Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

New materials make high-performance membranes the filters of the future Princeton researchers demonstrate the potential of MXenes, a class of water-loving, single-layer materials with high electrical conductivity, for separating ions and compounds from complex solutions.

Researchers at Princeton are developing MXene membranes: ultra-thin, electrically conductive, water-loving materials to separate ions more efficiently.

This means more efficient desalination, battery recycling, waste cleanup, and more sustainable water systems.

acee.princeton.edu/acee-news/ne...

J.R. Johnson, vice president, research and development at Avnos comments, “How do you decarbonize transportation? There’s a variety of solutions we have to address. Fuels are still getting us from A to B. Direct Air Capture is a solution to offset these other investments.”

Connor Roeser (MAE '28) creates controlled setups to study how surfactants stick to different fluids and how they move. An image from his research is featured on the Andlinger Center's annual report. Here he is at our annual meeting's poster session.

Our first panel is entitled "New Frontiers in Circularity". Panelist Professor Yiguang Ju reaffirms our mission "We truly believe that the world is constrained by carbon emissions and climate change and we have to do something to provide a solution."

“You can really not decouple plastics from a carbon solution.” - Andre Argenton

“Comprehensive policy is necessary to catalyze the decarbonisation and the policy.” - Andre Argenton, chief sustainability officer and vice president of environment, health and safety, Dow

Our keynote speaker, Andre Argenton, the Chief Sustainability Officer and VP of EHS at Dow takes the stage. His talk follows the history of circularity and the opportunities and challenges ahead for sustainability.

The Andlinger Center 2025 Annual Meeting – Strategies for Circularity: Prospects and Challenges poster showing a trio of circular arrows and a plastics recycling process behind it.

Today is the Andlinger Center's 2025 Annual Meeting. This year's theme: Strategies for Circularity: Prospects and Challenges. How do we close the loop on the traditional “take-make-dispose” linear economic model?

We'll see you in Maeder Hall! bit.ly/4h0d5oZ

Dirty water boosts prospects for clean hydrogen Wastewater can replace clean water as a source for hydrogen production, eliminating a major drawback to hydrogen fuel and reducing water treatment costs by up to 47%, according to new research from Pr...

Wastewater could power the hydrogen economy. Researchers at Princeton University found that treated wastewater—once acidified—can replace ultrapure water in hydrogen electrolysis, cutting water treatment costs by ~47% and enabling greener hydrogen for hard-to-electrify industries. 🧪

bit.ly/3WtgPpU

New materials make high-performance membranes the filters of the future Princeton researchers demonstrate the potential of MXenes, a class of water-loving, single-layer materials with high electrical conductivity, for separating ions and compounds from complex solutions.

Researchers in Kelsey Hatzell’s lab at Princeton are developing MXene membranes — ultra-thin, electrically conductive, water-loving materials — to separate ions more efficiently even in messy, real-world solutions. 🧪

acee.princeton.edu/acee-news/ne...

Five-panel image showing South Korea, energy storage, lithium batteries, network grid, and recyclable plastics

The Fund for Energy Research with Corporate Partners exemplifies the University's commitment to pioneering sustainable energy solutions by supporting faculty-led projects that bridge academia and industry.

Read this and more in our October newsletter.

mailchi.mp/princeton.ed...

New AI enhances the view inside fusion energy systems A new AI, known as Diag2Diag, can fill in missing sensor data for fusion systems, offering even more detail than the real-world sensor could have provided.

New AI tech developed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and Princeton continues to revolutionize fusion energy. Diag2Diag can fill in missing sensor data with synthetic insights that aligns with real-world data and is more detailed than what an actual sensor could provide.

bit.ly/42OaM2P

2025 Annual Meeting | Andlinger Center Join leading experts at the Andlinger Center's 2024 Annual Meeting on October 29 at Princeton University's Maeder Auditorium.

Our Annual Meeting on Oct 30th will explore opportunities and challenges for implementing circular approaches, with the goal of identifying priorities for research, policy, and industry for a more sustainable and resource-efficient future.

Register today: acee.princeton.edu/2025-annual-...

Pro-Climate Sentiments Are More Common Than You Think A new study highlights how people around the world often overestimate climate skepticism and presents ways to push back on this misperception.

A new study published in Psychological Science, by @sandrajgeiger.bsky.social from @acee.princeton.edu, highlights how people around the world often overestimate climate skepticism and presents ways to push back on this misperception. #ClimateChange

Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow to tackle stability issues in high-performance solar cells Michael Saliba has joined the Andlinger Center as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow to collaborate on improving the long-term stability and sustainability of high-performance perovskite solar cel...

Happy to announce that @salibaenergy.bsky.social has joined the Andlinger Center as a Visiting Fellow! Saliba aims to improve the long-term stability and sustainability of high-performance #perovskite #solar cells and tandem technologies through advanced diagnostics. bit.ly/3ImFvwz

Three-panel image: A man in glasses, a hillside with wind turbines, a flyer with the words Strategies for Circularity: Prospects and Challenges.

September newsletter highlights:
• New visiting fellow to improve perovskite solar cells and tandem technologies
• Net-Zero Korea announced
• Annual Meeting registration opens
mailchi.mp/princeton.ed...

Design, Execution, and Political Economy: Lessons from the CHIPS Act for the Future of Industrial Policy The CHIPS and Science Act has catalyzed more than $500 billion in planned semiconductor investment, with its design and implementation spanning three presidential administrations. In this seminar, Mik...

