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UD awarded $1.6 million for catalysis research
1:35 p.m., July 11, 2006--The University of Delaware is leading a research project to refine the design of catalysts while at the same time developing new technologies that could lead to the development of alternative fuels, the improvement of fuel cells and a decrease in pollutants. The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced fresh funding of $1.6 million over the next three years for the UD-led catalysis science initiative, according to Mark A. Barteau, UD's Robert L. Pigford Chair of Chemical Engineering and chairperson of the Department of Chemical Engineering. The funding follows an initial 2003 grant of $1.1 million. Barteau is the principal investigator for the project, which includes five colleagues from UD, two researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and another at the University of Texas at Austin. An additional $900,000 will be provided for the latter two institutions. Other UD researchers involved in the project are Douglas J. Buttrey, Jingguang G. Chen, Jochen A. Lauterbach, Raul F. Lobo and Dionisios G. Vlachos, all professors of chemical engineering. University of Wisconsin researchers are James A. Dumesic and Manos Mavrikakis, and the University of Texas researcher is Richard M. Crooks. Catalysts are materials that change the speed or yield of chemical reactions and are used in a wide range of industrial processes, as well as in catalytic converters used as pollution control devices on vehicles. Many of the emerging transportation technologies, including hydrogen fuel cells, involve catalysis. Barteau said that, historically, catalysts have been developed through trial and error. “Catalysis by design has been a dream for decades,” he said. “To specify the composition and structure of matter to effect a desired catalytic transformation with predicted rate and selectivity remains a significant challenge. However, today, the field has reached the point where we can actually begin doing this. The tools are in place.” Barteau said the development of an approach to using new methods for the design of catalysts is as important as any technology that might come out of the project in the near term. “Clearly there are problems that need to be solved and if we can figure out a way to do it that is an improvement on the 'one-off' method, the field will be better for it,” he said. Barteau said the team is working to enhance selectivity by design through the integration of four critical components: theory and modeling; surface science; materials synthesis, characterization and scale-up; and catalyst and reactor dynamics and optimization. “Over the past three years, the partners in this program at the University of Delaware, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas have built up considerable strength in each of these areas, with the result that new catalysts have been forthcoming in areas beyond our original targets,” Barteau said. Technologies being developed by the research team include ways to make alternative fuels and chemicals from biomass, or plant material or vegetation that can be used as a fuel or energy source; new catalysts for fuel cells that are more efficient and less costly than current materials; and the reduction of nitrogen oxides, primarily in diesel engines. The research team is focusing on bimetallics, studying various combinations of metals to tune catalytic properties, Barteau said. “In less than three years this research has already produced a number of new and improved catalysts,” Barteau said, “and, of equal importance, it has created significant intellectual infrastructure for future advances in catalyst design. Enabling the solution of tomorrow's problems will ultimately be even more important than solving today's.” Article by Neil Thomas |
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