U.S. Advanced Coal Technology Consortium

U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center

The US-CEC at WVU and WVU's National Research Center for Coal and Energy created a team of U.S. universities, national laboratories, and energy companies who competed for the opportunity to conduct the U.S. China Clean Energy Research Center Advanced Coal program of the U.S. Department of Energy.

That team - the US Advanced Coal Technology Consortium - was selected to conduct the U.S. portion of the world's leading, bi-lateral energy research agreement formally known as the U.S.-China Protocol for Cooperation on Clean Energy Research Center.

The US ACTC is a featured program of WVU's Advanced Energy Initiative .

The Team

Among the U.S. members are:

US ACTC Director Jerald Fletcher, seated left, and China ACTC Director Zheng Chuguang, seated right, sign the US-China ACTC Technology Management Plan as witnessed by US DOE Clean Energy Research Center Director Robert Marley, seated center, WVU Vice President for Research Curt Peterson, left, and HUST Professor Tianhua Wu, right.

The Research

The US ACTC will be joining their colleagues in the China ACTC to:

• Evaluate geologic storage sites in the U.S. and China
• Develop computer models to understand how carbon dioxide behaves underground
• Assess the risk of storing carbon dioxide underground
• Invent technologies to capture carbon dioxide
• Create computer models to examine how industrial processes can be modified to incorporate carbon capture technologies
• Examine how coal can be used to generate electricity and useful chemicals at the same time
• Develop processes that treat carbon dioxide as a raw material for useful products, instead of a waste material that needs to be stored

Intellectual Property

In August 2011, the US and China consortia signed the Technology Management Plan that includes a groundbreaking agreement for handling intellectual property.

Participants will enter traditional commercial contracts to set the terms and to allocate their rights to, and royalties from, any intellectual property that they create, subject to certain terms required by the respective governments.

Under certain circumstances inventors must negotiate licenses to ensure both countries benefit from their inventions. The inventing entity can set the terms of the license; for example, they can limit the use of the invention or receive royalties, but they are required to negotiate a license in good faith.

The plan also ensures that CERC participants in such negotiations will get a more favorable deal than those not involved in CERC. These license requirements ensure both countries benefit from all CERC innovations, the key goal for the CERC.