2330175
Cooperative Agreement
Overview
Grant Description
Center: NSF Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) - Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration (HVACR) are essential to human quality of life but exact a significant environmental toll.
Most current refrigerants are high-global-warming-potential (GWP) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with up to 4000 times the impact of CO2.
High HVACR-associated energy consumption and HFC leaks account for 7.8% of total greenhouse-gas emissions.
HFCs? Chemical stability, combined with challenges associated with separating HFC refrigerant blends into components, make sustainable recycling and repurposing of these refrigerants difficult.
In addition, tightening U.S. regulations have created a market for illegal HFC imports.
The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act mandates an 85% phasedown of HFCs over the next two decades, but these challenges threaten that goal.
Even if the technical goals are met, implementing such sweeping changes will require societal and industrial adoption and a greatly expanded U.S. HVACR workforce.
The Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) Engineering Research Center (ERC) will use a team-science approach to bring together talent in engineering (chemical, environmental, mechanical, and materials), architecture, business, chemistry, economics, geography, history, law, psychology, and entrepreneurship in one innovation ecosystem to co-create convergent technical and societal solutions with industry partners, technical and community colleges, professional organizations, regulators, and end users.
EARTH’s vision is to create a transformative “sustainable refrigerant lifecycle” to address the HVACR ecosystem’s key technical and societal challenges: (1) lowering HFC emissions, (2) creating safe, property-balanced replacement refrigerants, and (3) increasing HVACR energy efficiency.
In addition, EARTH will work toward workforce goals co-created with industry to increase the number of HVACR engineering researchers and will involve community and technical colleges to address workforce gaps through coordinated outreach and training, with a focus on women, native people, and tribal nations.
With stakeholder input and integration across fundamental knowledge, enabling technologies, and system testbeds, EARTH will convergently address the societal problem of refrigerant environmental impacts.
Refrigerant leaking and venting will be addressed by new separation, conversion, security-tagging, and waste-refrigerant-reuse technologies, spurring sustainable decision-making and new startups.
Novel, safe, property-balanced, low-flammability, low environmental-impact refrigerants will be explored with molecular simulations of candidate fluids, development of solid-state materials, regulatory-impact economic analysis, and corporate-innovation insights.
Higher HVACR energy efficiency will be obtainable through new energy-efficient dehumidification materials, refrigerant-specific leak sensors, alternative refrigeration cycles, systems modeling, lifecycle analysis, technoeconomic analysis, and exploration of corporate, environmental, social, and governance activities.
Crosscut themes - synthesis & characterization, behavior & policy, and modeling & analysis - will integrate research with all ERC pillars.
The EPA estimates the AIM Act’s successful implementation from 2022 to 2050 will net benefits of $272 billion and emission reductions of 4.6 billion tons of CO2.
It will also create 150,000 new jobs, increase U.S. manufacturing by $39 billion, and prevent a 0.5 °C increase in global temperature.
EARTH will enable and accelerate these benefits with new technologies, data-informed regulatory guidance, and industry and stakeholder buy-in.
By addressing the technical, environmental, and societal challenges of replacing high-GWP refrigerants, EARTH’s research will generate scientific knowledge, engineering products, environmental-policy recommendations, and industry and stakeholder behavioral changes to stimulate this HVACR-ecosystem transformation.
EARTH has identified over 70 initial HVACR-ecosystem partners, including companies, community colleges and technical/trade schools, non-profit organizations, international universities, and federal labs, to aid with industry adoption of new technologies.
EARTH will increase the HVACR industry’s workforce capacity across 6 core institutions (3 EPSCoR), in partnership with native-Hawaiian-serving and tribal colleges/universities, community colleges, and technical/trade schools.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Subawards are planned for this award.
Most current refrigerants are high-global-warming-potential (GWP) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with up to 4000 times the impact of CO2.
High HVACR-associated energy consumption and HFC leaks account for 7.8% of total greenhouse-gas emissions.
HFCs? Chemical stability, combined with challenges associated with separating HFC refrigerant blends into components, make sustainable recycling and repurposing of these refrigerants difficult.
In addition, tightening U.S. regulations have created a market for illegal HFC imports.
The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act mandates an 85% phasedown of HFCs over the next two decades, but these challenges threaten that goal.
Even if the technical goals are met, implementing such sweeping changes will require societal and industrial adoption and a greatly expanded U.S. HVACR workforce.
The Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) Engineering Research Center (ERC) will use a team-science approach to bring together talent in engineering (chemical, environmental, mechanical, and materials), architecture, business, chemistry, economics, geography, history, law, psychology, and entrepreneurship in one innovation ecosystem to co-create convergent technical and societal solutions with industry partners, technical and community colleges, professional organizations, regulators, and end users.
