Themes
Focus Area 1: Making Things, with a focus on heavy industry, and the production of cement, steel, plastics, etc. Possible sub-topics:
- Decarbonizing heat
- Making cement
- Manufacturing commodity plastics
- Moderate to high temperature thermal storage
Focus Area 2: Plugging In, with a focus on electric generation from conventional, renewable, and other alternative perspectives/sources, as well as distribution and storage. Sub-topics:
- High to very high temperature thermal-electrical storage
- Thermal and soiling management in PV
- High temperature working fluids and storage (e.g., nuclear, solar thermal)
- Alternative thermal energy conversion processes (e.g., AMTECS, nf-TPV, thermionics, etc.)
Focus Area 3: Growing Things, with a focus on agriculture, including plants and animals. Sub-topics:
- Heat transfer and FEW
- New approaches for making fertilizers (non-HB process)
- Agricultural by-products for plastic replacement
Focus Area 4: Getting Around, with a focus on transportation, including planes, cars, trucks, cargo ships, etc. Sub-topics:
- Thermal management in batteries
- Heat recovery and conversion from engines
- Alternative fuel sources
Focus Area 5: Keeping Warm and Cool, with a focus on commercial, residential, etc. HVAC&R/climate control/primary energy consumption and reduction (including efficiency). Sub-topics:
- Low temperature thermal storage
- Decoupling of cooling and dehumidification
- Localized heating and cooling (instead of entire spaces)
- Alternative, zero-GWP, NIK cooling processes
- Building envelope: adaptive thermal properties
Focus Area 6: Climate Intervention/Earth’s Energy Balance, with a focus on stratospheric and tropospheric responses/interventions to reduce temperature and carbon loads. Sub-topics:
- Passive terrestrial radiative cooling
- Active terrestrial radiative cooling
- Tropospheric aerosols, Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB)
- Stratospheric aerosols