Today’s News from the University of Kansas
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Researchers will develop green technology to recycle refrigerants that drive climate change
LAWRENCE — Project EARTH (Environmentally Applied Research Toward Hydrofluorocarbons), a new research project based at the University of Kansas School of Engineering, will develop technology to separate and recycle HFC refrigerant mixtures. The new work is supported by a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
KU Theatre & Dance 2020-21 season reinvented
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance has announced upcoming performances for the 2020-21 season, which audiences can watch online. They include the University Dance Company Fall Concert Series, opening Oct. 9; a Digital Theatre Festival debuting Oct. 23 and a spring collaboration with the Island Shakespeare Festival.
Full stories below.
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Editors: See video.
Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch
Researchers will develop green technology to recycle refrigerants that drive climate change
LAWRENCE — Refrigerants inside the air conditioner that cools your house or apartment are extremely powerful greenhouse gases. Used widely in domestic and commercial cooling systems, commonplace refrigerants called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) such as R-410A have a global-warming potential roughly 2,000 times greater than the carbon dioxide emitted from vehicle tailpipes.
Recent legislation restricts using some HFC refrigerants in particular applications and mandates their eventual phaseout, but with millions of tons of HFCs used today around the world, how can they be disposed of without harming the environment? Venting or incinerating them would be wasteful and could accelerate climate change.
Now, Project EARTH (Environmentally Applied Research Toward Hydrofluorocarbons), a new research project based at the University of Kansas School of Engineering, will develop technology to separate and recycle HFC refrigerant mixtures. Supported by a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Project EARTH collaboration comprises four universities — KU, Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Rutgers — along with several private corporations, Oak Ridge and Brookhaven national laboratories, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
“We’re going to look at how to separate hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant mixtures so the low-global-warming potential (GWP) components can be re-used and the high-GWP components converted into new products that are safe for the environment,” said Mark Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Engineering at KU, who is leading Project EARTH.
“In your house, these would be the refrigerants in your air conditioner such as R-410A,” he said. “It’s actually a mixture of two components — one of the components has a relatively high global-warming potential called HFC-125, and the other one, called HFC-32, does not. However, they are very difficult to separate because they form what is called an azeotropic mixture. Today, that refrigerant would have to be incinerated to dispose of it, and our goal is to be able to separate those two refrigerants back into their pure components and be able to reuse HFC-32 in new low-GWP products, and the other, HFC-125, we are working on converting it into a lower global warming potential product that is safer for the environment.”
According to the researchers working on Project EARTH, the U.S. market alone for recycling refrigerants is valued at more than $1 billion. Furthermore, reducing the release of high-GWP refrigerants into the Earth’s atmosphere is equivalent to eliminating 175 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the yearly emissions from 50 million cars.
The crux of Project EARTH will focus on high-fidelity experiments, advanced computer simulations and rigorous analysis to synthesize and test a new type of fluid called an “ionic liquid” that could be used to separate, recycle and convert hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants into safe products.
Much of the experimental work will take place in Shiflett’s lab at KU, where the NSF award will support equipment and materials costs, as well as support the training and education of a new generation of engineering students.
“About $590,000 is coming to KU, and the rest is split between the other three universities,” Shiflett said. “Doing these experiments requires chemicals, analytical instruments and specialized research equipment. This grant will support eight graduate students, and two of those are at KU. Each institution is going to be supporting graduate students, and the grant will also support several undergraduate researchers. At each institution, we’ll have three or four undergraduate researchers. In the end, it could end up training 20 to 30 undergraduate researchers over the four years.”
The industry partners in the effort are Chemours, Iolitec, Hiden Isochema and the Wonderful Company. Eventually, the researchers hope to provide a distributed chemical manufacturing process for more than 100 EPA certified recyclers in the U.S.
In many ways, Project EARTH brings the KU researcher full-circle. Shiflett helped to develop hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants in the 1980s when he was a young engineer at DuPont after earlier generation chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants were linked to the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer.
“In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was created to phase out CFC refrigerants and has now been signed by 197 countries,” he said. “One of my first jobs was to work on developing new refrigerants that could replace CFCs, and the ultimate solution that we came up with were HFCs and HFC refrigerant mixtures. We eliminated the chlorine in the molecule, and that solved the problem related to ozone depletion. The HFCs have been used worldwide and are excellent refrigerants, but now in 2020 the concern is about global warming, and these HFCs will be phased out. That’s where Project EARTH originates to solve the next environmental challenge with refrigerants.”
