Sep. 22, 2024
Zhantao Liu with the new low-cost cathode that could revolutionize lithium-ion batteries and the EV industry. Photo by Jerry Grillo
Hailong Chen and Zhantao Liu present a new, low-cost cathode for all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. Photo by Jerry Grillo
A multi-institutional research team led by Georgia Tech’s Hailong Chen has developed a new, low-cost cathode that could radically improve lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) — potentially transforming the electric vehicle (EV) market and large-scale energy storage systems.
“For a long time, people have been looking for a lower-cost, more sustainable alternative to existing cathode materials. I think we’ve got one,” said Chen, an associate professor with appointments in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
The revolutionary material, iron chloride (FeCl3), costs a mere 1-2% of typical cathode materials and canstore the same amount of electricity. Cathode materials affect capacity, energy, and efficiency, playing a major role in a battery’s performance, lifespan, and affordability.
“Our cathode can be a game-changer,” said Chen, whose team describes its work in Nature Sustainability. “It would greatly improve the EV market — and the whole lithium-ion battery market.”
First commercialized by Sony in the early 1990s, LIBs sparked an explosion in personal electronics, like smartphones and tablets. The technology eventually advanced to fuel electric vehicles, providing a reliable, rechargeable, high-density energy source. But unlike personal electronics, large-scale energy users like EVs are especially sensitive to the cost of LIBs.
Batteries are currently responsible for about 50% of an EV’s total cost, which makes these clean-energy cars more expensive than their internal combustion, greenhouse-gas-spewing cousins. The Chen team’s invention could change that.
Building a Better Battery
Compared to old-fashioned alkaline and lead-acid batteries, LIBs store more energy in a smaller package and power a device longer between charges. But LIBs contain expensive metals, including semiprecious elements like cobalt and nickel, and they have a high manufacturing cost.
So far, only four types of cathodes have been successfully commercialized for LIBs. Chen’s would be the fifth, and it would represent a big step forward in battery technology: the development of an all-solid-state LIB.
Conventional LIBs use liquid electrolytes to transport lithium ions for storing and releasing energy. They have hard limits on how much energy can be stored, and they can leak and catch fire. But all-solid-state LIBs use solid electrolytes, dramatically boosting a battery’s efficiency and reliability and making it safer and capable of holding more energy. These batteries, still in the development and testing phase, would be a considerable improvement.
As researchers and manufacturers across the planet race to make all-solid-state technology practical, Chen and his collaborators have developed an affordable and sustainable solution. With the FeCl3 cathode, a solid electrolyte, and a lithium metal anode, the cost of their whole battery system is 30-40% of current LIBs.
“This could not only make EVs much cheaper than internal combustion cars, but it provides a new and promising form of large-scale energy storage, enhancing the resilience of the electrical grid,” Chen said. “In addition, our cathode would greatly improve the sustainability and supply chain stability of the EV market.”
Solid Start to New Discovery
Chen’s interest in FeCl3 as a cathode material originated with his lab’s research into solid electrolyte materials. Starting in 2019, his lab tried to make solid-state batteries using chloride-based solid electrolyteswith traditional commercial oxide-based cathodes. It didn’t go well — the cathode and electrolyte materials didn’t get along.
The researchers thought a chloride-based cathode could provide a better pairing with the chloride electrolyte to offer better battery performance.
“We found a candidate (FeCl3) worth trying, as its crystal structure is potentially suitable for storing and transporting Li ions, and fortunately, it functioned as we expected,” said Chen.
Currently, the most popularly used cathodes in EVs are oxides and require a gigantic amount of costly nickel and cobalt, heavy elements that can be toxic and pose an environmental challenge. In contrast, the Chen team’s cathode contains only iron (Fe) and chlorine (Cl)—abundant, affordable, widely used elements found in steel and table salt.
In their initial tests, FeCl3 was found to perform as well as or better than the other, much more expensive cathodes. For example, it has a higher operational voltage than the popularly used cathode LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate, or LFP), which is the electrical force a battery provides when connected to a device, similar to water pressure from a garden hose.
