YCEI Yale Climate and Energy Institute

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YCEIYale Climate and Energy Institute
Integrating Science and Solutions
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Mission

• The YCEI  builds on Yales tradition of
  intellectual
• leadership to both develop and evaluate
• implementable solutions to climate change and a
• clean energy future.

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Structure

• The YCEI  will integrate Yale's unique community
  of scientists, engineers, social scientists and
  policy makers to foster interdisciplinary
  research and promote innovative approaches that
  cross traditional academic boundaries. Immediate
  core activities include...
• Interdisciplinary research grants
• Postdoctoral fellowship program
• Symposia, workshops, educational outreach

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Long Term Vision

• Interdisciplinary professorships and faculty
  lines associated with the Institute
• Central Campus facility, with satellite
  operations on the West Campus, housing
• Research laboratories, offices for staff,
  researchers and students
• Meeting rooms for conferences, outreach programs,
  and offices
• Competitive interdisciplinary research grants,
  and seed-grants for specific projects
• Projects will support intellectual exchange,
  international collaborations, business
  partnerships, and green design efforts
  implemented locally and regionally

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Yale Participating Units
Faculty of Arts Sciences Geology
Geophysics Chemistry Molecular
Biophysics Biochemistry Ecology
Evolutionary Biology Economics
Political Science Anthropology
Sociology Astronomy Physics
School of Forestry Environmental Studies School
of Engineering Applied Science Mechanical
Engineering Chemical Engineering School of
Epidemiology Public Health School of Law School
of Management School of Medicine
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Sample Interdisciplinary Projects

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate change forecasting infectious diseases
• Climatic impacts on hydrological cycle,
  ground-water, water supply
• Energy Resources Carbon Capture
• Energy consumption efficiency in developing
  countries
• Geology, technology and economics of carbon
  sequestration
• Alternate energies and microbial fuels

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Sample Interdisciplinary Projects

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate change forecasting infectious diseases
• Climatic impacts on hydrological cycle,
  ground-water, water supply
• Energy Resources Carbon Capture
• Energy consumption efficiency in developing
  countries
• Geology, technology and economics of carbon
  sequestration
• Alternate energies and microbial fuels

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• Vector-Borne Diseases
• Increasing global public health concern
• Vector distribution and abundance are highly
  dependent upon climate
• Climate/vector-borne disease relationships are
  poorly understood
• Disease risk models rely on climate dynamics
  forecasting, e.g., long term temperature and
  humidity trends, sea-level changes, etc
• Climate change predictions of disease are needed
  to prioritize mitigation efforts
• Socio-economic modifiers need to be identified
  and considered in predictions as well as response

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WHO-TDR Priority Diseases
DISEASE DEATHS DALYS TUBERCULOSIS
1,660,000 35,792 MALARIA
1,080,000 40,213 AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS
50,000 1,585 LEISHMANIASIS 41,000
1,810 CHAGAS DISEASE 21,000
680 DENGUE 12,000
433 SCHISTOSOMIASIS 11,000
1,713 LEPROSY 2,000
141 LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS 0
5,549 ONCHOCERCIASIS 0 951
Disability-adjusted life years Not
vector-borne Remme, et al. 2002 TRENDS in
Parasitology
The spread of tropical diseases into previously
temperate regions is an anticipated consequence
of climate change. Among the top 10 most
important tropical diseases designated by the
World Health Organization, all but two are vector
borne.
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Yale EPH Disease Risk Maps for US Centers for
Disease Control
DENSITY OF INFECTED TICKS AT 8 KM RESOLUTION

• Lyme Disease Risk Map
• Predicted from climate variables
• Vapor Pressure Deficit (mean)
• Maximum Temperature (amplitude)
• Minimum Temperature (phase)

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Sample Interdisciplinary Projects

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate change forecasting infectious diseases
• Climatic impacts on hydrological cycle,
  ground-water, water supply
• Energy Resources Carbon Capture
• Energy consumption efficiency in developing
  countries
• Geology, technology and economics of carbon
  sequestration
• Alternate energies and microbial fuels

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Global Warming and Hydrological Cycle

• Global warming alters oceanic evaporation,
  precipitation, and atmospheric circulation

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Integrated Watershed Assessment
Climate Model
Ecosystems
Hydrology
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Climate Model
Ecosystems
Hydrology
Economic Impacts
Adaptation
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Sample Interdisciplinary Projects

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate change forecasting infectious diseases
• Climatic impacts on hydrological cycle,
  ground-water, water supply
• Energy Resources Carbon Capture
• Energy consumption efficiency in developing
  countries
• Geology, technology and economics of carbon
  sequestration
• Alternate energies and microbial fuels

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The Cookstove

• 2-3 billion people worldwide depend on biomass as
  cooking fuel
• Contributes roughly 10 to the
• worlds energy consumption
• Contributes to 2 annual GHG
• emissions due to
• Deforestation
• CH4 and black carbon emissions
• Causes severe health impacts
• cooking done indoor on open fires
• WHO estimates 1.6 M premature deaths/year
• Drains resources in poor households resulting
  from low efficiency

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Improving Cookstove Technology

