MITEI-supported research advancing the science, technologies, and policies needed to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and expand energy access.
AI optimization algorithms for buildings operating as virtual power plants: enhancing efficiency and sustainability.
This project focuses on adding electrical conductivity to microporous polymers, which can provide a new mechanism for industrial processes, such as membrane-based separations, adsorption, and catalysis.
This project aims to explore the underlying basic science of an energy efficient process to decompose ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen gas. The development of a low temperature ammonia decomposition reactor would revolutionize utilization of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier, thereby facilitating the use of clean, sustainable hydrogen as a fuel.
Addressing cell-to-cell variability in battery packs is a key challenge for ensuring efficient and reliable electric vehicle (EV) operation. This project aims to develop digital twins (DTs) that accurately capture the inherent and evolving variability of cells within battery packs during EV operations. These DTs will enable an adaptive approach to optimize fast charging protocols… Read more
This research will develop robots that can learn maintenance tasks from natural human feedback, including physical intervention and verbal instructions. A key innovation is enabling a fleet of robots to intelligently coordinate when to ask for human help, allowing one operator to efficiently supervise multiple robots performing renewable energy infrastructure maintenance. By leveraging human-in-the-loop robot… Read more
Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial components in high-tech products, particularly in green technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. However, because of their physical and chemical similarities, REEs are very challenging to separate. Due to this, current REE processing techniques require multiple stages and are chemically and energy-intensive, dampening the realized environmental benefits… Read more
By bringing together and enhancing existing MIT modeling tools, this project will enable a holistic assessment of the economic, environmental and social implications of a range of plausible decarbonization and energy transition scenarios for African sub-regions, illuminating potential tradeoffs across different dimensions of sustainability. As such, this work will be able to provide important missing… Read more
This project develops DecarbAI, an AI-powered tool to modernize electric grid planning amid rising energy demand from data centers. By using large language models and machine learning to interpret regulations, climate data, and infrastructure maps, it enables faster, more adaptive planning. DecarbAI targets key bottlenecks like permitting delays and interconnection studies, helping planners align clean… Read more
Evaluation of weather impacts on power resource accreditation and incentivizing resource investment through capacity mechanisms.
Analyze impact of joint optimization of energy storage and delay-tolerant computing loads for reducing carbon and energy cost, while maintaining computing quality of service.