Category: Training/Continuing Education

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Center for Economic Impacts & Societal Benefits releases guidance on pollution prevention industrial assessment

Photo by Alexander Tsang on Unsplash

The Center for Economic Impacts & Societal Benefits (CEISB) at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) has released a Pollution Prevention Guide for companies wanting to learn about using pollution prevention industrial assessments. Simply put, pollution prevention, also known as P2, refers to the reduction or elimination of hazardous materials and contaminants (pollution) at their source, prior to creation or release into the environment. The recently published guide is designed both for those who are new to P2 and those who have basic knowledge of P2 industrial assessments to help them move forward with P2 assessments in their facilities.

The guide was produced as part of the Collaborative Training & Assessments in Pollution Prevention (CTAP2) project, which assisted IL manufacturers in developing the skills needed to reap the rewards of incorporating sustainability into their business model. The guidebook includes information on how to plan and conduct assessments, including tips for forming pollution prevention teams; how to collect data to calculate baselines and progress toward goals; identification of common P2 opportunities and methods to evaluate and prioritize opportunities for implementation; and suggestions for incorporating continuous improvement in company culture. Participating facilities were also given access to short video modules to help communicate the basic tenets of P2 to internal teams. In addition to the guidebook, which lays the foundation for applying P2 principles in an industrial setting, an online Zotero library was also developed to provide more in-depth information related to various industrial sectors (e.g., aerospace, automotive, chemical, food & beverage, and metals manufacturing) and topics (e.g., hazardous materials, housekeeping, energy, water, green products, financing, etc.). The Zotero library also includes compilations of relevant case studies and ISTC publications.

Participating facilities represented the following manufacturing sectors: ball & roller bearings (fabricated metal products); cheese; paints & coatings; soap & other detergents; and pumps & pumping equipment. Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Explore other opportunities for assistance

ISTC has over 30 years of experience providing pollution prevention and sustainability technical assistance to industries and organizations throughout Illinois and beyond. Through CEISB, ISTC also provides technical assistance in zero waste, sustainability planning, institutional water treatment, stakeholder engagement, and implementation assistance. Visit the CEISB website for a full list of services. CEISB also conducts research on environmental and societal systems. Visit the main “About Us” page on the CEISB website and the staff directory for more information on areas of expertise.

CEISB technical assistance providers currently have federal funding to provide P2 assistance at no cost to certain industrial or market sectors. See the following brief descriptions and links to project flyers:

  • Advancing Beverage Resilience through Pollution Prevention. This collaboration with EnergySense Resilience Center supports breweries, wineries, distilleries, and other craft beverage businesses across the state of Illinois. Following their assessments, participants will also have the chance to assist in shaping the certification process for green beverage manufacturing in Illinois and to be recognized for their sustainability efforts through the Illinois Green Business Program.
  • Mississippi River Corridor Pollution Prevention. ISTC staff are working with partners at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Office of Pollution Prevention Services and Missouri State University to provide free industrial sustainability assessments across three states.
  • Pollution Prevention at Food Focused Businesses within DuPage & Kane Counties. Another collaboration with EnergySense Resilience Center, this project is providing free technical assistance to 10 small for and/or non-profit entities, such as restaurants, grocers, and other food-focused businesses and organizations in DuPage and Kane Counties. By getting assessed, businesses can lower operational costs, reduce wasted food & resources, and attract environmentally conscious customers.

Don’t see your sector or organization reflected in the projects listed above? The CEISB team may still be able to assist you through other funding sources or fee-for-service work. Contact CEISB at istc-info@illinois.edu or fill out the online site visit request form.

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IL Climate Education Hub launch event, Oct. 22

Illinois Climate Education Hub logo, consisting of a blue silhouette of the state of IL overlapping a stylized blue and green Earth, with the words "Illinois Climate Education Hub" superimposed and centered over them.

In a previous post on back-to-school sustainability resources, the Illinois Climate Education Hub was mentioned as a forthcoming resource for K-12 teachers, to assist them in complying with Public Act 103-0837. That legislation provides that, “Beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, every public school shall provide instruction on climate change, which shall include, but not be limited to, identifying the environmental and ecological impacts of climate change on individuals and communities and evaluating solutions for addressing and mitigating the impact of climate change and shall be in alignment with State learning standards, as appropriate. The State Board of Education shall, subject to appropriation, prepare and make available multi-disciplinary instructional resources and professional learning opportunities for educators that may be used to meet the requirements of this subsection.”

