Ames Laboratory was selected to lead one of 10 Energy Frontier Research Centers announced by U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette July 1.
Brouillette announced $100 million in funding for 10 Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) to accelerate the scientific breakthroughs needed to build a twenty-first-century energy economy and strengthen U.S. economic leadership and energy security.
EFRC Director Aaron Sadow, an Ames Laboratory scientist and professor in the Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University, will lead the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP), a multi-institutional team of researchers that is developing ways to upcycle plastics into more valuable materials that make recovery worthwhile, by chemically “chopping” long polymer chains into small pieces that can then be used to extract new raw materials for industry.
“The EFRC program has been one of our most innovative and successful basic science research efforts, driving progress in a wide range of important scientific fields,” said Secretary Brouillette. “Through these research centers, the Department is mobilizing America’s scientific workforce to lay the foundation for the nation’s future energy innovation, security, and prosperity.”