University and national labs partnerships

In October 2014, ExxonMobil became a founding member of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), a unique collaboration aimed at working together to advance and explore the future of energy focused on new energy sources and more efficient use of conventional energy resources; the 5-year agreement was renewed in October, 2019 at the founding member level. Since launching the collaboration with MIT, the joint research program has made inroads into several areas, including bio-inspired catalysts for the petrochemical industry and computational modeling to better understand the properties of iron and iron-based alloys used in pipelines.

ExxonMobil has also joined three of the MITEI Low Carbon Energy Centers – Energy Storage, Mobility, and the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Center – first called for in MIT’s Plan for Action on Climate Change in October 2015. The CCUS Center was established to advance research on specific, key technologies to address climate change such as electric power systems, energy bioscience, energy storage, materials for energy and extreme environments, advanced nuclear energy systems, nuclear fusion and solar energy, in addition to CCUS. ExxonMobil also funds several MIT students as ExxonMobil Fellows each year through the Energy Initiative, as well as multiple summer undergraduate research projects.

In July 2016, ExxonMobil announced a $15 million investment as a Leadership member of the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute to pursue technologies to help meet growing energy demand while reducing environmental impacts and the risk of climate change. Since then, the joint research initiative has studied transformational energy innovations, including integrating renewable energy sources into the current supply mix and advancing traditional energy sources in ways that improve efficiency and reduce impacts on water, air and climate. To date the partnership has enabled more than 40 projects, covering a range of critical technology areas, including carbon capture and storage, novel battery technologies, beneficial reuse of water, and future energy infrastructure needs. Impactful energy solutions require integrated, multi-disciplinary efforts. Therefore, this partnership takes advantage of the university’s strengths in law, business, and public policy, as well as its technical expertise to advance solutions to the dual energy challenge.

ExxonMobil’s relationship with Georgia Tech goes back nearly 15 years and has produced innovations in many separation technologies, including a new carbon-based molecular sieve membrane that could dramatically reduce the energy required to separate a class of hydrocarbon molecules known as alkyl aromatics.

Most recently – inspired by previous research surrounding reverse osmosis technology that has reduced energy intensity for water purification – Scientists from ExxonMobil, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Imperial College of London have published joint research on potential breakthroughs in a new membrane technology that could reduce emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory tests indicate the patent-pending membrane could be used to augment some heat-intensive distillation at refineries in the years ahead.

ExxonMobil is a founding member of the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), at Stanford University, which developed fundamental, game-changing scientific breakthroughs that could lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions and a less carbon-intensive global energy system. The GCEP was completed in 2019, sponsored 100 research programs in the United States, Europe, Australia, China and Japan, and backed the development of more than 60 technologies and the issuance of more than 15 patents.

Building upon the success from this collaboration, in 2018, ExxonMobil pledged $20 million over five years to the Stanford Strategic Energy Alliance (SEA), with new programs starting in 2019. A diverse span of research programs is currently underway on topics such as large scale carbon storage, electrical energy storage with flow batteries, efficient hydrogen production, computer science / machine learning, high efficiency / low carbon intensity natural gas engine combustion fundamentals, lifecycle studies of polymer composites for new building materials, and a new program to explore the stability and efficiency limits of perovskite-based solar materials.

In addition, ExxonMobil funds three Stanford Industrial Affiliates programs as a part of the SEA agreement: the Natural Gas Initiative, the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage, and Storage-X, and has participated in the highly prominent Global Energy Forums.

In 2018, ExxonMobil became the founding member of the Singapore Energy Center (SgEC), a collaboration between two of Singapore’s leading universities: the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). The SgEC, the first of its kind outside of the United States, fosters interdisciplinary research collaboration between academia and industry with a focus on energy innovation and lower emissions technologies relevant for Southeast Asia.

Researchers at the Singapore Energy Center are developing novel processes and materials that could help reduce CO2 emissions from power and industrial sources. This includes technologies that enhance the efficiency of fuel and chemical production, increase options for low carbon hydrogen and sustainable polymers, and enable regional CO2 capture and sequestration options.

ExxonMobil is funding a broad portfolio of biofuels research programs including our ongoing efforts on algae as well as programs on converting alternative, non-food based biomass feedstocks, such as cellulosic biomass, to advanced biofuels. We are working with some of these leading scientists and engineers at universities, government laboratories and companies and have designed our research portfolio to progress the science that we feel will be needed to deliver advanced biofuels with environmental benefits.