The hub is now live and is available at https://illinoisclimateeducation.org/. The IL hub (like its sister hubs in New Jersey, Oregon, Wisconsin, Maine, New York, Connecticut, and Michigan) provides free, educator-vetted teaching resources, professional development opportunities, lesson plan examples, and relevant news articles for students. All resources on the hub can be used for educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.

Subject to Climate, the organization that led efforts to develop the IL hub and similar hubs in other states, is hosting a launch event for the Illinois Climate Education Hub on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at 4 PM Central. Tickets are free and available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/illinois-climate-education-hub-launch-event-tickets-1661256215059.

All are invited to join Illinois teachers, students, and community partners to learn about the Illinois Climate Education Hub.

Contact Subject to Climate’s IL State Lead, Kate Nahrwold, with questions or for additional information.

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Free sustainability training for manufacturers in St. Louis area

The Missouri Association of Manufacturers, in partnership with the Missouri State University Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute (OEWRI), is offering free sustainability training for Missouri manufacturers on February 19, 2025, from 9 AM to 1 PM at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.

Thanks to an ongoing collaboration between ISTC’s technical assistance providers and Missouri State University, the workshop has been opened up for IL manufacturers located in the St. Louis area. (Note that manufacturers from throughout MO are eligible.)

Participants will receive guidance on the development of a sustainability program, including overviews of various program models such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more. The session is limited to 20 companies, all of which will receive a complimentary sustainability site assessment for their facilities. Participation is open to manufacturers in all industrial sectors.

Interested manufacturers should visit the Missouri Association of Manufacturers website to register, or contact Andrew LeGrand, 417-863-7262, to confirm eligibility or for other questions.

If you represent an Illinois manufacturer interested in integrating sustainability into your operations but are unable to reserve a spot in this workshop, please reach out to Owen McMahan, 217-333-3684, to learn more about free, grant-funded assessment opportunities available through ISTC.

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Pollution Prevention Week 2024: Together we are one planet

Pollution Prevention (P2) Week occurs every September and this year’s theme “Together We are One Planet” reminds us that individual actions can effect overall positive change in our environment. Are you ready to be a change-maker and move forward with plans for reducing environmental impacts at your organization?

With pollution prevention grants provided by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) at the Prairie Research Institute’s Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can assist you! These grants focus on assisting manufacturers within Illinois to identify areas at the product, process, and system level to minimize waste, improve energy, and increase resource efficiency. By creating a strategy for sustainable improvement, your organization can remain competitive and profitable, while protecting the environment.

Our outreach is statewide, and each grant may focus on specific sectors, areas, or training. We hope you will take a few minutes to review these opportunities and allow us to assist you.

Assistance is fully confidential, without cost, or obligation to implement recommendations. Our technical assistance specialists will work with you every step of the way, identifying opportunities for improvement, related cost savings, and guiding you through implementation, if desired.

You can schedule your free site visit today by filling out our online request form, or connect with our technical assistance team by contacting Irene Zlevor, izlevor@illinois.edu, 217-300-8617.

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TAP offers free sustainable manufacturing training for facilities in Illinois

Image of a grey vehicle being assembled in a factory
Photo by Lenny Kuhne on Unsplash

The Technical Assistance Program (TAP) within the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Illinois is excited to announce an innovative training program under a grant funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The focus of this grant is to increase the competitiveness of Illinois manufacturers by reducing environmental impacts and costs. 

This program will provide eligible manufacturers in Illinois with training and skills needed to assess their operations through a sustainability lens, resulting in minimized waste and improved energy and resource efficiency, while protecting environmental and human health. By training facility personnel in proven methods to perform an assessment, participants can achieve cost savings and reductions in energy, water, and hazardous materials/waste methods. This model can be incorporated into company practices to repeat source reduction/pollution prevention savings efforts for years to come.

