Stanford Faculty in Energy Research

Impacts on local ecology of biofuel expansion. Impacts on climate of using more land for biomass energy. Regional impacts of climate change and energy policy in the Western Hemisphere.

Models for predicting performance of conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs (including shale oil and gas), and CO2 sequestration operations. Flow of complex mixtures (oil, gas and water) in porous rocks and in pipes. Optimization of oil field development and operations.

Understanding and controlling surface and interfacial chemistry, and materials synthesis. Applying this to new materials and processes for next generation low-cost solar cells, fuel cells and catalysts.

Reducing the environmental impacts of energy systems. Methane leaks from US natural gas system. Analysis of CO2 capture technologies. Life-cycle analysis of transportation fuels. Modeling global oil depletion, or "peak oil," and transitions to oil substitutes.

Developing materials for heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis using nanoparticles and nanocrystals, especially of titanium dioxide. Applications include hydrogen and methanol generation through photocatalysis, reduction of methane emissions, PV solar cells, solid oxide fuel cells and batteries.

Research pathways to low-carbon energy systems. Methods to project trends in energy technology innovations and associated new business models. The effect of energy efficiency standards in appliances and buildings, and how these standards affect purchase prices and operating costs. Carbon nanospheres for stable lithium metal anodes.

Creating valuable products from organic waste streams. Turning wastewater treatment into a producer of energy instead of a consumer. Using anaerobic bacteria to convert organic waste to methane gas for fuel to convert wastewater to drinking water. Biosynthesis and molecular-scale recycling of bioplastics and biocomposites. In-situ remediation of radioactive waste.

Use of X-ray free electron lasers in energy research.

Characterization of guided waves in fluid-filled cracks, including induced hydraulic fractures in rock filled with water or hydrocarbons, and instability when the fluid velocity exceeds a threshold. Inference of fracture geometry from resonant frequencies and attenuation. Fault damage zones impact on the flow characteristics of fractured reservoirs, and predicting fault damage zones.

Efficient, low-polluting transportation engines (piston and turbine) by taking reactants to extreme states of energy density, and advanced electric generation. Sootless diesel engine. Coal-fired power with CO2 capture via combustion in supercritical saline aquifer water.

The population-resource-environment crisis, including a revision of humanity's energy systems, energy's effect on biodiversity, and the potential for reduction in energy consumption.

Time, temperature and pressure effects on maturation of organic matter. Super-efficient extraction-conservation-recycling and ubiquitous, inexpensive energy from nuclear fusion and solar power.

How different scenarios of expanded biofuels production in rich and poor countries will affect global and regional food prices, farmer incomes, food consumption by the poor, and climate.

Trip estimation techniques to better manage hybrid vehicle batteries. Energy interests in transportation systems, energy efficiency and education of scientists and non-scientists in energy policy and technology.

Research leading to superconductors with higher transition temperatures and improved current carrying capability that can improve the generation and transmission of electrical energy.

Models to predict the performance of enhanced oil recovery methods, particularly gas injection and in-situ combustion. Improved siting of large-scale concentrating solar power projects. 

Energy resources of sedimentary basins. Basin and petroleum basin systems modeling. Geologic characterization of petroleum reservoirs, especially deep-water reservoirs.

The next generation of of policies, programs and technologies to conserve electricity in buildings. Use of deep data to deliver energy efficiency. New business models for U.S. electric utilities in an environment of no growth for electricity consumption. Integrating clean energy goals with water, air quality and transportation goals. Implementation of the Obama administration's proposed rules to reduce CO₂ emissions from coal-fired power plants. Modernizing California's electric grid. Streamlining California's sustainable energy bureaucracy. 

Optics, photonics and optical materials. Combined cooling, heating and power system for the home with thermoacoustic Stirling engine core fueled by natural gas and solar thermal energy.

Geothermal, oil and gas reservoir engineering. Energy production optimization. Enhanced geothermal systems. Well test interpretation. Tracer analysis of fractures.

Improving the use of energy-economic models for evaluating energy security, energy price shocks and the energy market impacts of environmental policies. Evaluating U.S. oil security, import reliance and oil markets. GHG emissions and economic implications of new shale gas supplies. 

Developing new computational methods to design and analyze renewable energy, including solar thermal devices. Using current supercomputers and next-generation high performance systems for multidisciplinary optimization to increase wind turbine power output and reduce noise. Modeling natural ventilation in energy efficient buildings using high-fidelity simulations.

Produce scientific knowledge to guide policies on energy extraction and global warming. Environmental costs and benefits of hydraulic fracturing, especially on local water, air, human health and climate. Gas leaks in urban distribution systems. China's gas industry.

Tailoring solid-state surfaces for effective catalysis in both the production and consumption of energy. Developing devices for storing renewable electricity based on chemical transformations. Converting CO2 and water into sustainable fuels and chemicals. Tools include nanoparticles, metals, alloys, sulfides, nitrides, carbides, phosphides, oxides, and biomimetic organo-metallic complexes.

