Sustainability

Building community around electrochemistry and energy innovation

Susan Glairon — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 15:26:41 +0000

Building community around electrochemistry and energy innovation Susan Glairon Sat, 09/13/2025 - 09:26

Co-organized by Professor Mike Toney, the 2025 Front Range Electrochemistry Workshop (FREW) broadly addressed electrochemical science, with this year’s focus on batteries reflecting their growing importance to everything from electric vehicles to renewable energy infrastructure.

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New research paves way for greener construction practices

Susan Glairon — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:26:44 +0000

New research paves way for greener construction practices Susan Glairon Fri, 08/15/2025 - 07:26

Susan Glairon

The study, led by civil engineering PhD student Daniel Donado-Quintero, shows that setting carbon benchmarks can encourage asphalt producers to lower emissions—for example by using more recycled materials or optimizing production processes—supporting Colorado’s Buy Clean Act and CDOT’s efforts to reduce embodied carbon.

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Symposium advances structural engineering toward zero carbon

Susan Glairon — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 22:35:25 +0000

Symposium advances structural engineering toward zero carbon Susan Glairon Mon, 07/07/2025 - 16:35

Susan Glairon

The event, which drew 166 participants to CU Boulder’s campus, marked an industry-wide step toward cutting emissions tied to building materials like steel and concrete.

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Mortenson Center innovations delivering clean water to more than five million worldwide

Susan Glairon — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 23:00:23 +0000

Mortenson Center innovations delivering clean water to more than five million worldwide Susan Glairon Fri, 06/20/2025 - 17:00

CU Boulder's Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience is transforming global water access by treating clean water as a long-term service—not just a one-time infrastructure project.

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Pipe dreams

Hanna Nordwall — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 17:30:18 +0000

Pipe dreams Hanna Nordwall Fri, 06/06/2025 - 11:30

Susan Glairon

Lab establishes worldwide standards for repairing inaccessible, leaking pipelines

Millions of miles of aging water, wastewater and natural gas pipelines across the nation are at growing risk of failure, posing significant environmental, safety and financial challenges.

Repairing these urban pipelines is often complicated and expensive due to their location beneath buildings and roads, but new repair solutions that significantly cut pipeline repair costs are emerging.

"We developed unique testing capabilities that don’t exist anywhere else.”

Brad Wham

CU Boulder’s Center for Infrastructure, Energy and Space Testing (CIEST) is at the forefront, pioneering testing procedures for these innovative solutions.

Led by Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham, CIEST played a key role in establishing a new standard for internal replacement pipe testing through the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

“Getting an ASTM standard to vote is a big deal,” Wham said. “We designed these methods for various industries and future pipe replacement solutions. We developed unique testing capabilities that don’t exist anywhere else.”

The work was made possible by a $7.8 million Department of Energy ARPA-E grant, which CIEST shared with Cornell University, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the Gas Technologies Institute.

This advancement paves the way for cutting-edge pipe repair technologies, such as using robots or other methods to install internal replacement pipes that line aging pipelines, reinforcing their walls and extending their service life.

The tests carried out in the CIEST lab demonstrated that many of the internal replacement pipes effectively sealed holes, cracks and gaps, providing a lasting seal of 50 to 100 years at a cost of less than $1 million per mile — much lower than the approximately $10 million per mile to dig up and replace pipes in urban centers.

In addition to a 90 percent drop in cost, the repairs will help reduce methane emissions from natural gas lines and prevent leaking water lines from wasting significant quantities of treated water.

The USQ team used CIEST’s data to develop a publicly available app that lets users input specifications and site details to design and assess internal replacement pipe technologies.

Natural gas and water utilities have been cautious about adopting new technologies, due to strict regulations and high risks in the event of failure, Wham said. To address these concerns, the project involved major gas utilities and global experts to guide testing development.

“As an unbiased third party, we’re building confidence in these technologies and fostering industry competition, which helps reduce costs,” he said.

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Paving the way

Hanna Nordwall — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 16:44:58 +0000

Paving the way Hanna Nordwall Fri, 06/06/2025 - 10:44

Researcher proposes using satellite data to find and repair rough roads

Everyone benefits from driving on a smooth, well-paved road. It means better gas mileage, more efficient travel and less upkeep on a vehicle.

Of course, the more traffic on a road, the quicker it breaks down. Add in weather elements such as snow, ice and rain and this leads to issues such as potholes, cracked asphalt and wheel ruts.

Cristina Torres-Machi

Cristina Torres-Machi, an assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, knows better than most why sustainable infrastructure is so critical.

