UC Irvine launches Engineering+ Sustainability Institute to focus on critical materials

Irvine, Calif., March 5, 2026 - A new Engineering+ Sustainability Institute in the Samueli School of Engineering will focus on the sustainable processing of critical materials and seek to reinvent the materials supply chain, closing the loop between sourcing, production, utilization and recycling.

Securing reliable access to energy, food and shelter is a national priority central to economic prosperity and security. Achieving this stability requires a commitment to sustainability and decarbonization. However, the technologies enabling a low-carbon future depend on fragile and geopolitically exposed supply chains for critical and near-critical materials. These vulnerabilities extend beyond clean-energy systems to foundational sectors such as ammonia production, which are essential for fertilizers and hydrogen carriers, and cement manufacturing, which are fundamental to shelter and infrastructure. Both are under growing pressure to decarbonize while ensuring material security.

"The new institute brings together two areas of excellence on campus - material processing and metallurgy, and electrochemistry," Interim Dean Faryar Jabarri said. The seed funding for the new institute is $2.5 million over five years, at $500,000 per year, and is part of a $50 million gift from Henry and Susan Samueli for three Engineering+ institutes, including Engineering+ Health and Engineering+ Society.

Co-directors Iryna Zenyuk and Diran Apelian will lead the institute. Zenyuk is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and the director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center. She is a global leader in electrochemical technologies. Apelian is Distinguished Professor of material science and engineering, and a world-leading metallurgist. He is the director of the Advanced Casting Research Center and the Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence. Both Zenyuk and Apelian have worked extensively with industry from discovery to commercialization.

The institute will focus on three areas: critical materials (rare earths and near-critical materials), food security (sustainable ammonia) and sustainable shelter (cement and infrastructure materials). The work of the institute will be structured around two efforts: extraction, recovery and reuse of critical/near-critical materials; and reduction of process-based emissions from manufacturing of commodity materials such as ammonia and cement.

"We envision opportunities to innovate extractive chemistry vectors for waste valorization, layered with electrochemistry as well as novel alternatives for ore metallization and purification," said Apelian. "In brief, we will create value from waste streams through recovery and purification technologies."

Rare Earth elements

The work on rare earth elements will aim to secure a domestic supply chain by promoting the development of low-energy extraction processes to recover these elements from secondary waste streams. The goal is to develop technology for the extraction, separation, metallization and refining of these minerals.

Critical and near-critical elements like lithium, nickel and copper are vital for batteries, electric grid evolution, future nuclear reactors and ammonia production. These materials face the same supply challenges as REEs, with demand for some projected to grow fivefold in the next decade. As current methods struggle with efficient separation from dilute sources, the institute will develop novel material separation techniques, such as electrochemical separation and concentration methods.

Ammonia synthesis

Ammonia is indispensable for global food security, yet the process of ammonia synthesis is dominated a high-temperature, high-pressure method heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The institute will further develop and scale-up current efforts in producing low-pressure/low-temperature "green" ammonia.

Infrastructure material and cement

In infrastructure materials and cement, the institute will work on engineering innovations in each stage of processing. These include replacing conventional mining with electrochemical recycling of existing materials, advancing low-carbon cement production, developing robotics-enabled 3D printing and modular assembly for efficient construction, and extending infrastructure life through climate-responsive and self-healing materials. It will also extend end-of-life through electrochemical reclamation of recycled concrete - a vastly available material currently with limited reuse pathways and immense disposal burden.

Zenyuk and Mo Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering, have developed technologies to help decarbonize the cement industry, which has attracted the interest of global cement manufacturing companies.

Zenyuk and Apelian have gathered a strong team to address the sustainability challenge, these include senior UC Irvine faculty Plamen Atanassov, Vojislav Stamenkovic, Lorenzo Valdevit, Dele Ogunseitan, Li and industrial liaison Sahag Voskian. Critical partners have been identified to carry out the various missions of the institute, and the institute's leadership is committed to establishing a sustainable business model.

"This institute brings together UC Irvine's expertise in materials processing and electrochemistry to address sustainability challenges of national importance," said Zenyuk. "By focusing on rare earth elements, ammonia and cement, we are targeting problems where UC Irvine can lead and where advances can translate into scalable, federally supported solutions."

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation's top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus studio with a Comrex IP audio codec to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at https://news.uci.edu/media-resources.