(96a) Reflections on 25 Years in the CRE Division and Hydrothermal Reaction Engineering

The significance of hydrothermal heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering has increased greatly in the last quarter century. This growth has been driven by opportunities in green chemistry (using water as a more environmentally friendly reaction medium) and in biomass conversion to renewable chemicals and bio-oils. Both biomass and bio-oils produced by its fast pyrolysis or hydrothermal liquefaction contain appreciable amounts of water. Moreover, there are engineering considerations in biomass conversion, particularly for aquatic and wet waste biomass (e.g., sludges, food waste), that argue for aqueous-phase processing of such material.

This presentation will provide research highlights from the last 25 years that have advanced hydrothermal kinetics, catalysis, and reaction engineering. Examples will include reactions of C₁ compounds in supercritical water, catalytic hydrothermal gasification to produce renewable fuel gases, conversion of wet biomass, hydrothermal catalytic cracking and deoxygenation of bio-crude model compounds (e.g., fatty acids, phenolics, pyridine to make renewable hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals), 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 in these less conventional hydrothermal environments.