This technology may be less than five years from commercial viability in EVs. For now, the team will continue investigating FeCl3 and related materials, according to Chen. The work was led by Chen and postdoc Zhantao Liu (the lead author of the study). Collaborators included researchers from Georgia Tech’s Woodruff School (Ting Zhu) and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (Yuanzhi Tang), as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Jue Liu) and the University of Houston (Shuo Chen).
“We want to make the materials as perfect as possible in the lab and understand the underlying functioning mechanisms,” Chen said. “But we are open to opportunities to scale up the technology and push it toward commercial applications.”
CITATION: Zhantao Liu, Jue Liu, Simin Zhao, Sangni Xun, Paul Byaruhanga, Shuo Chen, Yuanzhi Tang, Ting Zhu, Hailong Chen. “Low-cost iron trichloride cathode for all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries.” Nature Sustainability.
FUNDING: National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 1706723 and 2108688)
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Sep. 19, 2024
A new algorithm tested on NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars may lead to better forecasting of hurricanes, wildfires, and other extreme weather events that impact millions globally.
Georgia Tech Ph.D. student Austin P. Wright is first author of a paper that introduces Nested Fusion. The new algorithm improves scientists’ ability to search for past signs of life on the Martian surface.
In addition to supporting NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, scientists from other fields working with large, overlapping datasets can use Nested Fusion’s methods toward their studies.
Wright presented Nested Fusion at the 2024 International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD 2024) where it was a runner-up for the best paper award. KDD is widely considered the world's most prestigious conference for knowledge discovery and data mining research.
“Nested Fusion is really useful for researchers in many different domains, not just NASA scientists,” said Wright. “The method visualizes complex datasets that can be difficult to get an overall view of during the initial exploratory stages of analysis.”
Nested Fusion combines datasets with different resolutions to produce a single, high-resolution visual distribution. Using this method, NASA scientists can more easily analyze multiple datasets from various sources at the same time. This can lead to faster studies of Mars’ surface composition to find clues of previous life.
The algorithm demonstrates how data science impacts traditional scientific fields like chemistry, biology, and geology.
Even further, Wright is developing Nested Fusion applications to model shifting climate patterns, plant and animal life, and other concepts in the earth sciences. The same method can combine overlapping datasets from satellite imagery, biomarkers, and climate data.
“Users have extended Nested Fusion and similar algorithms toward earth science contexts, which we have received very positive feedback,” said Wright, who studies machine learning (ML) at Georgia Tech.
“Cross-correlational analysis takes a long time to do and is not done in the initial stages of research when patterns appear and form new hypotheses. Nested Fusion enables people to discover these patterns much earlier.”
Wright is the data science and ML lead for PIXLISE, the software that NASA JPL scientists use to study data from the Mars Perseverance Rover.
Perseverance uses its Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) to collect data on mineral composition of Mars’ surface. PIXL’s two main tools that accomplish this are its X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometer and Multi-Context Camera (MCC).
When PIXL scans a target area, it creates two co-aligned datasets from the components. XRF collects a sample's fine-scale elemental composition. MCC produces images of a sample to gather visual and physical details like size and shape.
A single XRF spectrum corresponds to approximately 100 MCC imaging pixels for every scan point. Each tool’s unique resolution makes mapping between overlapping data layers challenging. However, Wright and his collaborators designed Nested Fusion to overcome this hurdle.
In addition to progressing data science, Nested Fusion improves NASA scientists' workflow. Using the method, a single scientist can form an initial estimate of a sample’s mineral composition in a matter of hours. Before Nested Fusion, the same task required days of collaboration between teams of experts on each different instrument.
“I think one of the biggest lessons I have taken from this work is that it is valuable to always ground my ML and data science problems in actual, concrete use cases of our collaborators,” Wright said.
“I learn from collaborators what parts of data analysis are important to them and the challenges they face. By understanding these issues, we can discover new ways of formalizing and framing problems in data science.”
Wright presented Nested Fusion at KDD 2024, held Aug. 25-29 in Barcelona, Spain. KDD is an official special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery. The conference is one of the world’s leading forums for knowledge discovery and data mining research.
