UC Merced MESA Lab's Decarbonization Research Efforts
The crosscutting decarbonization pillars are energy efficiency; industrial electrification; low-carbon fuels, feedstocks, and energy sources; and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. Common steps companies and countries take to decarbonize include: https://www.brightest.io/decarbonization-definition
- Reducing energy consumption and usage through energy efficiency and smart grid improvements
- Using clean energy (solar, wind, water, nuclear) instead of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal)
- Replacing fossil fuel transportation with electric vehicles
- Reducing industrial agriculture and introducing more sustainable farming and land practices
- Replacing inputs and raw materials with more sustainable alternatives
- Value chain efficiency optimization and supply chain sustainability improvements
- Improved circularity, re-use, recycling, and end-of-life treatment for finished and discarded goods and products
- Carbon capture, tree planting, kelp farming, and other methods to remove and sequester atmospheric CO2
Today, most companies and governments who are thoughtfully pursuing decarbonization use most if not all of these tactics to reduce their environmental footprint.
UC Merced MESA Lab Lab - what can we contribute:
- Involved in decarbonization campus activities;
- Carbon negative technology - assessment tool - like soil carbon quantification
- Energy efficiency enahncement using smart control engineering via digital twins.
- SOC - self-optimizaing control ideas - better and better control for less and less carbon footprint ...
UC Merced's recent activities include
- declaration of carbon neutrality. https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2020/campus-reaches-carbon-neutrality-ahead-schedule
- 2/23/2024. Climate and Carbon Dioxide ‘Roads to Removal’ Discussion Set for UC Merced
- 3/21/2024. UC Merced Decarbonization Study Workshop. (flyer pdf)
- UC Merced Sustainability Program. Decarbonnization.
Created and last updated 3/19/2024 by Prof YangQuan Chen.