• Objectives
• Minimize pollution, including GHG
• Implement a versatile design for diverse fuels
  (wood, charcoal,
• animal dung, crop residue)
• Generate student interest because of impact in
  developing countries
• Multidisciplinary project
• Engineering (fluids, combustion, heat transfer,
• smart design, computational modeling)
• Environmental studies (air quality monitoring)
• Health and epidemiology
• Social/cultural anthropology
• Technological transfer and social marketing
• International collaboration with target countries
  for field studies

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Whirling Combustion Stove

• Air intake with strong tangential velocity
• Asymmetric (off-axis) fuel injection
• Demonstrated with gaseous liquid hydrocarbons,
  including jet fuel

• JP-8 to electric ? of 21

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An interdisciplinary research center, using
experimental, computational, and mathematical
techniques to deal with the fundamentals of
chemically reacting and multiphase combustion
systems.

• Research challenges in chemically reacting flows
• Laminar flames (complex chemistry, simple
  fluids)
• Turbulent flames (simple chemistry,
  complex fluids)
• Prospective research activity in the context of
• global warming
• Energy conversion from complex fuels
• (jet fuel, .coal)
• Oxy-fuel combustion (coupled with carbon capture
  and sequestration)
• Improved combustion system efficiency (engine
  cycle, cookstove, etc.)

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Forest Communities and REDD

• Land use change contributes to 20-25 of GHG
  emissions
• The bulk of terrestrial emissions occurs in the
  global south
• N Hemisphere is a net sink since mid-20th
  century
• Future mitigation strategy will likely include
  some form of
• Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and
  Degradation (REDD)

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• REDD has large mitigation potential
• 100-200 GtC by 2100
• Focus on trees as carbon presents
• risks for Forest communities
• Pressures on forest land in the South
• amplify risks
• - Agriculture - Urbanization
• - Biofuels - Demographics
• Solutions must balance mitigation
• against economic/social impact
• requires work across disciplines
• Forest ecology
• Remote sensing
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Economics

Forest Communities and REDD
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Sample Interdisciplinary Projects

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate change forecasting infectious diseases
• Climatic impacts on hydrological cycle,
  ground-water, water supply
• Energy Resources Carbon Capture
• Energy consumption efficiency in developing
  countries
• Geology, technology and economics of carbon
  sequestration
• Alternate energies and microbial fuels

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Capture and Underground Storage of CO2
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SEM Image of submicron-scale pores in natural
sandstone, Sleipner Field
Yale Contribution to porosity-permeability
research (Ague/Emmanuel) First to document
importance of submicron-scale nano-pores
that comprise a large proportion of rock porosity
and strongly influence fluid flow as well as
mineral precipitation and dissolution.
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Porosity and Permeability Studies

• Determine whether large-scale underground
  storage
• is feasible
• Reactions create carbonates but also dissolve cap
  rocks and
• increase permeability affect long-term
  reservoir integrity
• Permeability controls ease and expense of
  subsurface injection
• Porosity determines storage capacity of a
  reservoir
• Most sequestered CO2 will come from burning coal
• Requires international collaborations involving
  major
• coal-burning nations, including the US,
  China, and India
• Interdisciplinary approaches to
  porosity-permeability research,
• storage site selection, technical
  implementation,
• economic approaches to leverage investment.

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Sample Interdisciplinary Projects

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate change forecasting infectious diseases
• Climatic impacts on hydrological cycle,
  ground-water, water supply
• Energy Resources Carbon Capture
• Energy consumption efficiency in developing
  countries
• Geology, technology and economics of carbon
  sequestration
• Alternate energies and microbial fuels

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Cl-
Solar Energy Conversion Artificial Photosynthesis

• Aim solar fuel production using catalysts
  attached to TiO2
• Collaboration involving four Yale Chemistry
  research groups
• Victor Batista - computational
  chemistry
• Gary Brudvig - biophysical/bioinorganic
  chemistry
• Robert Crabtree - organometallic/inorga
  nic chemistry
• Charles Schmuttenmaer - chemical
  physics/ultrafast THz spectroscopy

h?
h?
Stroma
Fe2
Pt Electrode
QA
QB
h?
ChlZ
TiO2 Nanoparticles
Thylakoid Membrane
Pheo
e-
Thylakoid Membrane
h?
P680
e-
CP43
D1
TyrD
TyrZ
Mn Catalyst
D2
Cyt b559
OEC
Mn4Ca
CP47
23 kDa
Lumen
Lumen
33 kDa
17 kDa
Natural Photosynthesis
Bioinspired Artificial Photosynthesis
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Biofuel Production by Fungus Gliocladium roseum
Myco-diesel
G.A. Strobel and S.A. Strobel, Yale MBB
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Alternative energies

• Innovative research for
• Solar fuel production using bioinspired
  artificial photosynthesis
• New microbial/fungal biofuel system
• Future implementation
• Technological development for production
• Economic viability

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YCEI

• Integrating research across natural sciences,
  engineering and social sciences
• Innovative solutions for climate change and a
  clean energy future
• Activities
• Interdisciplinary Research Grants
• Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Symposia, workshops, outreach