October 8, 2008

Purdue establishes multidisciplinary energy systems center

The goal of the Center for Energy Systems and Policy is to find solutions to global energy problems through multidisciplinary research.

The center is led by Wallace Tyner, professor of agricultural economics, and Joseph Pekny, interim head of the School of Industrial Engineering and a chemical engineering professor. It is a division of Purdue's Energy Center at Discovery Park, directed by Jay Gore, Reilly Professor of Combustion Engineering.

"Part of the new center's work is helping bring together people with ideas for energy solutions and part is listening to those people so we can help them advance their ideas," Tyner said.

The center will integrate technical science with social science.

 "As new technology is being developed in the lab, we'll also be doing economic analysis to see what will work," Tyner said.

"We want Purdue to be a catalyst for change," Pekny said. "The world's energy problems need goal-oriented research. And the research needs to be predictive. Think ethanol's effect on corn flakes."

The center will aim to mitigate situations such as ethanol's appetite for corn driving up the price of food by providing multidisciplinary expertise to those developing new energy systems. The center will help the developers focus early efforts on technologies that won't have unacceptable costs or unexpected consequences.

"It's a struggle," Tyner said. "The engineers and scientists working on energy solutions think in terms of technical efficiency. At the end of the day, it has to work in the economy. What we can do is make sure it's economically feasible from the get-go.

"If capital costs and operating costs are too high, it doesn't make any difference how technically efficient it is."

As an example of how economics could be factored in to technology, Tyner suggested studying the impact of time-of-day electricity pricing (it's cheaper in the middle of the night) on gas-electric hybrid cars that can be plugged in to charge the battery. A plug-in hybrid that could go all day without a charge and needed to be plugged in only late at night would be more economically feasible than one that would get the driver to work but then would need a recharge before the drive home.

Tyner and Pekny admit that it's easier to do single disciplinary work.

"We have to convince people that it's better to work together," Tyner said. "Society's problems cross disciplinary lines. We want the university to cross lines, too."

In part it's a funding necessity, Tyner said.

"More grants are requiring multidisciplinary efforts," he said. "Some require at least three disciplines to even consider a funding proposal."

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, (765) 494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu

Sources:   Wallace Tyner,, (765) 494-0199, wtyner@purdue.edu  

Joseph Pekny, (765) 494-7901, pekny@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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