EARTH’s vision is to create a transformative “sustainable refrigerant lifecycle” to address the HVACR ecosystem’s key technical and societal challenges: (1) lowering HFC emissions, (2) creating safe, property-balanced replacement refrigerants, and (3) increasing HVACR energy efficiency.
In addition, EARTH will work toward workforce goals co-created with industry to increase the number of HVACR engineering researchers and will involve community and technical colleges to address workforce gaps through coordinated outreach and training, with a focus on women, native people, and tribal nations.
With stakeholder input and integration across fundamental knowledge, enabling technologies, and system testbeds, EARTH will convergently address the societal problem of refrigerant environmental impacts.
Refrigerant leaking and venting will be addressed by new separation, conversion, security-tagging, and waste-refrigerant-reuse technologies, spurring sustainable decision-making and new startups.
Novel, safe, property-balanced, low-flammability, low environmental-impact refrigerants will be explored with molecular simulations of candidate fluids, development of solid-state materials, regulatory-impact economic analysis, and corporate-innovation insights.
Higher HVACR energy efficiency will be obtainable through new energy-efficient dehumidification materials, refrigerant-specific leak sensors, alternative refrigeration cycles, systems modeling, lifecycle analysis, technoeconomic analysis, and exploration of corporate, environmental, social, and governance activities.
Crosscut themes - synthesis & characterization, behavior & policy, and modeling & analysis - will integrate research with all ERC pillars.
The EPA estimates the AIM Act’s successful implementation from 2022 to 2050 will net benefits of $272 billion and emission reductions of 4.6 billion tons of CO2.
It will also create 150,000 new jobs, increase U.S. manufacturing by $39 billion, and prevent a 0.5 °C increase in global temperature.
EARTH will enable and accelerate these benefits with new technologies, data-informed regulatory guidance, and industry and stakeholder buy-in.
By addressing the technical, environmental, and societal challenges of replacing high-GWP refrigerants, EARTH’s research will generate scientific knowledge, engineering products, environmental-policy recommendations, and industry and stakeholder behavioral changes to stimulate this HVACR-ecosystem transformation.
EARTH has identified over 70 initial HVACR-ecosystem partners, including companies, community colleges and technical/trade schools, non-profit organizations, international universities, and federal labs, to aid with industry adoption of new technologies.
EARTH will increase the HVACR industry’s workforce capacity across 6 core institutions (3 EPSCoR), in partnership with native-Hawaiian-serving and tribal colleges/universities, community colleges, and technical/trade schools.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Subawards are planned for this award.
Funding Goals
THE GOAL OF THIS FUNDING OPPORTUNITY, "GEN-4 ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTERS", IS IDENTIFIED IN THE LINK: HTTPS://WWW.NSF.GOV/PUBLICATIONS/PUB_SUMM.JSP?ODS_KEY=NSF22580
Grant Program (CFDA)
Awarding Agency
Place of Performance
Lawrence,
Kansas
66045-7552
United States
Geographic Scope
Single Zip Code
Related Opportunity
Analysis Notes
Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 122% from $3,500,000 to $7,775,000.
University Of Kansas Center For Research was awarded
Sustainable Refrigerant Technology Hub: Transforming HVACR Ecosystem
Cooperative Agreement 2330175
worth $7,775,000
from Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities in September 2024 with work to be completed primarily in Lawrence Kansas United States.
The grant
has a duration of 5 years and
was awarded through assistance program 47.041 Engineering.
The Cooperative Agreement was awarded through grant opportunity Gen-4 Engineering Research Centers.
Status
(Ongoing)
Last Modified 1/22/25
Period of Performance
9/1/24
Start Date
8/31/29
End Date
Funding Split
$7.8M
Federal Obligation
$0.0
Non-Federal Obligation
$7.8M
Total Obligated
Activity Timeline
Subgrant Awards
Disclosed subgrants for 2330175
Transaction History
Modifications to 2330175
Additional Detail
Award ID FAIN
2330175
SAI Number
None
Award ID URI
SAI EXEMPT
Awardee Classifications
Public/State Controlled Institution Of Higher Education
Awarding Office
490705 DIVISION OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Funding Office
490704 OFFICE OF EMERGING FRONTIERS AND
Awardee UEI
SSUJB3GSH8A5
Awardee CAGE
0A198
Performance District
KS-01
Senators
Jerry Moran
Roger Marshall
Roger Marshall
Modified: 1/22/25