Nested Fusion won runner-up for the best paper in the applied data science track, which comprised of over 150 papers. Hundreds of other papers were presented at the conference’s research track, workshops, and tutorials.
Wright’s mentors, Scott Davidoff and Polo Chau, co-authored the Nested Fusion paper. Davidoff is a principal research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Chau is a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE).
“I was extremely happy that this work was recognized with the best paper runner-up award,” Wright said. “This kind of applied work can sometimes be hard to find the right academic home, so finding communities that appreciate this work is very encouraging.”
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Bryant Wine, Communications Officer
bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu
Sep. 18, 2024
Professor Tim Lieuwen has been elected to the status of International Fellow by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering. He is one of three other US engineers to receive this prestigious fellowship, which emphasizes enhancing the role of engineering in society and developing an inclusive future through research, education initiatives, and industry collaborations.
Lieuwen is a Regents’ Professor, the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE), a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, among several others. For 12 years, he served as executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute; he is currently serving as Georgia Tech’s interim executive vice president for Research.
“Tim Lieuwen’s groundbreaking research and leadership have been instrumental in advancing the AE School’s mission,” said Mitchell Walker, AE chair. “His work in combustion dynamics, propulsion, and clean energy systems not only enhances our academic reputation but also drives significant, real-world impact, as recognized by the Academy.”
Lieuwen’s research focuses on developing clean combustion technologies for power generation and propulsion. He works closely with industry and government professionals to address energy concerns and set the standard for clean tech manufacturing. The Georgia Tech alumnus will formally be admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on November 27, 2024.
The 2024 class includes 60 Fellows, six International Fellows, and five Honorary Fellows, each of whom has made exceptional contributions to their own field, pioneering new innovations, leading progress in business or academia, providing high-level advice to government, or promoting wider understanding of engineering and technology.
Sep. 17, 2024
This Summer, the Strategic Energy Institute and GTRI jointly created the Energy and National Security Initiative through an inaugural workshop on July 16.
The initiative included Phase 1 or Category A grants that allowed researchers up to $10,000 in seed funding to understand the viability of their research concepts. The multidisciplinary proposals that won the Category A grants include:
Project Title: Energy Infrastructure Security and Risk Assessment Through Interactive Wargaming
Primary Investigator(s)
Dimitri Mavris (School of Aerospace Engineering)
Scott Duncan (School of Aerospace Engineering)
Michael Balchanos (School of Aerospace Engineering)
Other Investigators
Adam Stulberg (School of International Affairs)
Jenna Jordan (School of International Affairs)
Margaret Kosal (School of International Affairs)
Project Title: International Workshop on Nuclear Cybersecurity: Strengthening Global Leadership and Collaboration
Primary Investigator(s)
Fan Zhang (Nuclear and Radiological Engineering)
Steve Biegalski (Nuclear and Radiological Engineering)
Valerie Thomas (School of Industrial and Systems Engineering)
Alexander Miranda (Electrial and Computer Engineering)
Other Investigators
Guenevere Chen (Electrial and Computer Engineering) (University of Texas San Antonio)
Project Title: Robust Energy Systems Planning by way of Novel Systems Engineering (RESPoNSE)
Primary Investigator(s): Comas Haynes (GTRI)
Other Investigators
Matt McDowell (School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Materials Science and Engineering)
Project Title: Shielding and Microreactor Arrangement Innovation (Samμrai)
Primary Investigator(s)
John Brittingham (GTRI)
Bojan Petrovic (School of Mechanical Engineering)
Other Investigators
Helen Works (GTRI)
Project Title: The Strategic Mineral Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for Critical Resources
Primary Investigator(s)
Bobby Harris (School of Economics)
Matthew Swarts (GTRI)
Other Investigators
Dylan Brewer (School of Economics)
Kevin Caravati (GTRI)
Laura Taylor (School of Economics)
Micah S. Ziegler (School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Public Policy)
Project Title: Trustworthy AI for Critical Power Grid Infrastructure Resilience
Primary Investigator(s):
Glen Chou (School of Cybersecurity and Privacy)
Yatis Dodia (GTRI)
Saman Zonouz (School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Phase 2 or Category B of the initiative includes up to $500,000 in seed funding to fund team research proposals, with funds likely to grow to $1.2 million in the coming years. Please note that teams must largely consist of those who participated in or expressed interest via the July workshop.
