‘I am a UK Innovator’: Center for Applied Energy Research Director Rodney Andrews

At the University of Kentucky, turning laboratory discoveries into real-world solutions is a core mission. Few campus leaders embody this bench-to-market ethos more effectively than Rodney Andrews, Ph.D., a professor of chemical engineering and mechanical engineering in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, senior associate vice president for research administration and central services in the Office of the Vice President for Research and director of the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER). 

Through a strategic partnership with UK Innovate — the university’s technology transfer and commercialization arm within the Office of the Vice President for Research — researchers like Andrews translate carbon materials science into patented intellectual property that powers heavy industry and clean energy manufacturing. 

“The uniqueness of how we operate is in the name — the work is applied,” Andrews said. “We do work to translate things from bench to actually delivering it to industry.” 

Andrews’ research focuses on converting fossil energy resources and organic waste streams into advanced carbon materials, including synthetic graphite, carbon fiber and carbon nanomaterials. CAER houses pilot facilities capable of producing large quantities of these materials and prototyping products from them, making UK almost unique among North American universities.  

Lighter and stronger than steel, carbon fiber is widely used in automotive manufacturing, helicopter structures and heavy-lift aircraft. Roughly 90% of the graphite used in electric vehicle batteries is currently imported. Under Andrews’ leadership, CAER researchers are pioneering processes to transform regional coal into battery-grade graphite and structural carbon fibers, creating a domestic supply chain while supporting Kentucky workers. 

“A lot of the focus that we have is in converting our existing resources, such as coal, into these materials,” Andrews said. “We’re looking at ways that Kentucky can transfer the skill set that our workers have in producing and using coal into these materials.” 

Working alongside UK Innovate, Andrews has secured multiple patents that showcase the commercial power and economic development potential of UK discoveries.  

Beyond fossil energy, Andrews’ team expanded into circular economy solutions, including upcycling agricultural and industrial byproducts. Kentucky produces 95% of the world’s bourbon supply, but rapid output growth creates vast amounts of spent grain, or stillage. Andrews and his colleagues demonstrated a method to convert bourbon stillage into hard and activated carbons for single-source hybrid lithium-ion batteries. 

“Kentucky’s very fortunate in that we have a large fossil energy resource base,” Andrews said. “We’re looking at ways that we can use coal as a valuable resource into making these materials rather than importing them.”