LAWRENCE — A Kansas University chemical and petroleum engineering professor is the head of an academic research team that received a $2 million grant to improve batteries to store solar and wind energy. Trung Van Nguyen is leading the research project, along with four professors from other universities. Without good storage batteries, excess solar and wind energy is wasted, he said. The team is working on “flow batteries,” a technology that was developed after the 1970s gasoline crisis but dropped when oil and gas prices dropped during the 1980s, he said. Flow batteries could store much more energy without increasing the size of the batteries, he said.
Monday, Aug. 16, 1 p.m.