Georgia Tech researchers and faculty are encouraged to submit the Notice of Intent for Phase 2 (Category B) submissions. While this is not a requirement of the proposal, it will provide the initiative with insights that will help with internal logistics. If you have any questions regarding the Category B Notice of Intent and the grant, please contact the Strategic Energy Institute at connect@energy.gatech.edu.
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Priya Devarajan || SEI Communications Program Manager
Aug. 28, 2024
Meisha Shofner, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), has been selected for the 2024-2025 class of Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) program.
The ELATES program is a national leadership development program designed to promote women in academic STEM fields and faculty allies of all genders into institutional leadership roles.
“I am excited to be selected as an ELATES Fellow. I am grateful for the support from Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering that made this opportunity possible and especially support from Dean Raheem Beyah, Associate Dean Kim Kurtis, and MSE School Chair Natalie Stingelin. I am looking forward to learning from this amazing community of women leaders in higher education,” Shofner said.
“I was drawn to the ELATES program because of its focus on developing the skills needed to lead university initiatives with an operational focus, and I will be putting that knowledge into practice as I develop an institutional action project as part of the program.”
Oct. 11, 2023
This is part four of the student experiences series. William Berkey, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry shares his experience from the 2023 RBI Spring Workshop on "Innovations in Packaging and Circular Economy."
Tell us about yourself.
My name is William Berkey. I got my undergraduate degree in chemistry from Davidson College in North Carolina. I am getting my Ph.D. in chemistry at Georgia Tech. I am co-advised by Stefan France and Christopher Jones. I work on the upcycling of carbohydrates to yield furan-containing building blocks as platforms chemicals and precursors to value-added fuels, materials, and products. Specifically, I work with the Garcia Gonzalez reaction and the Achmatowicz reaction.
The paper I just published as the second author with my mentor Caria Evans (first author) is about converting amino acids — a renewable feedstock — to functionalities pyrroles that can be used for drug molecule development or other bio-active compounds.
How was your experience at the RBI workshop?
I really enjoyed the RBI workshop. It was interesting to see other people’s research and talk with fellow researchers on solving problems and potentially collaborating. The diverse set of talks from industrial, government, and research collaborators shows the wide set of problems still to be solved and different viewpoints on how to solve them. My main takeaway is that through collaboration, solutions to a wide range of problems affecting the industry can be achieved.
What was your main takeaway from the poster session?
What stood out during the poster session was the wide variety of topics that my peers were researching and the interesting findings they discovered. I interacted with several industrial representatives and a fellow Davidson alumnus who works in forest management. I received great advice on how to advance my research as well as how to pursue potential next steps in application.
What more would you like to see in future events at the Renewable Bioproducts Institute?
I would like to see more talks on biorefining. I am interested in interacting with potential collaborators. I would like to see new seminars on research problem-solving or project idea creation.
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Priya Devarajan | Research Communications Program Manager, RBI
Mar. 20, 2023
Images from the Papermaking booth of the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking at GT Science and Engineering Day
The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) at Georgia Tech participated in the second annual Georgia Tech Science and Engineering Day during the Atlanta Science Festival. The festival is celebrating its tenth-year highlighting science, technology and engineering to Atlanta-area children. Over 1,500 parents and children from across the metro area attended the educational and fun-filled event on March 11th at Georgia Tech.
The museum staff and volunteers set up a hands-on papermaking booth that allowed young attendees to explore the process of papermaking and make their own sheet of paper. Virginia Howell, director of the Roberts C. Williams Museum of Paper Making said, “the paper museum is delighted to be part of the Georgia Tech Science and Engineering Day. It's a great opportunity for people to learn more about the paper museum and get hands-on experience in making a sheet of paper to take home. We offer workshops, classes, and tours to students across the state of Georgia. Kids have been lined up all day to participate at our tables today.”