This grant-funded service explained in our flyer is delivered at no cost to manufacturers and their supporting industries across many sectors including aerospace; automotive; chemical; food & beverage; and metal finishing & fabrication.

The services provided by our team are fully confidential and completely free to manufacturers, with no obligation. Our technical assistance specialists work with your team to identify opportunities for continuous improvement and help guide you through the implementation process to ensure success in achieving sustainability goals and related cost savings. Note that priority for participation will be given to manufacturers in underserved communities, identified using the U.S. EPA’s EJScreen tool, though participation is not restricted to facilities in those communities. Other grant opportunities may be available to assist interested manufacturers.

TAP welcomes the opportunity to provide more details about this program. Please schedule your initial site visit today by filling out our online request form.  Questions? Contact Irene Zlevor, izlevor@illinois.edu, for additional information or to connect with a member of our technical assistance team!

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ISTC will feature biochar research at Fulton County Field Day

ISTC’s Wei Zheng will showcase his research project “Designer Biochar to Capture and Recycle Phosphorous from Tile Drainage Systems” at the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Fulton County Field Day on July 16.

Zheng and team have proposed to combine a woodchip bioreactor with designer biochar at the tile drain outlet to capture phosphorus within the biochar. The biochar can be removed from the bioreactor system periodically and spread over the field as a form of slow release phosphorus fertilizer. They predict that the system will prevent excess nutrients from the phosphorus from entering local waterways and, if used throughout Illinois farmlands, will help reduce Illinois nutrient load to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.

Besides an inside look at Zheng’s research, the Field Day will feature additional research tours on vegetative buffer strips and drainage water recycling at the MWRD site, 15779 County Road 5, Cuba, IL. Registration starts at 11 a.m., followed by the tours from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Attendance is free, and lunch will be provided. Pre-registration is still available by calling the Fulton County Farm Bureau at 309-547-3011 or emailing at fultonfb@att.net.

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Maintaining Nature’s Most Essential Technology by Boasting About Composting

Did you know that there are more living things in a teaspoon of soil than there are people on earth? Soil holds an abundance of nutrients and is necessary for life on earth. Unfortunately, soil health isn’t something people often consider. Research shows that one-third of the earth’s soil is already moderately to highly degraded due to various issues such as erosion, nutrient depletion, acidification, urbanization, and chemical pollution.

Soil health is essential for growing food. We can’t have a sustainable future if we don’t maintain it properly. Composting is one of the best ways to naturally fertilize and replenish our soil. Compost is composed of decomposed organic material that can be added to soil to nourish and encourage its natural regenerative cycle.

Composting turns trash into treasure. In addition to fertilizing the soil, composting enriches the soil and helps it retain moisture, reduces methane emissions, increases carbon sequestration, encourages production of nutrient-rich materials, and reduces the need for harmful chemical fertilizers. Furthermore, compost is an excellent way to reduce food waste because all fruit and vegetable scraps are compostable. This is beneficial because every year sixty million tons of mineral-rich food waste goes into landfills.

Compost also increases the ability of soil to sequester carbon, especially when combined with biochar. When paired with nitrogen, carbon improves soil health. Creating and applying compost is pretty easy. You don’t need fancy equipment or lots of land. Composting can even be done indoors in small spaces by vermicomposting, which uses worms to expedite the decomposition process.

Compost requires three basic ingredients: browns, greens, water, and air. Browns include things like dead leaves, branches, and twigs. They supply carbon. Greens include grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds. They supply nitrogen. The water provides moisture to help break down the organic matter. Cornell University recommends a 30:1 ratio of carbon (browns) to nitrogen (greens).

Turning is the final component, though it is not a necessary one. Turning involves moving the material on the inside of the compost to the outside. Nitrogen builds up in the center of your compost so turning the compost is necessary if you want to expedite the decomposition process. If you turn your compost more it will take a shorter amount of time to create the nutrient-rich soil.

Across the state, there are many efforts to encourage community-wide composting. Locally, the Champaign County Landscape Recycling Center recycles yard waste into two types of compost. Champaign County has been hesitant to implement a county-wide composting program that would include food waste after pushback from community members who were concerned about potential odors. Contrary to popular belief, compost is not waste and it does not emit odors, as long as it is properly maintained. The University of Illinois Extension has provided a great overview of how and why to compost if you are interested in creating an individual compost system.

