Category: Colorado

Fast-growing ‘carbon-neutral’ energy company ramps up oil and gas production 1/16/2024

Fast-growing ‘carbon-neutral’ energy company ramps up oil and gas production

Payne Institute Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler contributed to this article about the Canadian wildfires this past summer, killing at least 17 people and burning more than 45.7 million acres — blazes that were made 50% more intense by climate change fueled by the burning of fossil fuels — some Canadians took out their anger on their country’s pension plan. They demanded that the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board stop investing their retirement savings in a Colorado oil and gas company that’s ramped up its extraction activity in recent years, drilling near homes, schools and parks.  January 16, 2024.  

First Uranium Mines to Dig in the US in Eight Years Begin Operations Near Grand Canyon 1/15/2024

First Uranium Mines to Dig in the US in Eight Years Begin Operations Near Grand Canyon

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about the push for more nuclear energy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  How it has spiked uranium prices, leading mines for the element to begin operating again in the U.S. despite long-term environmental and health impacts. January 15, 2024.

Solid oxide fuel cell at Colorado Fuel Cell Center now helping to power Mines campus 12/18/2023

Solid oxide fuel cell at Colorado Fuel Cell Center now helping to power Mines campus

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Robert Braun and Neal Sullivan are featured in this article about how the Mines first-of-its-kind prototype is capable of generating almost 30 kW of electric power from natural gas, low-carbon fuels.  The research program is managed through DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and features a hybrid fuel-cell and reciprocating engine system targeting 100 kW of net electricity at 70 percent efficiency under natural gas fuel and renewable fuels. December 18, 2023.

Elevate Quantum puts Colorado – and Mines – at forefront of future innovation 12/14/2023

Elevate Quantum puts Colorado – and Mines – at forefront of future innovation

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Lincoln Carr is featured in this article about how the U.S. Department of Commerce designates regional consortium of universities, national laboratories, organizations and companies as a tech hub for quantum information tech including Mines Elevate Quantum.  Elevate Quantum Colorado is one of 31 tech hubs around the country and one of only two dedicated to quantum specifically.  December 14, 2023.  

Mines faculty, students work on technology that could “change space travel forever”

Mines faculty, students work on technology that could “change space travel forever”

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow George Sowers is featured in this video about how a team of Mines researchers are partnering with Lunar Outpost to compete in the NASA Break the Ice Challenge.  Mines has competed in this challenge to harvest lunar ice deposits to harvest to get water on the moon for the last several years.  December 4, 2023.  

Forever chemical study planned for Schriever Space Force Base focused on soils 11/26/2023

Forever chemical study planned for Schriever Space Force Base focused on soils

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributes to this article about how PFAS or “forever chemicals” leach into the groundwater and pose a health risk, they sit in soils — where they can be washed out or otherwise treated before they reach an aquifer. The chemicals can cause a range of health problems at high levels in humans.  Researchers from the Colorado School of Mines and Clarkson University expect to compare nine different strategies for removing firefighting foam from the soils at the Schriever Space Force Base to help inform how soils at other sites could be treated in the future.  November 26, 2023.

How can Colorado attack “forever chemicals” tainting military soil? School of Mines is leading the way to find out. 11/13/2023

How can Colorado attack “forever chemicals” tainting military soil? School of Mines is leading the way to find out.

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how nine different techniques for getting PFAS out of toxic dirt will be tested next year at Schriever Space Force Base near Colorado Springs.  Even the environmental watchdogs cataloging the depressing toll of “forever chemicals” throughout the food chain say they are encouraged by the School of Mines test.  November 13, 2023.  

Project to test technologies to clean up contaminated materials set to start at Colorado Springs-area military base 11/10/2023

Project to test technologies to clean up contaminated materials set to start at Colorado Springs-area military base

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how a project headed by the Colorado School of Mines to test the best clean up methods for PFAS-contaminated materials is set to begin next summer on Schriever Space Force Base.  According to Christopher Higgins, a School of Mines professor working on the Department of Defense-funded project, those working on the project will be testing six different PFAS clean up technologies on soils they say the base has set aside for testing in an effort to see which is the most effective on a larger scale.  November 10, 2023.

Tabares-Velasco awarded two DOE grants for work toward energy efficiency at any income level 11/7/2023

Tabares-Velasco awarded two DOE grants for work toward energy efficiency at any income level

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Paulo Tabares-Velasco is featured in this article about receiving funding from the DOE Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) program, for two projects specifically aimed at making energy efficiency, electrification and resiliency possibility for communities in Colorado: a home battery energy storage system for retrofitted housing in in Colorado and a new heat pump water heater with latent heat storage in low-income housing.  November 7, 2023.

Colleges and companies collaborate to study PFAS soil purification methods at Schriever SFB 11/1/2023

Colleges and companies collaborate to study PFAS soil purification methods at Schriever SFB

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how a team of scientists at the Colorado School of Mines alongside other major universities will be testing out soil purification technologies at Schriever Space Force Base.  It’s an international effort to defeat what is commonly known as “Forever Chemicals.”  The three universities and five companies, both foreign and domestic, are testing technologies to get these chemicals out of soils. The work is funded by the Department of Defense.  November 1, 2023.