blog navigation

Sustainable Technology Center

blog posts

  • ISTC program marks big savings for Illinois wastewater treatment plants

    Jul 12, 2021 2:15 pm

    Illinois municipalities hoping to save money on energy costs for wastewater treatment turn to the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Technical Assistance Program (TAP) for advice. The Wastewater Treatment Plant Energy Assistance Program started in 2018 with funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Partnering with the University of Illinois’ Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC), the TAP team visits publicly owned wastewater treatment plants across the state and drafts no-cost assessments with specific recommendations on how to lower energy costs.

  • Aerial view of the Kaskaskia River

    Understanding water’s role in decarbonization

    Jul 27, 2021 4:45 pm

    ISTC researchers needed to find adequate and reliable water sources to keep a carbon capture system running without compromising fragile aquatic ecosystems, local economies, and nearby communities’ water supply. Fortunately, ISTC knew the right expertise was close at hand in another unit within its parent Prairie Research Institute – The Water Survey’s Watershed Science team.

  • Kevin OBrien, Stephanie Brownstein, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, Susan Martinis, and Jeff Stein stand outside Abbott Power Plant

    U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm tours PRI carbon management projects

    Dec 10, 2021 8:30 am

    On Dec. 9, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm toured several U of I sustainable energy projects, including PRI’s carbon capture efforts at Abbott Power Plant. During the visit she also heard about PRI's extensive work in carbon sequestration.

  • Direct air capture system

    PRI tapped to lead feasibility studies for three regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) hubs

    Oct 5, 2023 8:00 am

    This once-in-a-generation investment in infrastructure will support efforts to build a clean and equitable energy economy that achieves a zero-carbon energy system by 2035 and to put the United States on a path to strengthen energy prosperity and achieve net-zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050. 

    PRI is specifically tasked with executing feasibility and pre-feasibility studies of potential DAC Hub locations, ownership structures, business models, CO2 storage/utilization option(s), and technology partner(s) outlined in the following stage 1 of potential multi-stage projects in Illlinois, Colorado, and Florida.

  • ISTC scientist is set to develop technology addressing water contaminated with PFAS

    Feb 6, 2023 8:45 am

    Man-made per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals,” withstand many treatment options and bioaccumulate in the environment, posing serious environmental and health concerns. With a three-year, nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), Illinois Sustainable Technology Center  (SERDP), Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) scientists are developing a new technology to remove and destroy PFAS from contaminated water using a designer biochar produced from woody biomass or agricultural residues such as corn stalks and cobs.

  • Microplastics on the move: research projects detect microplastics in water and on land

    Mar 14, 2022 8:00 am

    At the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), researcher John Scott is studying microplastics in landfills, rural streams, and city drinking water to further understand where they are coming from and how they move in the environment.

  • wastewater treatment plant

    Study tracks emerging contaminants from landfill to treatment plant to application

    Feb 6, 2024 9:30 am

    In a recent study published in an Illinois Sustainable Technology Center report, John Scott, analytical chemist at ISTC in the University of Illinois, studied the fate of microplastics and PFAS as they moved from landfill leachate, or water that filters though the mound of trash, to wastewater treatment plants and beyond. 

  • Doug Brown, CWLP, Chief Engineer 2. State Senator Sally Turner 3. State Senator Doris Turner 4. Alderman Ralph Hanauer 5. President Timothy Killeen, U of I 6. Mayor Jim Langfelder of Springfield 7. Lynn Brickett, DOE HQ, Point Source Carbon Capture Director 8. Dr. Praveen Kumar, U of I, Prairie Research Institute, Executive Director 9. Todd Spengeman, BASF, Director of Standard Amines & Gas Treatment 10. Susan Martinis 11. Domonic Cianchetti, Linde (engineering for capture system), Senior Vice President 12. Dr. Kevin OBrien, Director Illinois Sustainable Technology Center & Illinois State Water Survey (Principal Investigator), U of I

    Prairie Research Institute breaks ground for carbon capture pilot at CWLP

    Dec 19, 2022 8:00 am

    Officials from the University of Illinois, the City of Springfield, the State of Illinois, and the U.S. Department of Energy for a groundbreaking ceremony for a 10-megawatt carbon capture project at City, Water, Light, and Power’s (CWLP) in Springfield, Ill. The post-combustion carbon capture system is recognized as one of the world’s largest carbon capture pilots.

  • part of the biphasic solvent system

    Technology to absorb CO₂ at power plants is promising

    Apr 22, 2022 9:00 am

    Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) researchers have given the thumbs up to an innovative biphasic solvent system for its efficiency and effectiveness in absorbing CO₂ from flue gas in a coal-fired power plant at the University of Illinois (U of I).

  • ISTC engineer Stephanie Brownstein gestures toward carbon capture equipment at Abbott Power Plant while speaking to visitors from the Department of Energy and Doosan Corporation

    ISTC leads extensive portfolio of carbon capture projects

    Jul 8, 2022 1:00 pm

    Visitors from the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) recently toured multiple carbon capture projects led by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC).

    Because the unique geology of Illinois provides extensive potential to store carbon dioxide deep underground, the state is also an ideal location to develop, demonstrate, and deploy technologies to capture CO2 from point sources, remove CO2 from the ambient air, and beneficially use CO2. ISTC scientists and engineers are leaders in this research, conducting a number of carbon capture, removal, and use projects backed by funding from the Department of Energy.

  • bicyclists in wooded area

    New plan links north Chicago communities with walking and biking trail

    Jan 4, 2021 9:45 am

    A multi-institution team has released a plan to build a 109-mile walking and biking trail connecting five communities along the lakeshore in northern Illinois to promote safer, healthier, and friendlier neighborhoods and allow better access to Lake Michigan beaches and parks.

  • power lines

    Three new DOE-funded PRI projects set to design energy storage systems for power plants

    May 7, 2021 10:15 am

    It is challenging to integrate renewable resources into the distribution grid of fossil-fueled power plants when energy is most needed. The results are often intermittent and unpredictable, which makes it difficult to match energy demand with supply.

    In three new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded projects, scientists in the Prairie Research Institute will design systems and explore the feasibility of combining the use of renewable and fossil energy sources to ensure both short and long-term reliability in electric power delivery.

  • DOE funds new technologies in plastic recycling

    Jan 25, 2021 2:30 pm

    The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) is part of a national team to develop artificial intelligence technologies to sort non-recyclable plastics so they can be reused for fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the team $2.5 million to complete the three-year project.

  • direct air capture technology from Carbon Capture

    PRI to lead direct air capture FEED study at U. S. Steel’s Gary Works

    Jun 22, 2022 10:00 am

    The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory has selected the Prairie Research Institute to lead a front-end engineering design study of a carbon dioxide direct air capture and utilization system. By using waste heat and energy from U. S. Steel’s Gary Works in Gary, Indiana, the project's energy and transportation costs can be minimized. 

  • Direct air capture system

    PRI selected to lead feasibility studies for three Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs

    Aug 15, 2023 8:00 am

    PRI was selected to lead an effort to promote promising technologies that can capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it underground at three different sites in Illinois, Colorado, and Florida. Read the full announcement from the Department of Energy (DOE) here.

  • PPE mask

    ‘Plastics don’t ever go away’—ISTC scientist John Scott studies impact of microplastics

    Feb 16, 2021 3:45 pm

    Plastic products permeate our environment and over time they break down. The microscopic size of particles, how long they last, and what is associated with them raise health concerns. Although the health effects are still largely uncertain, recent research at the Illinois Sustainability Technology Center (ISTC) has provided some insight into what happens to plastics once they’re used and thrown away.

  • Algae cultivation plant

    New project uses flue gas and wastewater to make algae

    Dec 6, 2021 3:30 pm

    A three-year, $2.5 million Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) engineering-scale project will be one of the first and largest to combine carbon dioxide (CO2) from a coal-fired power plant with nutrients from wastewater treatment plants to cultivate algae for animal feeds. 

  • smokestack

    DOE awards $47 million to PRI and collaborators for carbon capture project

    May 10, 2021 3:45 pm

    The team will build and operate a 10 MWe slipstream of the Linde/BASF post-combustion carbon capture technology at City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) in Springfield, Illinois. The successful construction and operation of this plant will provide a means to demonstrate an economically attractive and transformational capture technology. 

  • ISTC and ISWS Director Kevin OBrien with University of Illinois System President Timothy Killeen at City, Water, Light, and Power in Springfield, Illinois.

    Carbon capture collaborations lead clean energy drive

    Jun 30, 2020 8:00 am

    The Prairie Research Institute — is leading a drive to implement CO2 removal strategies, an essential step to a clean-energy future. 

  • man at injection well site

    ISGS combines innovation and expertise in carbon storage

    Nov 3, 2020 8:00 am

    For almost 20 years, PRI’s geologists and engineers have been developing methods for the safe capture, storage, and utilization of CO2 from power plants and industrial operations. This has been in response to federal and state laws requiring reductions in CO2 emissions, as this byproduct of power generation has a direct link to atmospheric greenhouse gasses and climate change. 

  • two men stand beneath a direct air capture installation in Iceland

    ISTC-led team to design large-scale system for direct air capture and storage of carbon dioxide in the U.S.

    Oct 20, 2021 8:00 am

    The U.S. Department of Energy has partnered with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center in a nearly $2.5 million project to develop preliminary designs and determine feasibility for the first commercial-scale direct air capture and storage system for carbon dioxide removal in the United States.

  • rendering of the proposed innovative power plant

    DOE awards $25 million to PRI for design of innovative power plant

    Nov 11, 2020 12:45 pm

    The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $25 million to a three-year project led by the Prairie Research Institute that will design a next-generation power plant in Springfield, Illinois. The innovative plant design combines multiple techniques to both reduce emissions and capture and re-use carbon dioxide.