The Illinois Food Scrap Coalition is developing a scope of work related to advancing food scrap composting in Illinois. A score of municipalities in the Chicago area provides curbside organics recycling. In addition, there are dozens of composting facilities around the state. Finally, SIU Carbondale is recycling tons of dining hall food waste into compost at the on-campus Forced Air Composting Facility, where student workers also learn about the composting process.

Universities in other parts of the country are also generating compost. Yale University collects paper towels, and Cornell University provides composting education materials and programs through the Cornell Waste Management Institute. At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, they’re not only composting all food waste generated on campus, they’re also selling that compost to the community.  By continuing to boast about compost, we can work to keep our soil healthy and continue the natural regenerative cycle.

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Plastic Is Forever – or Is It?

WRITTEN BY: Katherine Gardiner, ISTC staff

Plastic waste is one of the leading environmental concerns in the world today.

Many times, consumers use a plastic product just once before throwing it away. We might only see it for a short time – a plastic shopping bag, for example – but that plastic bag can sit in a landfill for decades before it is broken down completely.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, areas of floating plastic pieces and microplastics (<5mm) in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, is estimated to be three times the size of France. Dianna Parker of the NOAA Marine Debris Program insists that cleaning up the garbage patch isn’t enough. She explains,  “until we prevent debris from entering the ocean at the source, it’s just going to keep congregating in these areas.”

What if there was a way to stop plastic from filling up our landfills and polluting our waterways?

ISTC researchers B.K. Sharma and Kishore Rajagopalan worked with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to convert plastic bags into fuel.

Two jars: one contains a plastic shopping bag, the other contains oil made from the plastic shopping bagThe team collected high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags from local shops and used a pyrolysis unit to turn them into plastic crude oil (PCO). After distilling the PCO, analyzing the resulting fuels, and adding antioxidants, the products met nearly all specifications of the conventional diesel standards.

In fact, the researchers’ HDPE-derived fuels beat out conventional petroleum diesel when it came to the fuel’s lubricity and derived cetane number, which is an indicator of the combustion speed. The team concluded that their plastic-based fuel could be blended safely and efficiently with petroleum diesel fuel, reducing the amount of plastic ending up in landfills or out into the environment while also creating something valuable from the waste plastic.

More recently, ISTC researchers B.K. Sharma and Sriraam Chandrasekaran developed the first energy-efficient and environmentally friendly process to separate mixed polymers in waste plastics, allowing the waste plastic to be recycled into new, high-quality plastic products.

Single polymer plastics, such as water bottles, are easy to recycle because they are made with a uniform plastic. Sharma explained that products that are made of more complex polymer blends, such as cellphone cases, “pile up at recycling centers and eventually end up being incinerated or sent to landfills” due to the lack of safe and efficient ways to recycle them.

Currently, the most efficient method for this process involves a chemical called DCM that releases carcinogenic vapors in conditions close to room temperature. The method created by Sharma and Chandrasekaran uses a solvent called NMP, which Chandrasekaran assured, “will only release vapors when heated to 180 degrees Celsius, far above the temperature needed to dissolve the polymers.”

ISTC isn’t the only organization committed to reducing plastic waste.

thousands of bottle caps inside a rubber tire. someone's dirty hands are sorting the capsSanjeev Das, Global Packaging Director at Unilever, announced that through a partnership with Ioniqa, a start-up company in the Netherlands, they have found a way to recycle any kind of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic. By using this new technology, they are able to break down the PET plastic to the molecular level, remove any colors or impurities, and turn it back into clear food-grade PET plastic.

While not available yet, Das estimates the technology could be ready for widespread use by the third quarter of 2019. He believes this technology can revolutionize the plastic recycling industry. By bringing value to PET waste, people and communities all over the world will be motivated to collect plastic, creating a circular economy.

In a commitment to sustainability, Nestle pledged to make all of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. Nestle CEO Mark Schneider stated, “plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach.”

