Catalyzing Energy Breakthroughs for a Secure American Future is the topic for the Tuesday keynote address at the Energy Challenges 2012: The Next 50 Years Conference.

Arun Majumdar, acting undersecretary for energy and director, U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), said we cannot leave the energy legacy for the future. Our country and public land grant universities must play a leadership role in shaping the domestic and global energy landscape.

Majumdar explained what the role of ARPA-E is in energy innovation. The agency has a portfolio of energy ideas and potential game changers.

“We are hungry for innovation,” he said. As innovations are introduced and scaled by industry, the agency moves ahead looking for the next energy discovery.

Some of the areas where ARPA-E sees real potential include:

Plants engineered to produce oil-Corn and sugarcane were not developed to produce oil. Several concepts are being developed that have real potential for oil production.

Electrofuels-Photosynthesis is inefficient in creating fuel. Progress is being made in creating biofuels without the use of the sun.

Natural gas transportation-The use of natural gas for transportation is already being developed in the long-haul trucking industry. To develop a passenger car that is fueled by natural gas would require a significant investment in creating filling stations. Gas-heated houses, however, make up, 60 percent of our housing stock. Breakthroughs in retrofitting homes to allow gas-fueled cars to gas up at home could be a game changer.

Rare earth alternatives-Research is being done at Case Western University and other universities on creation of magnets that do not use rare earth materials. This would allow an expanded use of magnets in energy production which Majumdar said would be a great breakthrough.

Carbon capturing in coal burning-The ability to capture carbon when burning coal and turning it into oil has tremendous potential. Carbon capturing is very expensive and new technologies in bringing that cost down are needed.

Power electronics-The average age of a transformer is 42 years and it weighs 8000 pounds. Innovations in silicon carbide have the potential to reduce transformers to 100 pounds.

He said many called the century from 1900 to 2000 the American century due to the research and development of many technological advancements involving such areas as space, the internet and aviation.

“In 1912 many would not have guessed what the rest of the 20th century held for America. I asked do we know what the future hold for the rest of this century? With this innovation potential there is reason to believe this will also be the American century,” said Majumdar.

Challenges come in all sizes.  Arun Majumdar embraces one that is larger than most.  He wants to change the way the world generates, stores and uses energy.

Majumdar is the director of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).  Congress created the agency in 2007 to invest in projects aimed at developing new energy technologies and reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

The agency awarded its first contract in 2009 after receiving $400 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  As of last summer, the agency had invested in 121 projects ranging from $400,000 to $9 million.

The agency goal is to “enhance the economic and energy security of the United States.”  Or, as Majumdar likes to say, he wants to create a “Sputnik moment” for the Obama Administration.

Majumdar will be a keynote speaker for the 2012 Public and Land Grant University Conference on Energy Challenges:  The Next 50 Years.  The conference will run from April 29-May 1 at the Blackwell Inn at The Ohio State University.  Majumdar is scheduled to speak at 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1.

Born in Calcutta and educated in Mumbai, the former Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of California, Berkeley, has been at the helm of ARPA-E since it was created.

The agency harvests the finest ideas of scientific America looking for revolutionary ways to produce energy.  The work of his agency can take a minimum of four years per project and lead to many dead ends before the investments of effort bear fruit.

Majumdar understands the challenges it takes to help create a world powered by sustainable energy. 

“When oil prices go up and gas prices go up, we hit the panic button, and when oil prices go down we hit the snooze button,” Majumdar says. “That really is not a long-term, sustainable way to run any nation.”