Fellow Highlight: Thomas Venarde

Meet Thomas Venarde

Thomas Venarde is a rising junior at Yale University, studying mechanical engineering. He is working at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown, West Virginia this summer to complete a project on a system model for e-methanol production using co-electrolysis of carbon captured carbon dioxide and water. Currently, the processes used to produce methanol – an important fuel type – are carbon-intensive. Thomas’ project aims to create a system model that can produce methanol in a carbon-neutral way. The larger goal of the project is to use this model to analyze how e-methanol can be produced most efficiently for industrial use and how a renewable energy-based grid could use an e-methanol plant.

Minimizing the environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuels and industrial processes aligns with Thomas’ ultimate career goals. He wants to make access to energy more widespread and support a  clean energy transition, which is what made him apply to the MLEF program. He has been interested in STEM since his third-grade science and math teacher introduced him to the subject (and introduced him to NASA), and he sees the STEM field as a professional path that has the most immediate effects on the world around him.

Thomas is excited to learn more about government research and gain experience in a National Lab. Outside of his academic pursuits, Thomas enjoys hiking, especially with his family in the Adirondack mountains. He even leads backpacking trips at his university for the First-Year Outdoor Orientation Trips (FOOT) program!

Research project: Analysis of an Integrated Energy System to Produce Carbon-neutral E-methanol