With a mission to collect, preserve, increase, and disseminate knowledge about papermaking - past, present and future, the museum, located in the Paper Tricentennial Building of Georgia Tech houses the most comprehensive collection of paper and paper-related artifacts in the world including over 100,000 artifacts of manuscripts, rare books, prints, hand and industrial paper making tools and equipment and paper samples. A variety of tours, workshops and artists’ lectures catering to audiences ranging from Pre-K-12 students to adults is offered by the museum.
Click here to read more about the exciting activities that happened at the Georgia Tech Science and Engineering Day.
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May. 05, 2023
Georgia Tech student trying the virtual reality software systems at the Valmet Lab
Georgia Tech Students and Faculty and Valmet personnel at Valmet Automation’s Norcross Location
Students enrolled in the Spring 2023 course Emerging Technology in Forest Bioproducts (offered by the College of Engineering – ChBE and ME 4730/8803) visited the Valmet Automation Center in Norcross, GA in April. With faculty members Carson Meredith and Chris Luettgen, who teach the course, the visiting group consisted of both undergraduate and graduate students from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Material Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.
The students got an opportunity to see Valmet’s vision for the Factory of the Future through automation and predictive control – Industry 4.0 in some vernacular, and were given an introduction to Valmet as a company and the multitude of career pathways available at the company. Valmet is headquartered in Espoo Finland and develops and supplies process technologies, automation, and services for the pulp, paper, and energy industries. The automation systems and flow control solutions offered by the company serve a wide base of process industries and was the focus area of the field trip.
The Emerging Technologies for Forest Bioproducts course is a required course for RBI Fellowship students and part of the Georgia Tech Pulp & Paper Foundation & Certificate Program. The course focuses on the future of the bioproducts industries so that students may see where the bioeconomy is headed. Case studies on the use of biomass in production of value-added products, including fluff pulp and dissolving pulps, alternative fibers, specialty papers, packaging and printed electronics, biorefining technologies, nanocellulose and bio composites, and renewable polymers are covered in the course.
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Priya Devarajan | RBI Communications Manager
Aug. 01, 2023
Elyssa Ferguson, RBI Fellow during the Student Poster Session at the 2023 RBI Spring Workshop on Packaging Innovation and the Circular Economy
A highlight of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) workshops is the student poster session that provides industry interaction for Paper Science and Engineering (PSE) Fellows and an opportunity to communicate the breadth of research supported by RBI to the workshop participants. The session also provides a chance for new students to share their project scope, goals and receive useful feedback. This is the first of a series of Q&As from PSE students who share their experience at the 2023 RBI Spring Workshop on Packaging Innovation and the Circular Economy Elyssa Ferguson, a Mechanical Engineering graduate student shares her experience below.
Tell us about yourself
My name is Elyssa Ferguson. I earned my B.S. in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I am pursuing my M.S. in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. I am an RBI Fellow, GEM Fellow, and Women of Woodruff (WoW) Fellow, and I work in the Water-Energy Research (WERL) Lab, under the direction of Akanksha K. Menon, assistant professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. My research focuses on developing sustainably sourced natural fibers for thermal insulation in buildings. My project is a part of the Carbon-Negative Building Materials based on Engineered Wood for Structural and Thermal Insulation Applications project. Menon and I collaborate with Kyriaki Kalaitzidou, Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering and Joe F. Bozeman III, assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public Policy. I also work with graduate students, Elnaz Jamshidi from the School of Materials Science and Engineering and Arjun Thangaraj Ramshankar from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering on this project.
How was your experience at the RBI workshop?
Attending the RBI workshop was a valuable learning experience. I learned about the variety of exciting work in the renewable packaging realm that is going on at Georgia Tech and other organizations. This work is driving sustainable innovation, yet there are challenges. The discussions regarding the barriers to innovation and areas for growth were very thought-provoking and motivating.
What was your main takeaway from the poster session?
