Professor Datta's work spans decades of applying the principles of kinetics, catalysis, and reaction engineering to energy challenges. He says while the long-term solution is renewable energy, much can be accomplished in the coming decades simply by improving energy efficiency. Fuel cells and hydrogen represent some of the most promising clean energy technology in this regard. He has also pursued renewable fuels, including ethanol and ethanol-derived ethers, for blending with gasoline and has developed novel catalysts and approaches to investigate kinetics of reaction networks.