Energy, Environment and Resources Center

Jack Barkenbus, Executive Director

Center For Clean Products and Clean Technologies

Gary A. Davis, Director

Office of Communications and Publications

David Brill, Director

Center for Geography and Environmental Education

Rosalyn McKeown-Ice, Director

Oak Ridge Technology Research and Development Program

Sheila Webster, Director

Systems Development Institute

Donald Alvic, Director

Pro-Dialogue

Mary R. English and David L. Feldman, Directors

Water Resources Research Center

Tim Gangaware, Associate Director

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Highlights and Initiatives is written and edited by Constance Griffith <cbgriffith@utk.edu>.

For more information call Gail Farris at 865-974-4251 or write to EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134.

Visit our Web site at: http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/

Projects.  Recently, the state energy office awarded funding to Research Associate Jonathan Overly to develop the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition. The coalition, which includes such entities as the Tennessee Valley Authority, AmeriGas Propane, Knoxville Area Transit, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and city of Sevierville, is working to gain official designation as a participant in the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities Program. The program supports public-private partnerships that deploy alternative fuel vehicles and build supporting infrastructure. See expanded story on back page.

Representatives from the electronics industry, state and local government, and environmental nonprofits met recently in Washington, D.C., to continue discussions on developing a national agreement for managing used electronics. Gary Davis, director of the EERC’s Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies, and Senior Research Associate Catherine Wilt organized and have served as facilitators for the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative, or NEPSI, under a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. NEPSI participants, who recently reached a milestone in agreeing to establish a “front-end” financing system that will make provisions for used electronics, hope to finalize a voluntary plan by year’s end to distribute responsibility for the reuse and recycling of electronics among those who produce, sell, and use such products.

International News.  Senior Research Scientist David Feldman visited Russia this month at the invitation of Greenpeace-Russia and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geography. Feldman’s visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg included discussions with officials of various nongovernmental organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, the Independent University of Ecology and Politics, and the International Research & Exchanges (IREX) Foundation. The colleagues discussed such environmental issues as water supply and pollution, as well as ways to better establish research and teaching exchanges between Russian scholars and those at UT.

Collaborations.  Executive Director Jack Barkenbus and Jonathan Overly have teamed up with Professor Richard Jendrucko and students Jason Lange and Jason Fulgham (Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering), and Professor Richard Kelso, Assistant Professor Mark DeKay, and student Jaimie Abel (Architecture) to work on a summer-long project to catalog energy-using equipment at the Carolyn P. Brown University Center. By placing measuring devices on the building to determine the amount and rate at which electrical energy is being used, the team hopes to identify potential cost- and energy-saving opportunities for UT.

Each Highlights and Initiatives page presents an in-depth look at one of EERC’s projects or activities. This edition focuses on a newly formed alliance that seeks to improve air quality in East Tennessee while reducing dependence on foreign oil. Please see Down the (Alternative-fuels) Path, below.

Down the (Alternative-fuels) Path

East Tennessee may one day wear a “Clean Cities” moniker if EERC researcher Jonathan Overly and the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition have their way. by kris christen

The recently formed East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition (ETCFC) is working toward cleaner cities for East Tennessee in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Cities Program that seeks to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, and enhance local economic activity.

Through Clean Cities, DOE is supporting public-private partnerships that will deploy alternative fuel vehicles and build the infrastructure to sustain their use. Some 80 communities in 41 states now qualify as participants in the program, “but there’s a big hole where the Southeast is concerned,” says coalition coordinator Jonathan Overly, a research associate with the University of Tennessee’s Energy, Environment and Resources Center.

To obtain designation, the coalition must assess the current state of local/regional alternative fuels markets, identify existing and potential alternative fuel vehicle fleets and refueling stations, work to ensure a strong market foundation by building stakeholder commitments, and create an overall plan that details how the region will expand its alternative fuel market.

So far, Overly has pulled together 52 participants from 32 area organizations, including the Tennessee Valley Authority; Knoxville Utilities Board; Knoxville Area Transit; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; UT; Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation; the cities of Knoxville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville; two propane distributors; five environmental organizations; and one area car dealership. The only type of stakeholder missing today is a private fleet representative.

Current alternative fuels include ethanol, biodiesel, electricity, propane, natural gas, and hydrogen. Two of these are renewable fuels—namely ethanol, which is produced primarily from corn (can also be made from potatoes, scrap wood, and other biomass materials), and biodiesel, which is typically produced from soybeans or waste cooking oils. The other alternative fuel options, although primarily fossil-based, burn much cleaner than regular gasoline.

“Alternative fuel vehicles are much cleaner than [those that use] traditional petroleum-based fuels, especially diesel,” says David Dunagan, program manager for DOE’s Southeast regional office in Atlanta. “So anytime you can replace gasoline or diesel with compressed natural gas, propane, or other alternative fuels, you get public health benefits, image benefits, and financial benefits.” Yet, alternative fuel vehicles must typically overcome such barriers as limited refueling infrastructure, increased cost, and limited range.

Over the long-term, DOE hopes major automakers and national labs can produce an economically viable fuel-cell vehicle that would run on hydrogen. The resulting environmental benefit would be that the fuel cell, by using hydrogen, would emit harmless water vapor. The process will require years of research, however, to overcome major technological barriers to hydrogen storage, production, transportation, and efficient use in fuel cells and engines.

In the meantime, Overly says he hopes that once the coalition is off and running, East Tennessee will not only see some much-needed improvements in air quality, but also will be in line to secure federal grant money for transportation-related projects.