WASHINGTON — Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski announced that the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will receive $1 million in research funding from the Department of Energy. The funding comes through the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.

“The University of Illinois is playing a critical role in our transition to clean and renewable energy sources, ” said Congresswoman Budzinski.“Today, I’m excited to announce $1 million in federal funding that will help researchers at the University develop groundbreaking energy storage solutions made from domestic coal and coal waste. I look forward to seeing how research like this moves our state and country forward.” 

The federal funding will be used for a supercapacitor development program at the University of Illinois that aims to create high-value products from domestic coal and coal waste. The goal of the program is to provide low-cost, coal-based supercapacitor materials for energy storage and other industrial applications. The funds from the Department of Energy are a part of the Carbon Ore Processing Program that seeks to repurpose coal products as the country transitions to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy.