Scott Institute Intern Discusses Carbon Capture with Faculty Affiliate John Kitchin for 2021 RECS Program
By Alexandra Kramer, Kristen Whitlinger
Media Inquiries- Digital Communications Manager
Current Scott Institute intern and Energy Science, Technology and Policy master’s student, Alexandra Kramer, was accepted into the 2021 Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, which took place Dec 1-9, 2021.
RECS is an annual intensive educational program in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) for graduate students and early career professionals. The program combines lectures from industry professionals, group exercises with the cohort of multidisciplinary students and networking opportunities with the over 600 alumni of the RECS community.
Kramer says, “The 2021 RECS program provided me an opportunity to apply what I had learned surrounding carbon capture technology and policy from my CMU classes and ask industry professionals some of my burning questions about real world applications.”
The 2021 program included a keynote from Jennifer Wilcox, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the United States Department of Energy; Jarad Daniels, the Chief Executive Officer for the Global CCS Institute; and Glenn Murrell, the executive Director of the Wyoming Energy Authority. Other speakers were from organizations such as the federal agencies, national laboratories, regional energy utilities, and private energy companies.
As part of the program, Kramer was asked to interview a CCUS industry professional. She chose to conduct an interview with Scott Institute Affiliated Faculty John Kitchin, professor in Chemical Engineering.
During their interview, Kitchin described his interest in closed CO2 cycles, a process that captures and turns CO2 into fuels and then uses it as a carrier to burn and keep carbon in a circular system. This research led him to electrochemical CO2 research, which expanded his research to include hydrogen applications.
“Dr. Kitchin provided me with expert insight into the benefits and challenges of the field of CO2 capture technology including cost and technological viability.” Kramer says, “I think the most valuable advice I got from Dr. Kitchin was to incorporate the histories of the technology and funding into what I am learning to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and understand how technologies evolve.”
Dr. Kitchin completed his B.S. in chemistry at North Carolina State University. He completed his M.S. in materials science and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware in 2004. He received the Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, Germany and began a tenure-track faculty position at Carnegie Mellon in January 2006. He received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2011. He completed a sabbatical as a visiting researcher at Google in 2018. You can follow his educational Youtube Channel or his Twitter for more information on his work.