The Opportunity: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Energy Earthshots Initiative encompasses a large-scale national effort to address scientific challenges toward achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Energy Earthshot Research Centers fund collaborative teams of national-lab and university researchers focused on six different approaches to solving the climate crisis including industrial decarbonization, carbon storage, and offshore wind.

The Stakeholders: The effort is led by Yiguang Ju, a managing principal research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and the Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. The center will be housed within the Applied Materials and Sustainability Sciences directorate at PPPL, which is led by Emily A. Carter, senior strategic advisor and associate laboratory director at PPPL.

The Challenge: The team of researchers from PPPL and Princeton University aims to produce sustainable hydrogen via catalysis and plasma, a process that would ultimately be powered by renewable electricity. The project will advance fundamental understanding of energy flow and chemistry in plasmas and plasma-surface interactions, and could lead to a paradigm shift in clean hydrogen production. This collaborative, complex proposal required a formal project management plan with clearly articulated leadership roles and responsibilities. DOE also required a detailed project timeline with discrete milestones and deliverables. Part of the center’s efforts also include educating the public about their findings and attracting diverse researchers to this interdisciplinary field.

The Process:  The proposal development process required a proactive approach, with weekly team meetings and additional sub-team meetings focusing on different sections of the 40-page proposal, well in advance of the deadline. The research development (RD) staff in the Office of the Dean for Research supported the team with experienced support for team meetings and assisted grants managers and sponsored programs staff to ensure compliance with DOE and PPPL policies. RD staff were closely involved with writing and editing the proposal every step of the way to deliver a compelling and responsive submission package to the funding agency. Support also included hiring a graphics designer to create professional figures for the proposal narrative.

The Outcome: The PPPL-led team was selected to receive an Energy Earthshot Research Center (EERC) grant as part of DOE’s Hydrogen Shot initiative, which aims to reduce the cost of hydrogen by 80% and create a sustainable, competitive U.S. manufacturing industry. The EERC is named the Center for the Science of Plasma-Enhanced Hydrogen Production and will be awarded $5 million over four years to study the use of plasma to produce hydrogen, a carbon-free fuel and a common feedstock used in chemicals and materials manufacturing. Read more about the newly funded center in PPPL’s announcement and DOE’s announcement covering all the recently funded projects in the Energy Earthshot Initiative.