Getting beyond coal and petroleum with subsidies for renewable energy and research support for solar and wind technologies. Policies for vehicle electrification. Research for CO2 capture and sequestration at utility level. Problems with corn ethanol subsidies and natural gas policy.

Recovery of unconventional hydrocarbon resources. Sequestration of greenhouse gases in oil and gas reservoirs. Physics of oil recovery at scales from pore to reservoir. Flow imaging to delineate the mechanisms of oil, water and gas flows in porous rock. Synthesis of models from experimental and field data.

Increasing output and reducing costs at large wind farms by positioning smaller, mixing turbines among the primary turbines in conjunction with other new management approaches. The effects of aircraft on climate and pollution. Combined cooling, heating and power system for the home with thermoacoustic Stirling engine.

The politics of energy policy, especially in regard to concern over global climate change, oil price volatility, the economic rise of China, and energy efficiency in Japanese transportation. Variation in energy efficiency due to electoral incentives.
 

Nanoscale materials and devices for energy conversion, transport and storage, especially thermoelectric devices and recovery of waste heat. The future of stationary power: electricity grid and natural gas infrastructure, system integration and innovative technologies, finance, policy and business models. Energy's impacts on climate change.

Atomic and molecular manipulation for energy-efficient nanotechnology. Designer materials and nanoelectronics. Local response of novel superconductors. Carbon-based devices.

Analysis, design and evaluation of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, as keys to slowing global warming, enhancing energy security and improving conditions in underserved, rural communities. Green buildings. Wind and solar electricity. Distributed energy systems.

Impact of rock type, porosity, pore fluids, temperature, and stress on seismic wave propagation. How geochemical reactions of CO2 injection change the seismic attributes of rocks. Enhanced oil recovery.

Improving methods for use of atmospheric observations of GHG from remote sensors. Underestimation of U.S. methane emissions from oil and natural gas extraction and processing, (as well non-energy sources). Estimation of fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions via atmospheric inversions. Water quality monitoring and contaminant source identification.

Economic, political and food-security implications of American ethanol. Climate impacts of converting land use to biofuel crops. Sugar and ethanol production as a rural development strategy in Brazil.

Understanding interface phenomena, including adsorption, surface chemical reactions, heterogeneous catalysis, and photo- and electro-catalysis. Applications include solar fuel production, syngas reactions, biomass conversion, fuel cells, and battery processes.

Online learning algorithms for electricity network forecasting and scheduling . Data driven (Big Data) methods for energy asset monitoring, management and optimization.  Workload driven methods for energy efficiency and optimization.

The construction industry's barriers to adopting energy-efficient innovations. Operational management challenges for some cleantech firms. Reducing corporate carbon footprint through operations and supply chain management. 
Supply chains under uncertain costs due to energy policy.

Creation of a multiplayer game platform linked to home energy sensors to enable empirical research about how serious games can change consumer decisions about energy consumption.

Development of liquid biofuel, including bioethanol and biodiesel, in China. Biofuels and the poor: global impacts of biofuels on agricultural markets.

Analysis of the conversation about energy efficiency and climate change on social media platforms.

Suspension and settling of particles in viscoelastic fluids in hydraulic fracturing to prop open the fractures. Reducing the settling rate of the ‘proppant’ particles, typically sand. Understanding the properties of the transport solutions, commonly a borate guar gum solution.

U.S. energy policy and its effects on domestic and international political priorities, national security, the economy and global climate. Proposal for a revenue-neutral tax on carbon. Results of low-carbon energy research at U.S. universities. Making nuclear power safer globally, both in terms of accidents and nuclear weapons proliferation.
 

Bioinspired redox catalysts by discrete metal complexes on surfaces, for CO2 capture and reduction of O2 to water in ambient-temperature fuel cells. Strategies to make interfaces in dye-sensitized solar cells less chemically reactive. Electro-catalysts for renewable fuels and chemicals.

A tool for commercial building owners to screen, prioritize and execute optimal energy efficiency retrofit projects.

Climate and electricity policy. Performance of the emerging global market for GHG permits and offsets. Needed improvements to the Obama administration's proposed rules to reduce CO₂ emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Analysis of global climate change policy options. Energy efficiency analysis. Energy technology assessment. Integrated assessment. Models for strategic planning. Venture capital formation for energy technologies. GHG emissions and economic implications of new shale gas supplies. Market valuation of renewable power plants' ecological benefits.

Energy market design and monitoring. Emissions permit market design, analysis and monitoring. Transmission expansion policy, design and analysis. Methods for least cost integration of intermittent renewable resources. Energy supply and water supply interactions. The impact of pricing and information provision on energy demand. 

(Instructor) Expertise in life-cycle environmental impacts and tradeoffs in the energy industry. Current trends in energy industries. Energy resource planning.