The Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS), together with the RPI Student ASME Chapter, present a seminar by Dr. Addison K. Stark, ARPA-E Fellow, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), entitled: "Perspectives on Advanced Manufacturing and Process Intensification for Energy Applications," to be held in JEC 3117 on Tuesday, May 5 at 2:00pm. Everyone is welcome!!
Abstract
The United States faces an unparalleled challenge in addressing the linked challenges of energy security, climate change, and in bolstering manufacturing in which technological innovation is viewed as critical. Traditional energy projects, such as proposed gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel projects have been designed under the traditional chemical engineering paradigm of economies of scale, where larger reactors yield lower losses and, therefore, higher conversion efficiencies. However, due to the fit-for-purpose nature of engineering such megaprojects yield unexpected challenges and often severe capital project over-runs. Another paradigm for energy conversion technologies is typified by the internal combustion engine (ICE) and home furnace, where highly-integrated modular chemical reactors are built with precise standards and benefit from economies of manufacturing, where capital costs fall quickly with increasing numbers built. In this talk the potential for small-modular designs of GTL plants will be discussed as an example of an energy conversion space in which such a paradigm shift could make fundamental impacts.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E projects have the potential to radically improve U.S. economic prosperity, national security, and environmental well-being; with the focus on transformational energy projects that can be meaningfully advanced with a small investment over a defined period of time.
Addison Stark
Addison Stark
Dr. Addison Killean Stark currently serves as an ARPA-E Fellow focusing on advanced thermochemical conversion to fuels and chemicals, energy innovation in agricultural systems, and intensification of energy conversion reactor designs. Dr. Stark completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where he was a member of the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory lead by Professor Ahmed F. Ghoniem. For his Ph.D. thesis, Dr. Stark elucidated the role of transport phenomena on the thermochemical conversion of biomass in fluidized bed reactors (gasification and pyrolysis).
While at MIT, Dr. Stark served as co-president of the MIT Energy Club, content director of the 2010 MIT Energy Conference and as a Teaching Assistant for Sustainable Energy, an interdisciplinary graduate-level survey course of energy technology, systems and policy analysis.
Dr. Stark also holds S.M. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Technology and Public Policy from MIT. He received a B.S. and a B.A. in Mathematics and Chemistry respectively from the University of Iowa.