There are smaller steps companies can take to reduce plastic waste and encourage sustainable habits. Coffee giant Starbucks offers a discount to customers who bring in reusable mugs and has been doing so since 1985. Urbana-Champaign coffee chain Espresso Royale offers a similar discount. Retailers such as Target, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s offer discounts for bringing in your own reusable shopping bags.

While the best option for eliminating plastic waste is to reduce our reliance on single use products, plastic use is so heavily engrained in our culture that we might never phase it out completely. These scientific advances in plastic recycling pave the way for a future where there is minimal, if any, plastic waste.

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Study Reuse with ISTC’s Joy Scrogum

Beginning September 13, Joy Scrogum, ISTC sustainability specialist and technical assistance program team member, will teach “Reuse as a Sustainability Strategy” at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Illinois. Spaces remain available, so sign up today! The 8-week course meets through November 1.

 

Course overview: When thinking about how to decrease their own “carbon footprint,” or to improve the overall sustainability of our society, many people typically consider strategies involving reduction of consumption or resource use, or increased recycling and use of recycled materials. This course will focus on the often overlooked “third R,” reuse, and why it is an important component of sustainability. Students will be introduced to sustainability, the waste management hierarchy, and the circular economy. The course will explore different forms of reuse (e.g. repair, food recovery, etc.), and their economic, environmental, and social impacts. During the final session we’ll spend some time reflecting on the concepts covered throughout the course and students will brainstorm ideas for how they might apply those concepts to their own lives and/or communities—e.g. in day-to-day lifestyle choices, as part of their business or a volunteer effort, or in congregations or other groups in which they may participate. In other words, we’ll consider how you might take what you’ve learned and use it to be a force for positive change, or more broadly, how these concepts might be applied in the Champaign-Urbana area to make it a more sustainable place for all inhabitants.

 

Each 90-minute session will include lecture/discussion with roughly the last 20-30 minutes dedicated to questions and in-depth discussion. Course materials, including suggested readings and PDF versions of lecture slides, are made available to participants to download from a course web site. There are no assignments or grades–just learning for sake of learning.

 

Course outline: 

  • Week 1 (Sept. 13): Sustainability and Circularity. An introduction to sustainability, the waste management hierarchy, and the circular economy. We’ll explore the differences between reuse and recycling, the environmental impacts of reuse (beyond solid waste reduction), as well as related concepts and terms, such as “zero waste,” “cradle to cradle,” “biomimicry,” etc.
  • Week 2 (Sept. 20): Design Paradigms: Durability vs. Disposability. An exploration of the origins of planned obsolescence, as well as related concepts like technological and perceived obsolescence, and what it all means in terms of the way we interact with products, both from the consumer and designer perspectives. We’ll look at examples of how some products are being designed with reuse and materials reclamation in mind.
  • Week 3 (Sept. 27): Repair is Noble. This tag line is used by the repair-oriented company iFixit to convey how repair is tied to values such as freedom, respect, and conservation. We’ll discuss the extension of the product life cycle through repair, and how that not only reduces solid waste generation, but also consumption of “embodied” resources. Case studies of projects tied to fostering repair will illustrate economic and social benefits through community building and making technology accessible to more people. The “Right to Repair” movement will be outlined, including relevant legislation (proposed or on the books) in various states, including IL. Related concepts, such as refurbishment and remanufacturing, will be defined.
  • Week 4 (Oct. 4): Feeding People, Not Landfills. An exploration of food recovery as an important strategy to fight food waste as well as hunger and poverty. The magnitude of food waste both nationally and globally will be conveyed. Opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, relevant policy, and challenges related to infrastructure and logistics will be discussed.
  • Week 5 (Oct.11): Secondhand Solutions. We’ll examine enterprises and organizations that contribute to our economy and culture by making commodities out of reused and reclaimed goods. Materials for the Arts, thrift stores, and reclaimed building and home décor warehouses will be presented as familiar examples, along with virtual examples, and tools for connecting individuals for the purposes of exchanging or sharing goods and surplus.
  • Week 6 (Oct.18): Finding Your Repurpose. An analysis of repurposing—reusing or redeploying products or objects with one original use value for an alternative use value. The “beneficial reuse” of buildings, products, vehicles, and materials will be examined, along with the reuse art movement.
  • Week 7 (Oct. 25): Repackaged: Packaging with Reuse in Mind. A survey of packaging waste issues and impacts along with opportunities for change through creative design. Examples of retailers, restaurants, and manufacturers employing reusable packaging strategies will be highlighted.
  • Week 8 (Nov. 1): Full Circle: Summary and Applications Brainstorming. A review of points about environmental, economic, and social impacts of reuse which were touched upon throughout the course, including potential negative impacts as well as positive ones. We’ll delve into ideas for how the strategies discussed are and might be applied in our community, organizations, businesses, policies, personal lives, etc. How might you reuse the information and inspiration gleaned from this course to be a force for positive change?