“My interest in road conditions and maintenance started when I got my bachelor’s degree as a civil engineer,” Torres-Machi said. “I realized that there’s so much infrastructure that’s already been built that we need to maintain. We don’t do a very good job at that, just as we don’t necessarily do a good job with our annual health check-ups. It’s not only about building infrastructure, it’s about maintaining it.”

“We can get a feeling of whether the condition is good, very bad or good enough.”

Torres-Machi has been a member of the CU Boulder faculty since 2017, leading her Innovation for Resilient Infrastructure research group. They seek to develop cost-effective and data-driven methods for decision-making in infrastructure management.

The group’s research projects include the life-cycle cost analysis of pavement rehabilitation alternatives and the value of satellite-based inspections to inform transport asset management decisions.

Torres-Machi believes that local, state and federal governmental systems prefer building new roads and bridges because people do not directly see the benefits of maintaining existing infrastructure.

“We notice when things like roads and bridges aren’t well maintained, and we see when things are brand new, because those get a lot of attention,” she said.

The traditional way to find out what condition a particular road is in is to go out and drive on it, which can be time-consuming and expensive. This limits road inspections to primary ones, leaving those less-traveled also less monitored.

Torres-Machi and her fellow researchers are using funding from the Minnesota Department of Transportation to explore the potential of using satellite data to look into pavement conditions.

“We can get a feeling of whether the condition is good, very bad or good enough,” she said. “The data is not going to give us a lot of details, but it can give us a feeling of how bad the condition may be, so we can go back and do a more detailed inspection of these roads.”

The lifespan of a well-maintained road is about 25 years, Torres-Machi said.

She compared identifying cracks or other potential road risks early on to going to the dentist regularly.

“If you take a proactive approach to dental care, that’s going to prevent major problems from developing down the line that will likely be more expensive to deal with and also more painful,” she said. “A similar thing happens with roads: If we delay maintenance and consider treatments when roads are in poor condition, maintenance costs are 10 times larger than applying preventive treatments. This is the reason why timely maintenance and frequent inspections are so important. Our research using satellite images to inspect pavement conditions can help local, state and federal agencies in identifying maintenance needs.”

Cristina Torres-Machi, an assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, leads her Innovation for Resilient Infrastructure research group to develop cost-effective and data-driven methods for decision-making in infrastructure management.

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As AI explosion threatens progress on climate change, these researchers are seeking solutions

Susan Glairon — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 22:31:53 +0000

As AI explosion threatens progress on climate change, these researchers are seeking solutions Susan Glairon Fri, 04/18/2025 - 16:31

Kyri Baker, associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, and her colleague, Bri-Mathias Hodge, professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering, suggest that if future data centers are placed in the right location and equipped with energy storage technologies, they can run on 100 percent clean energy.

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Xiao earns prestigious membership in the National Academy of Inventors

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:03:49 +0000

Xiao earns prestigious membership in the National Academy of Inventors Alexander Jame… Fri, 03/14/2025 - 11:03

Associate Professor Jianliang Xiao is a “mechanics of materials” expert launching innovations in soft materials and flexible electronics who has been selected as a senior member in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The program recognizes rising innovators who have had success securing patents, licensing and commercialization for developed technologies that showcase real impact on the welfare of society.

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New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:46:47 +0000

New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit Alexander Jame… Tue, 02/18/2025 - 11:46

Assistant Professor Longji Cui and his team in the Cui Research Group have developed a new technology to turn thermal radiation into electricity in a way that literally teases the basic law of thermal physics. The group says their research has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing industries by increasing power generation without the need for high temperature heat sources or expensive materials.

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5 CU Boulder startups to watch in 2025

Michelle Wiese — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 17:12:41 +0000

5 CU Boulder startups to watch in 2025 Michelle Wiese Mon, 02/03/2025 - 10:12

From July 2023 to June 2024, CU Boulder helped to launch 35 new companies based on research at the university. The new businesses are embracing technologies from the worlds of healthcare, agriculture, clean energy and more. Here’s a look at how engineers and scientists, with the help of the university’s commercialization arm Venture Partners, seek to use discoveries from the lab to make a difference in peoples’ lives.

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Sustainability

Building community around electrochemistry and energy innovation

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New research paves way for greener construction practices

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Symposium advances structural engineering toward zero carbon

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Mortenson Center innovations delivering clean water to more than five million worldwide

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Pipe dreams

"We developed unique testing capabilities that don’t exist anywhere else.”

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Paving the way

“We can get a feeling of whether the condition is good, very bad or good enough.”

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As AI explosion threatens progress on climate change, these researchers are seeking solutions

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Xiao earns prestigious membership in the National Academy of Inventors

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​New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit

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5 CU Boulder startups to watch in 2025

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New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit