MSU assistant professor of chemical engineering and material science Jeff Sakamoto shows a piece of aerogel to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., during a visit to the Energy and Automotive Research Laboratories on Wednesday. Levin toured the facility to take a look at what further advancements have been made since Congress passed a bill providing $400,000 toward hybrid-engine research at the lab on MSU’s campus.
While in town promoting Tuesday’s Michigan presidential primary, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., took time Wednesday to see the progress being made by researchers in the thermoelectricity field.
During his visit to the MSU Energy and Automotive Research Laboratories, Levin saw some of the energy technologies MSU researchers have been using and developing. He recently signed a bill appropriating $400,000 to the facility for their work with hybrid engines.
The researchers are looking at converting wasted heat from a vehicle and turning it into electricity to be reused by the engine.
“I thought it was great,” Levin said of the tour. “MSU is at the cutting edge of the potential of thermoelectricity. They try to convert this heat into electricity, and they’ve been here a long time at the forefront, but this is more and more an important part of the whole energy picture.”
In one demonstration for the senator, Jeff Sakamoto, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science, used a piece of aerogel, an extremely lightweight material used as a thermal insulator, to demonstrate the material’s ability to absorb heat.
Sakamoto placed a red crayon on a piece of aerogel and lit a blowtorch beneath the aerogel without melting the crayon. To prove the crayon was real, he then melted it with the torch.
Harold Schock, a professor of mechanical engineering, said the technologies Levin saw today could potentially be used in vehicles in five to 10 years.
“Some thermoelectric devices are in consumer use now,” Schock said. “Small, gasless refrigeration systems. You plug it in the power outlet in your car and it cools down the beverages or heats up the material. In cars, you see one of the new developments are seats that have coolers in the seats so the seat doesn’t get too hot, that’s a thermoelectric device.”
Eann Patterson, a mechanical engineering professor and chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, said the facility’s research runs primarily from government funding and that the bill passed by Levin will help them evaluate the hybrid powertrains being researched there.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase the technology we are involved in, given the opportunity to see the research were doing that he’s helping fund,” Patterson said.
The senator said he worked in Congress to put more resources into the advanced technologies as well as alternative fuels.
“His interest in our work and the time that he spent here shows from a national perspective that what we’re doing is important, and he’s willing to do what he can to help support us,” Schock said.
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