Called Electrified Processes for Industry Without Carbon, or EPIXC, the institute will join the Energy Department’s six other Manufacturing USA institutes. It comes with US$70 million in funding. 

In a statement, ASU said EPIXC will support expanded use of clean electricity for industrial process heating in ironmaking and steelmaking as well as in production of chemicals, petroleum, food and beverages, forest products, and cement. It will operate as a public-private partnership and conduct research, as well as develop, demonstrate and deploy technologies. 

“The industrial sector accounts for more than 30% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, and fossil fuel-driven process heating — from pasteurizing milk to melting steel — is the most significant contributor to those emissions,” said Sridhar Seetharaman, vice dean for research and innovation at ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and EPIXC director. 

Alongside ASU’s leadership of EPIXC, key partners include the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Tuskegee University, North Carolina State University, Navajo Technical University, Idaho National Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

“This strong array of academic, community and industry partners will propel the EPIXC team to groundbreaking impact via scientific and technological leadership, workforce development and just energy transition,” said Sally C. Morton, executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise at ASU. “These objectives fit squarely within the responsibility and mandate of the New American University, and ASU is honored to lead this Manufacturing USA institute for the nation.”