The University of Oklahoma has demonstrated leadership in energy research that supports the societal goal of a sustainable, affordable, and secure energy system for all. Data reported by OU’s Office of Research Services indicate that over the last 14 months, $88 million in new energy-related proposals were submitted to external agencies, with $15 million in new extramural funding awarded to OU researchers. Many of these efforts are large-scale, multi-institutional, muti-investigator, industry-government-university partnerships that are supported by researchers from across university units. The research topics cover a broad portfolio of energy solutions, with a notable expansion of research emphasizing industry and grid decarbonization toward a net zero emission future.
Research proposals encompassing the hydrogen economy represented the largest share of both requested funding at $37 million and number of proposals submitted (20 submissions). Aimed at advancing the hydrogen economy, these proposals include fundamental research on hydrogen systems such as the effort led by OU PI Steven Crossley to advance catalytic generation of hydrogen from natural gas and biomass streams, funded by the National Science Foundation. Hydroden proposals also focused on facilitating large-scale industry-university-government-community partnerships, such as the tri-state (AR-LA-OK) HALO Hydrogen Hub effort led at OU by PI Tim Filley to demonstrate regional deployment of existing hydrogen technologies in the marketplace.
With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, and in partnership with Oklahoma’s energy industry, OU is leading a large-scale research and demonstration project to advance technology to monitor and quantify natural gas emissions, providing essential support to industry’s need for carbon accounting. Additional proposals and awards focused on topical areas including decarbonization of industrial and energy systems and enabling the transition to a net zero emissions economy such as thermo- and electro-catalysis; AI in energy systems; critical minerals recovery; solar energy; subsurface engineering and geology that includes geothermal reservoirs and carbon capture, utilization and storage; grid integration, battery design; energy efficiency and even fusion energy systems.