During the poster session, I shared information about my research and had the privilege to talk to many people in the industry. There is much interest in thermally insulating natural fibers for building applications and for other applications like cold-chain packaging and textiles. Speaking with the workshop participants during the poster session broadened my mind to the potential myriad of applications for natural-fiber-based thermal insulation on a global scale. I also learned more about the existing challenges researchers and industrial peers are facing – one being the lack of standardization of nomenclature and methodology. Receiving positive feedback on the design of my poster was also helpful. I deliberately designed a poster that incorporated aesthetics to convey my ongoing research. I plan to apply the helpful information and feedback that I received during the RBI workshop to my future work.
What more would you like to see in future events at the Renewable Bioproducts Institute?
I am very interested in seeing more seminars related to sustainable building materials, especially insulating materials, and textiles, as these topics are closely related to my research project. Fascinating work is happening at other universities and at companies in Georgia and around the world. It would be great if there is a seminar series including these organizations.
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Priya Devarajan || RBI Communications Program Manager
Sep. 09, 2023
Oldendorff technical support team with Patritsia)
Patritsia in her cabin analyzing and labelling samples
This story originally appeared in Waterline, News from Oldendorff Carrier. Issue 18, Summer 2023 and was written by Jan Kohzer, Patritsia Stathatou, & Scott Jones
Oldendorff Carriers is one of the world's largest dry bulk shipping companies, shipping and transhipping over to 300 million tons of bulk cargo every year and operating around 700 ships. Since 2018, Oldendorff vessels have been equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems, commonly known as ‘scrubbers’.
These devices remove sulfur and particular matter from the exhaust gas stream in the funnel and enable the use of HFO while fully complying with the MARPOL Annex VI.
Since their implementation, concerns have been raised by several parties, mostly NGOs and environmental advocates, about the potential impact of scrubbers’ operation on marine life and water quality.
Although some research papers had been written on the topic, we realized that none drew clear conclusions and none were based on a full lifecycle assessment. There was a gap in the science that needed to be filled with high-quality data taken from independent in-situ testing.
It was therefore decided in July 2021 to run our own study to measure all air and water emissions generated by an Oldendorff vessel when operating a scrubber. This would enable us to compare these emissions with those resulting from other fuels used by the same vessel, and enabling an apples-to-apples comparison based on actual, onboard data.
We were very lucky to get Dr. Patritsia Stathatou onboard for this project, currently with Research Faculty at the Renewable Bioproducts Institute at Georgia Tech, who at that time was a postdoctoral researcher at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA).
Our “Hedwig Oldendorff” was selected as the guinea pig. Before any samples could be taken, several measuring instruments and sensors had to be installed onboard.
Additionally, we had to organize logistics and travel arrangements for Patritsia and for Ievgenii Petrunia, Senior Technical Manager from our Fleet Department who is collaborating with Patritsia on this project, so they could get onboard and perform the required research activities.
The entire preparation process spanned more than a year, given the multitude of factors that had to be taken into consideration, including:
– Ensuring that the monitoring equipment onboard was properly installed and fully operational.
– The vessel had to be at a suitable position to enable testing under different conditions and speeds without affecting our obligations towards our charterers. Also, it was important that Patritsia and Ievgenii could disembark from the vessel within a maximum of six days, together with several boxes of water and oil samples. The testing of these samples was time-critical, as they had to be sent to a laboratory in Greece for relevant analyses within a specific and narrow timeframe.
– Very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) had to be bunkered at a convenient location, shortly before the commencement of the study, as its quality could deteriorate if left unused for a couple of weeks. In parallel, enough time had to be allowed for the timely availability of the laboratory test results. Before that, the crew had to prepare and clean one of the heavy fuel oil (HFO) tanks onboard.
– Research personnel had to obtain visas and needed to be available at short notice.
– Last but not least, there were a lot of auxiliary equipment and supplies which had to be shipped to the vessel on time.
Eventually, the chance to send Patritsia and Ievgenii came along. Patritsia has kindly shared her experience with us:
“After two years of preparing and organizing this study, here I am, finding myself in China for the very first time, standing aboard the huge bulk carrier vessel, “Hedwig Oldendorff”, with its awe-inspiring length overall of 299.95 meters! Hedwig was about to start her six-day journey from Taicang to the bustling port of Hong Kong with me onboard. During these six days my mission was to measure gas and particulate matter emissions both below and above the scrubber, at different engine modes and speeds, while the vessel was operating with HFO, and at the same time collect and prepare seawater and wash water samples from the scrubber operation. I also had to measure similar emissions under the same engine modes, while the vessel was burning marine gas oil (MGO) and VLSFO and collect samples for subsequent analysis from all the fuels, lubricants and cylinder oils used during the trip, to enable the renowned apples-to-apples comparison mentioned above.
