NSF Award
2431966
Catalysis is a key technology that enables the production of fuels and chemicals from carbon-containing resources such as petroleum, biomass, or waste polymers. In an ideal scenario, a catalyst has an infinite lifetime: it assists a chemical transformation while remaining unaltered itself. However, the real-world conditions in industrial processes lead to catalyst deactivation, often by deposits on the surface of the catalyst. As a result, the processes become less efficient, and catalysts need to be regenerated or replaced, all of which adds to energy consumption, waste generation, and cost. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (US), the L.V. Pisarzhevsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv (Ukraine), and the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics in Tallinn (Estonia) combine their expertise and devise new approaches to catalyst regeneration that will prolong the service life of catalysts. <br/><br/>The objective of the project is to test the concept of a “companion catalyst” that will be integrated into a reactor and make the regeneration process itself catalytic. It is hypothesized that catalytic regeneration is milder and more efficient than non-catalytic regeneration. Three target reactions with a variety of reactants (hydrocarbon or oxygenate) and a range of operating temperatures will be explored to generate deposits of different composition. Companion catalysts will be designed to oxidize or hydrogenate the deposits to volatile compounds. To avoid interference of a companion catalyst with the target catalyst, it will have low intrinsic reactivity, be passivated, or be inaccessible to the reactants. Experiments will be conducted to assess the role of transport of the activated regenerant across the surface or grains. The group in Kyiv will synthesize and characterize catalysts; the group in Tallinn will apply NMR to characterize catalysts and carbon-containing deposits; and the group in Amherst will deactivate catalysts and monitor their regeneration by operando spectroscopy and thermal analysis. The concept of a companion catalyst, if proven to be viable, has potential for the many processes in which deactivation is caused by deposits. The project will provide basic and advanced training in catalysis and kinetics, cutting-edge methods of materials synthesis and characterization, and in situ and operando techniques for all participants, including students in all three locations. Efforts to enhance the participation of underrepresented groups will be made when recruiting students and through contributions to the UMass College of Engineering RISE program. The results of this project will be widely disseminated, within the scientific community through publication in peer-reviewed international journals or presentation at conferences, and to a broader audience via news items on institutional webpages.<br/><br/>This IMPRESS-U project is jointly funded by NSF, Estonian Research Council (ETAG), US National Academy of Sciences, and Office of Naval Research Global (DoD). The research will be performed in a multilateral international partnership that unites University of Massachusetts Amherst (US), National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn (Estonia), and Institute of Physical Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv (Ukraine). US portion of the collaborative effort will be co-funded by NSF OISE/OD and ENG/CBET programs.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
