CAMBRIDGE - Today, BP and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a major research partnership focused on energy conversion technologies. The program will explore the conversion of low-value carbon feedstocks such as petcoke and coal to high-value products such as electricity, liquid fuels and chemicals while minimizing carbon dioxide emissions.
In establishing this partnership, BP becomes the inaugural Founding Member of the MIT Energy Initiative created in 2006 to address global energy issues.
MIT President Susan Hockfield praised the collaboration: "This exciting partnership between MIT and BP epitomizes what the MIT Energy Initiative is designed to accomplish: the pairing of innovative MIT researchers across the entire campus with results-oriented scientists, engineers and planners in industry, working together to transform the world's energy marketplace."
The BP-MITEI collaboration will support a 'flagship' energy research program, the BP-MIT Advanced Conversion Research Project, which includes several interrelated research thrusts:
-- Advanced simulation of processes for feedstock conversion and decarbonisation;
-- Multiscale simulation of gasification;
-- Synthesis gas cleanup and upgrade;
-- Gasification technology development;
-- New processes for converting synthesis gas to liquid fuels;
-- Process integration and design for operability; and
-- Fuels market and policy analysis.
Professor Ernest J. Moniz, Director of MITEI, said, "This will help transform how the world uses its abundant coal resources and demonstrates a strong commitment to developing the next generation of energy technologists, supporting 50 energy fellowships over the length of the collaboration."
Total funding for the BP Advanced Conversion Research Program and for the associated MITEI commitments will be at least $5M per year for five years.