I was so excited at the beginning! We have spent two whole years organizing this study and coordinating all the different components involved to make it happen, including identifying a suitable vessel, sourcing, shipping, and installing onboard the proper equipment, arranging a voyage of specific duration and conditions, synchronizing people’s schedules, and much more. The prospect of embarking on this thrilling adventure seemed both intriguing and exhilarating in theory. I had convinced myself that I knew exactly what lay ahead, confident in my understanding of the tasks that awaited me. However, when reality kicked in, my initial enthusiasm swiftly transformed into daunting fear. As I navigated through the enormous vessel, enveloped in a world of massive roaring engines and intricate machinery, I started being overwhelmed by the complexity and scale of the operation. As I beheld the towering 20-meter vertical ladder, a crucial component of my mission to ascend and descend in order to reach the “above the scrubber” sampling point and collect data under various conditions, I felt a wave of panic washing over me. The scorching heat, exceeding a blistering 45°C, made me sweat profusely, with my protective uniform and gear adding to my discomfort. The deafening roar of the engines filled the air, further amplifying my unease. Moreover, the vessel’s constant swaying, as it gracefully rode the turbulent waves, was a detail that had completely eluded my imagination until that very moment. It was in that moment of intense apprehension that I realized the harsh truth: I was utterly ignorant of the true implications behind the phrases “measuring emissions onboard” and “collecting our own, actual data”.
Thankfully, five extraordinary individuals emerged like superheroes, summoned to alleviate my distress: Lengenii Petrunia, Senior Technical Manager at Oldendorff whose expertise was invaluable; Konfederatov Evgeni, the Master, and the core technical team of the vessel whose support and contributions were priceless: Liashko Igor, the Chief Officer, Omelyanenko Ivan, the Chief Engineer, and Zaytsev Serhiy, the Second Engineer.
It was through the tremendous support of this extraordinary team aboard, that my fear and discomfort gradually dissipated. Their wisdom, respect, and expertise helped me not only to successfully perform the required tests and collect the samples needed, but also to embrace the entire experience with joy. Surpassing my initial trepidation, I conquered my fears of climbing ladders, acclimated myself to the loud sounds of roaring engines, and grew accustomed to the high temperatures. I meticulously set up my own floating laboratory, where I enjoyed preparing and storing my water samples, and begun to like working at the sweating conditions close to the engine and the funnel. After the day’s obligations were fulfilled, we continued our scientific endeavors well into the night. Together, under the dim glow of the vessel’s lights, we toiled tirelessly, undeterred by the hardships that beset us. Though weariness occasionally led to inadvertent errors and moments of frustration, the satisfaction of pushing past our limits and advancing our understanding propelled us forward. As the days unfolded, Hedwig, transformed into a place I could call home.
Upon our arrival at Hong Kong, I felt a mixture of satisfaction and pride for our collective efforts, accompanied by a subtle tinge of sadness that our journey had come to an end.
Looking back, I am immensely grateful for this transformative experience that pushed me beyond my comfort zone and allowed me to witness first-hand the intricacies of measuring onboard emissions and collecting actual data. This voyage was not simply a physical journey across the sea nor just another field trip for me; it symbolizes a remarkable chapter in my scientific endeavors, further shaping me as a researcher. I am looking forward to analyzing the results and sharing the outcomes of this unforgettable journey. Thank you Oldendorff!”
While we are now waiting for the results of our study, we would like to thank everyone involved.
The whole project really became a team exercise and without the help of our various colleagues from departments including Bunker Desk, Procurement, Chartering, Fleet, Crewing, IT, Ops and of course our crew onboard nothing would have been achieved.
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Priya Devarajan || RBI Communications Program Manager