OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) uses the temperature difference between deep cold ocean water and warm tropical surface water to produce clean electricity on the oceans. 7 TW is environmentally sustainable. Using electrolysis plus Haber-Bosch to generate ammonia as the hydrogen energy carrier, it can provide 2.6 TW of dispatchable, storable, CO2-free electric power wherever needed on land. Recent climate modeling studies have shown that the upwelled cold water from this same level of OTEC, if retained at the surface, will also set off natural climate forces that will directly decrease the Earth’s Surface Atmospheric Temperature (SAT) by 1.08°C, equivalent to taking 2,261 Gt of CO2 out of the atmosphere. With the associated fossil-fuel replacement, this can mitigate global warming by 1.7°C. Adding some wind, wave, and solar power, global warming could be held to 1.5°C at fossil-fuel replacement levels close to the 2015 Paris INDC levels. The SAT reduction allows awarding of negative carbon fees, which could enable reductions in required capital and lower the levelized cost of energy to well below 100% WWS solutions. The overall concept rests on known technical ingredients and experience. However, the method for retaining the upwelled cold water at the surface needs further development, and the concept depends also on leveraging future advances in various methods for utilizing ammonia for clean energy. Being rich in nutrients, the upwelled cold water can also increase primary production for Marine Permaculture concepts, with the OTEC platforms providing required infrastructure. Cool it, Earth! (LLC) is a team of twelve world experts who stand ready to further examine and refine all of the elements into a next-generation design suitable (for example) for commercial implementation as huge CO2-free liquid fuels businesses. Full details on the current work are available at https://www.cool-it-earth.com/

For the past 49 years Dr. Miller has focused on technical challenges involving materials and structures; for the last 32 years on fiber composites; and for the past 9 years on mitigating global warming. See the separate descriptions of specific projects and accomplishments under Cool-it, Earth!, N12 Technologies, Volute, Inc., Specialized Bicycles, Lockheed Martin Corp, Stanford University, and Pratt & Whitney

Helping to further develop and implement N12's unique NanoStitch® product, which strengthens carbon fiber composite laminates against interlaminar failure

Technical support on various aspects of Volute's fiber composite conformable natural gas tanks

Development of improved manufacturing processes and materials for composite components of Specialized's high-performance bicycle products

Major work at Lockheed Martin focussed on improved methods for fabrication of polymer-matrix fiber composite structures. Technologies included vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) of thermosets, in-situ consolidation of thermoplastics, and rapid preliminary design optimization in fiber composites. He was co-investigator on Lockheed’s fiber composite highway bridges and bridge decks, which went into production as “Duraspan” decks made by Martin Marietta Composites. He led the Sunnyvale effort on compliant adhesives to enable carbon composite face sheets to be used in metallic heat pipe panels for several deployed satellites. He was the Principal Investigator for work exploiting VARTM for aerospace applications including complex missile structures, integral Deep Space antennas, and Large Composite Tooling. During the years 2003-2007 he led the materials selection and qualification work for one section of a major Special Program, and contributed to the solution of a number of very challenging problems. During the six years 2008 through 2013 he was the Technical Lead of the Cold Water Pipe (CWP) development for LM’s Maritime Systems and Training Co. New Ventures LOB developing Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) as a major contribution to the world’s alternative energy needs. He was the Principal Investigator for the 2009-10 US Dept of Energy sponsored program developing the Advanced Composite CWP. During this time period, major elements of the innovative design and fabrication process were validated at a 4m CWP scale. Publications describing this work are available on the OTEC News website at http://www.otecnews.org/2012/07/advanced-composite-cold-water-pipe/

At Stanford as a Research Professor for 15 years, he originated the “MATMOD” unified constitutive equations for creep and plasticity of metals and alloys, which contributed considerably to that field, as well as other topics involving both metals and composites. He served as the principal dissertation supervisor for 17 completed Ph.D. students, authored or co-authored 100 publications, and brought in a large quantity of externally-sponsored research funds.

Projection of the properties of advanced materials into the future and conceptual design of new gas turbine engines around those projected properties. Other problems in gas turbine engine structures and materials.