Featured Scholar: Peter J. Schubert, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology
Director, Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy
CEO, Green Fortress Engineering, Inc.
Research Video: https://youtu.be/JrCOGYmLmic
Peter Schubert translates his research into practical solutions for affordable and reliable energy from renewable sources. The university created the spin-up company Green Fortress Engineering (GFE) to commercialize his intellectual property on waste-to-energy, hydrogen storage, and in-space resource utilization. The biomass gasifier he invented has been funded by the USDA, the Department of Energy, and the Army, and has earned five US patents. Using locally-available low-cost materials such as crop waste, food waste, and utility trimmings, his technology can produce electricity, heat, biochar, and hydrogen gas. The gasifier is called the Stalk Stoker, and is suitable for farms, factories, and facilities which have free or nuisance materials available.
The bio-hydrogen can be stored in a novel solid-state storage media for which Schubert holds four US patents. The research has been funded by the DOE and the National Science Foundation. GFE has received further development funds from private industry, subcontracting the research components to IUPUI while developing commercial applications for fuel cell vehicles and long-duration aerial drones. This approach is eight times better than batteries, and could revolutionize how we generate, store, and transport energy.
Schubert’s most out-of-this-world technology is converting mineral resources from the moon and asteroids into solar power satellites. When placed in a geosynchronous orbit they can beam power to cities on earth around the clock. With abundant clean and inexhaustible power to urban centers, paired with local waste-to-energy in rural and remote locales, this is another practical example of how IUPUI's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
Selected Publications in IUPUI ScholarWorks
With over 25 scholarly articles contributed to IUPUI's free, open access repository, Dr. Schubert has made research knowledge about practical solutions for affordable and reliable energy from renewable sources available to researchers, students, and readers around the world.
Schubert, P. (2023). Solving all the world’s energy problems for once and forever. Energy Systems. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/34194
Schubert, P. J., Marrs, I., Daniel, E., Conaway, A., & Bhaskaran, A. (2021). Ultra-safe nuclear thermal rockets using lunar-derived fuel. Journal of Space Safety Engineering, 8(3), 185–192. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/29744
Kragt Finnell, A. J., Powell, S. H., Heng, P., & Schubert, P. J. (2019). Spacetenna Flatness and Error Correction. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), 48–53. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/23881
Kragt Finnell, A. J., & Schubert, P. J. (2019). Antenna Arrangement Verification for Low Sidelobe Levels. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), 54–58. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/23882
Vance, D., Razban, A., Schubert, P. J., & Weissbach, R. (2019). Developing a PV and Energy Storage Sizing Methodology for Off-Grid Transactive Microgrids. Proceedings of Applied Energy Symposium: MIT A+B. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/23811
Boaks, M., & Schubert, P. J. (2019). Kinetics of hydrogen storage on catalytically-modified porous silicon. Journal of Catalysis, 371, 81–87. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/21348
Schubert, P. J., Anderson, R. J., Somera, A. M., Proctor, P., Chin, Y. W., Bowyer, J., McIntyre, N. A., & Jackson, T. J. (2018). Lunar-sourced GEO Powersats: An Integrated ISRU System. In 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition (Vol. 1–0). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/19877
Schubert, P. J., & Sommer, J. (2018). Administrative Policy for Stochastic Democracy. In 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition (Vol. 1–0). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/19862
Schubert, P. J. (2018). Complete Hydrogen Storage System by ISRU. In 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition (Vol. 1–0). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/19878
Elkhatib, W., Zusack, S. A., Schubert, P. J., Schaffer, B., Akmayeva, E. V., Proctor, P. J., & Wiss, G. N. (2016). Problem-based multidisciplinary participation in aerospace design (Vol. 2016–June). Presented at the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/12210
Schubert, P. J. (2016). Doubly self-aligned DMOSFET in SiC for microgravity manufacture (pp. 317–319). Presented at the CS MANTECH 2016 - International Conference on Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/12059
Elkhatib, W. Y., Schubert, P. J., Zusack, S. A., Rosales, E. C., & Stanforth, A. C. (2015). Solar Panel Efficacy vs. Altitude in an Urban City Environment. 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. 26.1381.1-26.1381.14. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/9049
Schubert, P. J. (2015). Selection and Re-selection in Stochastic Democracy. In AIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition (Vol. 1–0). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/11337
Schubert, P. J., Monteiro Pinto, S., Pires, B. C., do Nascimento, M., Barks, E., Nderitu, J., Oliveira Goncalves, G., & Tokmo, F. (2015). Analysis of a Novel SPS Configuration Enabled by Lunar ISRU. In AIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition (Vol. 1–0). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/11336
Find more free articles by Peter Schubert in IUPUI ScholarWorks.