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Professor Dilpreet Bajwa is leading an MSU project to create cellulose nanocrystals from sugar beets to improve the efficiency of molten salts used to capture and store heat in industrial settings. concentrate the sun's rays to generate heat that can then spin electricity-generating turbines. ey also have a range of potential applications in other industries, including saltwater desalinization and oil production, according to Bajwa. "A lot of industry produces so much heat that's lost, so finding a low-cost way to store and reuse it could have a lot of benefits," he said. "What we've found is that if you add even a relatively small amount of cellulose nanocrystals to the salt, it improves the efficiency significantly, by almost a third," Bajwa said. e heat-storing salts also have a crystalline structure, which tends to break down over the course of heating and cooling cycles, reducing efficiency. It's thought that the nanocrystals may act like a scaffold that helps prevent that, Bajwa noted. "We think there's some kind of unique chemical bonding structure that's happening, but we don't know what it is. at's what we want to find out." e MSU team, which includes Daniel Blake, a first- year doctoral student in MSU's interdisciplinary materials science program, will start by analyzing how typical cellulose nanocrystals derived from wood interact with various solutions of the heat-storing salts. Collaborators at North Dakota State University will then measure how the nanocrystal-enhanced solutions perform. "It's exciting to be working on a project that has such a practical application and could have such a widespread impact," said Blake, who said the project aligns with his longtime interest in energy sustainability. In a second phase of the project, the tests will be repeated aer the MSU researchers explore methods for creating the cellulose nanocrystals from sugar beets. Typically, making the tiny particles involve subjecting woody material to intense heat and chemicals to break down the cell walls, but extracting sugar from sugar beets may preemptively aid that process, Bajwa said. e material is abundant. According to the USDA, in 2020, Montana ranked sixth in the nation for sugar beet production, with farmers producing 1.2 million tons of sugar beets valued at $42.5 million. "ere's a lot of mulchy pulp leover from sugar processing that right now has very lile value," Bajwa said. Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory will focus on a study of how nanocrystals improve the durability of salt over the course of heating cycles. Oak Ridge National Laboratory will compare the performance of the nanocrystal-enhanced salts to other methods of heat and energy storage. "We're optimistic that we can help solve one of the weaknesses of existing salt-based energy storage technologies," Bajwa said, "and also open the door for a high-value byproduct for the sugar beet industry." For more information contact: Dilpreet Bajwa, dilpreet.bajwa@montana.edu, 406-994-6783. MSU Photo by Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez 33 farm406

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