The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is a research, development, demonstration, and commercialization facility for energy and environment technologies development. The center is a nonprofit division of the University of North Dakota, located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States.
History
The center was founded in 1951 as the Robertson Lignite Research Laboratory, a federal facility under the
United States Bureau of Mines
For most of the 20th century, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral ...
, named after
Charles R. Robertson. It became a federal energy technology center under the
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...
in 1977 and was defederalized in 1983. The center employs approximately 270 employees.
The EERC has a current contract portfolio of over $208.4 million and the EERC's estimated regional economic impact is $78.1 million.
Since 1987, the EERC has had more than 1,300 clients in 50 states and 53 countries worldwide.
Research
The EERC conducts research, development, demonstration, and commercialization activities involving zero-emissions coal conversion; CO
2 capture and sequestration; energy and water sustainability; hydrogen and fuel cells; advanced air emission control technologies, emphasizing SO
x, NO
x, air toxics, fine particulate, CO
2, and mercury control; renewable energy; wind energy;
water management
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; sl ...
; flood prevention; global climate change; waste utilization; energy efficiency; and contaminant cleanup.
Location and facilities
The EERC is located on more than of land on the southeast corner of the UND campus in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and houses of laboratories, fabrication facilities, technology demonstration facilities, and offices.
Core Research Priorities
The EERC's research priorities include the following:
Coal Utilization and Emissions
Hydrogen Technologies does research in hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...
and fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
technology. In 2004, the EERC was awarded the designation o
National Center for Hydrogen Technology®
NCHT®) by the U.S. Department of Energy. Research in hydrogen and fuel cell technology takes place in the 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m2) NCHT building, located on the EERC campus.
Notes
External links
*
EERC Solutions Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Energy And Environmental Research Center
University of North Dakota
Buildings and structures in Grand Forks, North Dakota
Research institutes in North Dakota
Energy research institutes