming CO2 into the next generation of chemical building blocks. We work at the intersection of electrochemistry, catalysis, sustainability and process intensification.
	Joshua Gallaway DiPietro Assistant Professor Analysis of Complex Electrochemical Systems (ACES) lab studies mechanisms within complex electrochemical systems.
	Sara Hashmi Assistant Professor Complex Fluids Lab
	Carolyn Lee-Parsons Associate Professor Lee-Parsons Lab investigates and engineers the production of pharmaceuticals from tissue cultures of plants.
	Laura Lewis Distinguished University and Cabot Professor Nanomagnetism Research Group works on a variety of research topics that aim to gain fundamental understandings of process-structure-magnetism correlation in technologically relevant magnetic and electronic materials.
	Ming Su Professor Su Nanomaterials and Nanomedicine Group at Northeastern University focuses on fundamental and applied researches on materials and medicines.
	Richard West Associate Professor Computational Modeling in Chemical Engineering focuses on the development of detailed microkinetic models for complex reacting systems, like combustion, heterogeneous catalysis, and bio-fuel processing.
	Benjamin Woolston Assistant Professor Woolston Lab focuses on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for sustainable biochemical production and human health.
	Qing Zhao Assistant Professor Zhao Research Group- Computation Catalyst Design works at the interface with computational chemistry, materials science, sustainable energy, and machine learning.