(2q) Development of Multi-Functional Materials for a Defossilized Carbon Economy

CO₂ recycling (i.e. capture and utilization, CCU) is necessary in order to reduce carbon emissions as well as to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere to reduce the negative effects of climate change. CO₂ conversion also couples well with the growing renewable energy industry by providing a means of chemical storage to combat intermittency of renewables, a pathway commonly dubbed “power-to-X”. However, CCU technologies require large amounts of energy for purification, compression, and transportation of CO₂ after capture for conversion at a remote facility. To this end, multi-functional materials that allow capture and conversion to occur in a single reactor (or a series of connected reactors) have been more recently investigated, dubbed “reactive carbon capture (RCC)”.

My research thus far has focused on one such technology platform: dual function materials (DFM). These materials are composed of sorbents and catalysts co-dispersed on the same high surface area carrier (Figure 1), allowing selective capture of CO₂ from a gas stream and subsequent in-situ conversion of the adsorbed CO₂ upon introduction of a reactive gas (typically H₂).

Though most studied DFMs have shown remarkable stability in a number of realistic conditions and the target product of renewable methane is an excellent transition fuel, fossil methane is inexpensive and the economics of renewable methane utilization are noncompetitive. This necessitates the design and investigation of next-generation DFMs that enable CO₂ capture and catalytic conversion to more valuable and more useful C1 products like CO or methanol. Using well-studied Fischer-Tropsch or MeOH-to-olefin processes, these products can be upgraded to high energy density synthetic fuels, and related carbonaceous products, for more sustainable alternatives in industries that are difficult to decarbonize, like heavy-duty vehicles and aviation. Furthermore, novel methods of integrating renewable energy into RCC schemes are also of future interest to further improve the “carbon balance” of these technologies as well as deeper defossilization.

Objective: The main goal for my research is the development of efficient CCU processes that enable defossilization of hard-to-decarbonize chemical and fuel sectors. By coupling applied and fundamental approaches, my lab will design multi-functional materials that can upgrade captured CO₂ to high value carbonaceous products. Initially, there will be three main objectives: (1) Design of materials that allow for cyclic capture and thermocatalytic conversion to targeted C1 precursors such as methanol, syngas, and methane. (2) Reactor studies to establish feasibility of cyclic operation and materials’ stability in the presence of realistic adsorption feeds. (3) In-situ and operando spectroscopic characterization for fundamental understanding of capture and reaction mechanisms as well as changes in surface structure and composition. These objectives will subsequently provide baselines for future research to integrate further process intensification (i.e., use of tandem catalysis for methanol upgrading to olefins) and renewable energy utilization (i.e., plasma and induction catalysis).

Teaching Interests:

Teaching is the primary reason for my pursuit of an academic career. I believe in teaching engineering fundamentals in an applicable way that prepares students for situations beyond their academic career. My instruction promotes community learning and contextualization, which train students to work collaboratively and to foster an understanding of the broader implications of their work. A major learning outcome of my courses is effective science communication, which is a skill required in the cooperative and public-reaching settings chemical/environmental engineers occupy in both industry and research environments. During my Ph.D. I was a teaching assistant in several classes, which included grading and designing homework assignments and exams, giving technical lectures and holding problem-solving session, and holding office hours. Most recently, I co-instructed a project-based design course for chemical and environmental engineering undergraduates, titled “Sustainable Cities”. Students participated in a 6-week project to redesign a portion of a city based on design prompts taken from the C40 network “Students Reinventing Cities” design challenge.

I am comfortable and willing to teach any undergraduate chemical engineering course, but am particularly interested in teaching foundational undergraduate courses such as mass and energy balances and kinetics/reaction engineering as well as more advanced graduate kinetics and catalysis courses. I also value more hands-on and applied courses such as unit operations lab or senior design. Beyond the established curriculum, I am interested in designing elective courses in industrial and environmental heterogeneous catalysis, CO₂ management, and alternative energy systems.

Beyond practical teaching, I have been engaged in active pedagogical conversations such as reevaluating grading, addressing academic integrity (especially in the context of online learning), and fostering inclusive and diverse classrooms the last couple of years in my Ph.D. career. I look forward to continuing these discussions at my future institution and putting what I will continue to learn into practice so as to graduate engineers that can work collaboratively, remain self-aware, and effectively communicate their efforts in designing a better world.