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Contact: Lisa Coble-Krings, Department of Theatre & Dance, 785-864-5685, [email protected], @KUTheatre, @KUDanceDept
KU Theatre & Dance 2020-21 season reinvented
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance lifts up students’ voices — and issues of importance to them — through a variety of original works that speak to this moment in time. Adhering to KU’s pandemic policies in this unusual year, all performances of the University Theatre and University Dance Company will be presented online through 2020.
“The pandemic doesn’t change the basic truth about us artists: We want to perform, we need to perform, and we will perform however we can,” said Henry Bial, professor of theatre and department chair. “We’re leaning into the digital this year to provide students with opportunities to share their work. I’m so proud of all of them. They are meeting this moment with open minds and open hearts.”
Upcoming performances:
UDC Fall Concert Series
Oct. 9-10, Oct. 30-31 and Dec. 3
The University Dance Company will present a series of site-specific and screen dances. Faculty choreographers and their all-student casts will present the UDC Fall Concert Series. The first concert in the series will bring back two works originally slated for UDC’s repertory last spring. Jerel Hilding, associate professor emeritus, will return to set his ballet, “Gitanas,” a Spanish-influenced work inspired by his own experiences dancing with the Joffrey Ballet. Fans and colleagues of Hilding will enjoy his choreography through livestreaming access from the Crafton-Preyer Theatre stage. James Moreno, associate professor of dance, will present “Nine Traquero Tales,” a modern contemporary work about the Mexican immigrants who built the railroad in Kansas, filmed at Lawrence’s Amtrak station and shown in screen dance format.
Upcoming performances Oct. 30-31 will include choreography by Patrick Suzeau, professor of dance; Michelle Heffner Hayes, professor of dance, and Maya Tillman Rayton, lecturer in dance. The Dec. 3 performance will include choreography by Waeli Wang, visiting assistant professor of dance, and Moreno.
Digital Theatre Festival
Oct. 23-25
Seven student-led teams are exploring the possibilities of online performance with newly developed short pieces that will be streamed. Many students are devising theatre week by week, organically grown from the ground up under faculty mentorship. Among the topics: gender fashion choices, a commentary on consumption/homage to KU’s canceled production of “Urinetown” and a devised work combining movement and singing for social justice. The festival debuts Oct. 23 and will replay Oct. 24-25.
The Digital Theatre Festival and the UDC Fall Concert will be broadcast on YouTube (live or prerecorded). Looking ahead to Spring 2021, audiences can expect more works that reach across disciplines and involve devised theatre relevant to this moment in time, including “Musings of Fire.”
“Musings of Fire”
Performance Dates TBA
KU’s collaboration with Island Shakespeare Festival will give select students professional credit with an established Shakespeare festival in Washington state while still in school. A new work, using Shakespeare’s text and reflecting on theatre in the digital age and social justice issues, “Musings of Fire” is currently being devised and will record in February for a digital, world premiere in the spring via the internet. The theatre production will be directed by Santiago Sosa, KU visiting assistant professor.
“We will definitely miss having a live audience this semester,” Bial said. “But the techniques and partnerships we forge now will help us push the boundaries of the art form, foster an even stronger theatre and dance program, and better prepare our students to enter the rapidly changing performing arts industry.”
“Our department’s performance divisions are two ways the public gets an opportunity to witness the growth of KU students. We are proud we can offer the community accessible theatre and showcase stories that spark dialogue about difficult subjects,” said Katherine Pryor, director of KU Theatre. “As you explore KU’s University Theatre, you’ll discover we offer benefits unlike other local arts organizations, including having a front-row seat to seeing Jayhawks grow.”
Performance dates are subject to change, with updates posted at kutheatre.com/performances. Productions are free, but donations to the UDC or the University Theatre production programs, through KU Endowment, will be accepted through a link on their respective websites.
“Producing theatre and dance online, with no ticket fees to boot, lets us share our art with a larger and more far-flung audience than ever before,” Bial said.
The University Theatre and University Dance Company are production wings of the University of Kansas’ Department of Theatre & Dance, offering eight public productions throughout the academic year.
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