(215a) Reflections on 40 Years in Chemical Reaction Engineering

Along with personal reflections from a career focused on chemical reaction engineering, this presentation will provide an overview and highlights from our research in hydrothermal kinetics, catalysis, and reaction engineering. Examples will include detailed chemical kinetic modeling and computational quantum chemistry for the reactions of C₁ compounds in supercritical water along with chemical synthesis in hot, compressed water. Catalytic systems will include hydrothermal gasification of biomass and model systems to produce renewable fuel gases and hydrothermal catalytic cracking and deoxygenation of bio-crude model compounds (e.g., fatty acids, phenolics, pyridine) to make renewable hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals. Systems focusing on conversion of complex feedstocks include valorization of whole wet biomass (e.g., microalgae, sludge, food waste) to biochar or liquid fuels and hydrothermal chemical recycling of post-consumer plastics. In all cases, we focus on the reaction products, pathways, and kinetics for these complex reacting systems.