Today at 12:15pm: Mike Schmidt, founding Director of the CHIPS Program Office, shares lessons from inside the process: how industrial policy is crafted, how it’s executed, and what it takes to make it endure.

cpree.princeton.edu/events/2025/...

Our upcoming Highlight Seminar explains how HEI supports independent research on emerging energy technologies and alternative fuels' impact on human health, using a trusted science-based model to inform policy and address potential health risks from pollution.

Join us next week!

Flyer for a book talk: We are eating the Earth: The race to fix our food system and save our climate" featuring author Michael Grunwald and Tim Searchinger.

How do we feed the world without frying it? How do we fill nearly 10 billion bellies by 2050 without tearing down an acre of rainforest every six seconds?
Author Michael Grunwald discusses these in his new book. Join us and our friends at C-PREE on Sept 8th!

cpree.princeton.edu/events/2025/...

Highlight Seminar Series flyer featuring Donna Vorhees of Health Effects Institute for a talk entitled "Impartial Science in an Era of Skepticism: Energy and Health Research".

Join us for our first Highlight Seminar of the semester. Donna Vorhees of Health Effects Institute will give a talk entitled "Impartial Science in an Era of Skepticism: Energy and Health Research". Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025.

Info: bit.ly/3UXl5x8

A portrait of Wei Peng featuring her quote overlayed in text: Integrating our two modeling approaches will build new capabilities relevant for application in many countries, like Korea, where global supply chains and trade are so important to the national economy.

The @acee.princeton.edu collaboration with KAIST to integrate global trade and supply chain impacts into energy transition models is a major step toward actionable climate policy. @weipengclimate.bsky.social leads the newly announced Net-Zero Korea study from the Princeton side.

🚀 Starting my 6-month journey as Visiting Fellow at the Andlinger Center @acee.princeton.edu at Princeton.
Exploring the fundamentals of #perovskite optoelectronics with world-leading colleagues aiming for next-generation #solar cells and beyond☀️

@salibalab.bsky.social @unistuttgart.bsky.social

KAIST and the Andlinger Center at Princeton University Announce Net-Zero Korea Study to Accelerate Korea’s Energy Transition Net-Zero Korea will increase Korean capacity for energy-system transition modeling through collaboration between the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Andlinger Center...

KAIST and AndlingerCenter (@acee.princeton.edu) launched Net-Zero Korea to accelerate Korea’s #energy transition.

The project is powered by the Princeton’s Net-Zero America study framework, and supported by Google and industry partners.

bit.ly/45Ta1G2

Biotechnologist Sarah Glaven joins Andlinger Center as Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow to scale sustainable biomanufacturing Sarah Glaven has joined the Andlinger Center as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow to chart a sustainable future for the biomanufacturing industry.

Bringing over 16 years of experience as a researcher and White House top scientist for the bioeconomy, Sarah Glaven has joined the Andlinger Center as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow to chart a sustainable future for the biomanufacturing industry.

Announcement: bit.ly/4ff5WQS

Making the clean energy transition a win-win for climate and health In a Q&A, Wei Peng and members of her group synthesize their decade-long work to model the air pollution and health impacts of the clean energy transition.

In this Q&A, @weipengclimate.bsky.social and group members @carlacamposm.bsky.social and Jinyu Shiwang explain their work to model the air pollution and health impacts of the energy transition.

“We cannot simply measure success in terms of tons of CO2 avoided,” said Campos Morales.

bit.ly/45gooUW

A woman speaks into a microphone during a panel discussion.

At the Andlinger Center’s 12th annual E-ffiliates Retreat in June, experts from across academia, industry, NGOs, and the public sector discussed strategies for navigating the energy transition in the face of lagging global progress.

Story: bit.ly/46rn1EX

Enhanced geothermal systems surfaces as a serious clean energy contender Enhanced geothermal could provide up to 20% of U.S. electricity by 2050, offering scalable, clean power if costs fall and federal support continues, Princeton study finds.

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), a once-overlooked technology that taps into the Earth’s heat to generate electricity, could supply up to 20% of the electricity in the United States by 2050, according to a new #PrincetonU analysis led by
@jessejenkins.bsky.social. 🧪

bit.ly/4lLcwAC

Princeton Engineering - Once rare, heatwaves following hurricanes will become more common Rising temperatures and increasing hurricane intensity are behind the change.

Destructive hurricanes followed by deadly heatwaves will become far more common by the end of this century, according to new #PrincetonU research.

bit.ly/44DFhs2

Christos Maravelias, energy systems expert, awarded Royal Society's 2025 Horizon Prize Christos Maravelias has been awarded a 2025 Horizon Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry for developing an approach that uses solar energy to produce industrial methanol.

Congratulations to Andlinger faculty member Christos Maravelias, who recently received the @royalsociety.org's 2025 Horizon Prize for developing an approach that uses solar energy to produce industrial methanol! 🎉

bit.ly/4lx37gc

Princeton Engineering - Risk science brings reliability to changing energy grids Commercial-grade software being developed at Princeton is designed to integrate renewable energy sources on the electricity grid without creating major risks or inefficiencies.

Drawing on techniques used to minimize risk in financial markets, a #PrincetonU team is creating software to help solve the challenge of integrating renewable energy into the grid without sacrificing reliability. 💡🔌

bit.ly/443WCvl