Research and Innovation in the Sustainable Energy Group

Research Projects Ongoing and Recent

Click listed items below for more details

An Observation on Pulverized Combustion Behavior of Co-firing Turkish Lignite with Various Biomasses and Waste Magnesite Dust in a Drop Tube Furnace

Duration: 2015-2018
Funding Agency: TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Grant 214M332
PI: Feyza Kazanç
Supported Student: Çağatay Koyuncuoğlu (METU MSc); Researcher: Mert Değerli (METU MSc)

Determining the Thermal Conductivity of Nano-sized Zeolites

Duration: 2015-2016
Funding Agency: METU Scientific Research Fund Project BAP 03-02-2015-001
PI: Almıla Güvenç Yazıcıoğlu
Researchers: Burcu Akata Kurç, Yeganeh Baghi (METU PhD)
The objective is to construct a setup and measure the thermal conductivity of different types of zeolites, specifically nano-sized and silver-doped zeolite Beta, which have potential to be used in various thermal applications, such as thermal energy storage.

The Effects of Co-Firing Turkish Lignite with Various Biomasses and Waste Magnesite Dust on Combustion Characteristics

Duration: 2015-2016
Funding Agency: METU Scientific Research Fund Project BAP 08.11.2015-022
PI: Feyza Kazanç
Researchers: Oğuzhan Solak (METU MSc), İmge Koca (METU BSc)

Flexible Oxy-Combustion for Turkish Fuels

Duration: 2015-2018
Funding Agency: The Royal Society, UK Grant NA140020
PI: Feyza Kazanç
Funding Scheme: Newton Advanced Fellowship

EU-SOLARIS: The European Research Infrastructure for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

Duration: 2012-2016
Funding Agency: European Union FP7 Grant 312833, CP-CSA_FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1
PI: Raşit Turan
Co-PIs: Derek Baker, Tuba Okutucu
Website: eusolaris.eu
The Objective is to create the legal, financial and management structure for the transnational European Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) research entity Solaris. The project team consists of 15 research and non-profit entities across 10 different countries.

Numerical Investigation of Solid Particle Fluidized Bed Concentrated Solar Energy Systems

Duration: 2015-2016
Funding Agency: METU Scientific Research Fund Project BAP 03.02.2015-007
PI: İlker Tari
Researcher: Serhat Bilyaz (METU MSc)
The objective is to numerically model solid particle solar absorption, solid-fluid flow and heat transfer in a solid particle fluidized bed concentrated solar system riser.

EAGER: Energy Harvesting and Storage for Sustainable and Energy Efficient Buildings of the Future

Duration: 2014-2016
Funding Agency: The project is co-funded by the TÜBİTAK and the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
PI: Raşit Turan
Co-PIs: Derek Baker, Mehmet Parlak, Hüsnü Emrah Ünalan
The Objective is to seed collaboration between METU GÜNAM and The University of Texas-Austin on photovoltaic research.

Solar Geothermal Hybrid (SGH) Power Plants

Duration: 2013-2014
Funding Agency: TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Grant 7120763
Consultant: Derek Baker
The Objective is to install and monitor the performance of parabolic trough collectors at a geothermal power plant in Turkey, and develop software for feasibility and design studies of solar-geothermal hybrid power plants.

EU-SFERA User at CIEMAT-PSA (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas-Plataforma Solar de Almeria)

Duration: 9-13 September 2013
Funding Agency: European Union Grant 228296
PI: Derek Baker
Supported Students: Cemil Cihan Özalevli (METU MSc), Süleyman Kazım Sömek (METU BSc), Hakan Kocaman (METU BSc)
Website: sfera.sollab.eu
The Objective was to visit PSA’s Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) testing facility for Parabolic Trough Collector’s (PTC) to support the installation and testing of PTC’s for the Solar Geothermal Hybrid Power Plant project listed above and to support the development of a central CST research facility for Turkey.

Stand-alone Solar Hydrogen Energy Back-up System for an Emergency Room of a Research Hospital

Duration: 2006-2011
Funding Agency: TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Grant 106G130
PI: İlker Tarı
Supported Students: Ender Özden, Arman Uluoğlu

Innovation Awards

Students from our group have recently received the innovation awards from the following competitions.

  • Cihan ÖZALEVLİ (MSc Student), MITReview Innovators Under 30 – Turkey (2014)
  • Süleyman Kazım SÖMEK, 2nd Place, GE Innovation Challenge (2014)

Collaborations

The following map shows some of the institutions we are currently collaborating and have recently collaborated with.

International Organizations

We are actively involved in the following international organizations.

International Research Collaborations

We are currently or have recently collaborated with the following international institutions.

  • Advanced Technology Centre for Renewable Energies (CTAER), Spain, www.ctaer.com
  • Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, L'energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile (ENEA), Italy, www.enea.it
  • Carnegie Mellon University, USA, www.cmu.edu
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Institut de Combustion Aérothermique Réactivité et Environnement (CNRS-ICARE), France, www.icare.cnrs-orleans.fr
  • Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES), Greece, www.cres.gr
  • Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (APTL-CERTH), Greece, www.certh.gr
  • Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Ciemat (CIEMAT-PSA), Spain, www.psa.es
  • Deutsches Zentrum Fuer Luft - Und Raumfahrt E.V. (DLR), Germany, www.dlr.de/sf
  • ENTPE - University of Lyon, France, www.entpe.fr
  • Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, www.gatech.edu
  • Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, I.P. (LNEG), Portugal, www.lneg.pt
  • National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France, www.cnrs.fr
  • System Analysis and Renewable Energies (SEE), University of Stuttgart, Germany, www.ier.uni-stuttgart.de
  • Technische Universität München, Germany, www.tum.de
  • The Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation (CYl), Cyprus, www.cyi.ac.cy
  • The University of Texas at Austin, USA, www.utexas.edu
  • Universidade de Evora (U.EVORA), Portugal, www.uevora.pt
  • University of Massachusetts-Lowell, USA, www.uml.edu
  • Weizmann Institute of Science (WEIZMANN), Israel, www.weizmann.ac.il

Funding Agencies

We are or have recently collaborated with the following funding agencies either by benefitting from their financial support or by reviewing their research proposals.