OLLI is a member-centered community of adult learners that is supported by the Bernard Osher Foundation, the Illinois Office of the Provost, and the generous donations of OLLI members and community partners. It is part of a network of 120 OLLI programs across the United States, and there are over 160,000 members nationwide. OLLI offers fall and spring semesters of 8-week courses taught by distinguished faculty (both current and emeritus) from the University of Illinois and other regional colleges and universities, and community members from a wide variety of areas. A selection of 4-week courses is also offered. The fall 2017 semester begins Monday, September 11th.

 

To sign up for an OLLI course, a community member must first sign up for an OLLI membership. You must be 50 or older to join OLLI. Your OLLI membership includes one free course per year; additional 8-week courses are $40 each, and 4-week courses are $20 each. Annual membership for an individual or the first member of a household membership, active from July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018, costs $180. Adding a second member in your household costs $155. Current course offerings are listed at http://olli.illinois.edu/courses/current.html.

 

You may register for any course, including the Reuse as a Sustainability Strategy course, at any time, right up until the course begins. Register online at https://reg138.imperisoft.com/OlliIllinois/Search/Registration.aspx. If you are not yet an OLLI member, look for the “New user?” link in the log in box at this URL to become a member and obtain a user name and password to sign up for courses. Full registration instructions are available at

http://olli.illinois.edu/downloads/documents/Online%20Registration%20Instructions.pdf.

 

OLLI 10th anniversary (2007-2017) logo

 

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Challenges of Carbon Utilization Have Regional Solutions

istc director kevin o'brien speaks at technology summit in San Antonio Texas
Advances in carbon utilization technology holds diverse options for job and economic development, according to ISTC Director Kevin O’Brien.

Emerging technologies for carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization present significant opportunities for job creation and economic growth, said Kevin O’Brien, director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in a presentation to the Eighth Carbon Dioxide Utilization Summit Feb. 22 in San Antonio, Texas.

 

But success in deriving those benefits from carbon utilization depends on the assets (economic and human) of each particular region, O’Brien emphasized to energy, chemical, plastics, and construction industry leaders at the conference.

 

Mature regional partnerships for workforce development, higher education, economic development, government support, and responsive research and development capabilities are some of the factors that contribute to development of a sustainable CO2 value chain.

 

O’Brien pointed to reasons why Illinois, where coal underlies nearly the entire state and remains a $2.5 billion annual industry, is seizing on every advantage it has to align with the potential of carbon utilization innovations.

 

  • Illinois research universities have leading programs in engineering, engineering geology, carbon capture, and other scientific innovation. One example is the use of CO2 as a fertilizer substitute at the University of Illinois. In a major agricultural state with nutrient loss problems and where the climate is expected to reduce carbon retention in soil, synergies abound.
  • College curricula, community colleges, economic development professionals, political leaders, and employers are already connected to existing supply chains.
  • The University of Illinois’ Prairie Research Institute, ISTC’s parent organization, has assembled decades-long reservoirs of valuable data on Illinois weather, regional climate, soil, groundwater, stream flow, and other factors that is relevant to an economic pivot toward carbon utilization.

 

On the research front, a Midwest Regional Approach to Carbon Utilization workshop is being planned for June 28 by co-organizers ISTC, the Gas Technology Institute, and the Advanced Coal and Energy Research Center of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

 

Other regions will have different assets and opportunities. For instance, carbon utilization will necessitate pipelines or another cost-effective transportation method for captured CO2. Markets with a track record for facilitating transportation will be ahead of the game, O’Brien said.